So I set up Saturday night, then I soundcheck. Everything is good. I'm playing around on my McCarty (tonight's axe of choice) a little bit and my FOH sound dies to almost nothing (this is a DI gig). I assume they hit something at the mixer, but they say nothing changed. I then start checking cables, all good. I think it might be a power tube, they're all good. I think maybe a preamp tube is going south, pull them and they look fine. Soundguy helps me get the tubes back in and suggests that I switch guitars.



Never once in all my gigging have I had the guitar be the problem. There is a first time for everything. Unplug the McCarty and plug in the Duojet. That was it! The McCarty is dead, and I have no idea why. I tell myself it shouldn't be that hard to fix. There can't be that much circuitry. I open it up when I get home.... wrong again. I would have better luck reading Hebrew than diagnosing that problem. Now I have to figure out how to get my guitar to my tech in the next couple of days.


D

I've had my McCarty loose its signal before but able to restore it my issue was the pickup toggle switch, occasionally it wouldnt make good contact.
Try cleaning the toggle switch contacts with some cleaner also check the connection right at the input jack!

1) Start with the wires on the input jack
2) Check for cold solder joints on the volume pot lugs
3) If neither of the above, its probably a connection from the volume pot to the switch

Yup, had the same thing happen to me this weekend. Brought one of my Les Pauls out that hasn't been used for a few months. Works fine at setup, then all of the sudden, nothing from the bridge pickup. Had to play with just the neck pick up. It was the expensive "premium" RS Upgrade wiring kit that I installed. The bridge pickup vol pot went to hell. I'm a little chapped since I don't even adjust my volume pots that much at all. Oh well.

H

At least I'm not the only one...

I think I'm going to remove the input jack tonight if I'm feeling gutsy. The PRS forum had a thread where a guy had the same issue and found that the contact tab had been bent out of place a little and wasn't making good contact. If that isn't the issue and contact cleaner won't fix it, I'm making the drive to see my tech tomorrow.

D

i just had the shittiest crappiest thing happen to me this weekend, up on stage in fayettville arkansas (razorback town where the college is) graduation weekend it was packed, for some weird ass reason there was alot of feedback coming from something (i think it was the drummers kick) and that feedback pulled everything on stage out of tune(the signal) everybody was in tune and the girls were singing in tune but the weird ass feedback on stage made everything sound like it was jumping keys...it was sheer hell HELL I SAY, talked to the soundguy and he said everything out front sounded perfectly fine, played 4 hours not able to hear shit right, wondering if im soloing in the wrong key ect, when it was all said and done the club owner told us we ****ing killed it and he wanted us back for more money, tragicly white, one of the biggest bands in arkansas was right across the street and we outpacked them....lots of weird problems can occur on gigs. sheesh

If you can get through 4 hours of 'feedback hell' gig and get asked back ... you WIN the game. Awesome Rob!

i did the tush solo with a beer bottle, they seriously eat that up...luckly not many people know who danny gatton is. the club owner told me he really dug my playing and especially that...the stage was really screwed up tho, i think it was part of the vibration we were getting.

A few years ago a very good friend of mine asked me to play a Beatles ballad while she and her Dad danced at her wedding. I felt honored to it. It wasn't just a regular gig. Plug in my tele, and the jack crapped out on me right when they hit the dance floor. Luckily, the other guy in the band had his own tele so I very quickly crapped my pants, grabbed his tele, and started singing the song. Of all the gigs...

It's truly bizarre, the snafu stuff that can crap out on you at gigs. Electronics, tubes, power amp sections, amps actually blowing smoke from the vented areas, batteries not fulfilling their projected shelf lives, jacks and switches and other mechanical appointments wigging out on you at the most inopportune of times, voltage and impedance weirdnesses... there are no sacred cows.

I remember carrying one guitar to a show (never again!) years ago, only to find it DOA at soundcheck. Well duh, prior to the job, I'd honed the fingerboard of the tele down with steel wool - all fine and good, except that I didn't have enough sense to cover the pickups with masking tape. The steel wool shards found their way into the pickups and destroyed them. Live and learn.

I've had pickups pop mounting springs and/or screws and force themselves directly up under the strings, making the guitar unplayable, mid-show, on several occasions.

Not that it speaks to the immediate problem within the thread, but after nearly a year of not popping a string at a job, I recently set my personal best/worst benchmark - I broke three (3) strings at a set this past weekend, all of them G strings. The string popping was relentless and brutal. It was the only G string action I caught all weekend.

A few things are for sure. This stuff will bite you at the show more often than it will at home, simply because you're playing harder and because you're asking more of your gear, and you're pushing it harder. And in this light, Murphy's Law will always apply. The other thing is that you always have to figure a way around the unfortunate snafu, on-the-fly. Having a sense of humor is fairly key, if you're not into killing yourself because something failed. I remember finishing a job as "egg shaker stylist" a few years back when my rig just went totally AWOL on me. Rolling with the punches is part of the job description!

quote:

Murphy's Law will always apply. The other thing is that you always have to figure a way around the unfortunate snafu, on-the-fly. Having a sense of humor is fairly key, if you're not into killing yourself because something failed. Rolling with the punches is part of the job description!

My rules are always bring a backup if it is possible. If you don't have a backup at least have a backup plan. Such as your amp goes down so try to have a plan to plug direct to PA etc if needed.

Although these moments suck they are also good learning experiences and if you keep your composure and carry on it will set you ahead of many others that can't handle the pressure in the "trenches". I have spent many years solving problems on the fly from guitar stuff to PA. After a while you get pretty good at narrowing down the problem quickly.

The main thing to prevent and solve problems is to know every inch of your gear inside and out and life will be a lot easier when Mr. Murphy pays you a visit.

Since you are considering taking your guitar to a tech for this problem it sounds like you should take the time to learn a little more about how your guitar ticks. There are tons of websites with great info. Here is a couple of great books to have in your library. I have both of these books and they are always great to go to if I run across a "new" problem or question.

http://www.amazon.com/Guitar-Player-Repair-Guide-Erlewi.../ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Your-Electric-Guitar-Great/d...id=1210685025&sr=8-1

Thanks for the help guys! Dosmun I will definately check those books out. I understand generally what is going on with guitar guts, but this McCarty has way more than I understand going on in it.

I took the input jack out, bent the contact tab forward some, and cleaned the contacts. Now it works. My guess is that the issue was that contact tab had drifted back over time and wasn't making enough of a connection.

I've learned to bring a backup because of breaking strings, but I never thought I would need it because the electronics went south. The Gretsch wasn't the ideal guitar for that set list, but I rolled with it and had a good time. I think it came off pretty well.

Thanks!
D

quote:

Originally posted by dosmun:
[QUOTE] Murphy's Law will always apply...

The main thing to prevent and solve problems is to know every inch of your gear inside and out and life will be a lot easier when Mr. Murphy pays you a visit.

OK, OK...I see...it's all MY fault?!?!

quote:

Originally posted by dirty murphy:

quote:

Originally posted by dosmun:
[QUOTE] Murphy's Law will always apply...

The main thing to prevent and solve problems is to know every inch of your gear inside and out and life will be a lot easier when Mr. Murphy pays you a visit.

OK, OK...I see...it's all MY fault?!?!

Exactly

quote:

Originally posted by dk_ace:
Thanks for the help guys! Dosmun I will definately check those books out. I understand generally what is going on with guitar guts, but this McCarty has way more than I understand going on in it.

I took the input jack out, bent the contact tab forward some, and cleaned the contacts. Now it works. My guess is that the issue was that contact tab had drifted back over time and wasn't making enough of a connection.

I've learned to bring a backup because of breaking strings, but I never thought I would need it because the electronics went south. The Gretsch wasn't the ideal guitar for that set list, but I rolled with it and had a good time. I think it came off pretty well.

Thanks!
D

It could still be a bad solder joint possibly at the jack. Wiggle the wires around a bit and see if it cuts out.

My strat died on saturday during the very last song. I have put a new bridge humbucker in it and two of the wires came loose. To add insult to injury it was the bare wire which in turn caused the other pickups to short. Needless to say my guitar was making really weird chopped up noises until I finally gave up and went for my backing guitar. Only to find out that I forgot to bring a strap for the second fiddle......

I had a gig in Santa Fe this last weekend and nothing happened to me but the keyboard player had issues with his sounds ...

Rented 88 key controller and he brings his lap top to run sounds from "Reason".
Plugs in, turns on - no "authorization" for the program and of course he doesn't bring the discs - because of course it's never happened before. (This guy's a serious tech head too - he should know better.) So he spends the 3 hours between sound check and gig figuring out how to get some sounds happening. Which he did, so catastrophe averted. But, here's the kicker ... on the plane home he decides just to 'check' and see if 'Reason' will open ... well of course it did! (a Mac by the way just in case anybody want to start the Mac v. PC b.s.)

Actually the footswitch for trem and verb on the rented Deluxe Reverb RI didn't work which was a slight bummer for me but that's like par for the course with rented gear - it sounded fine.

quote:

Originally posted by klasaine:
I had a gig in Santa Fe this last weekend and nothing happened to me but the keyboard player had issues with his sounds ...

Rented 88 key controller and he brings his lap top to run sounds from "Reason".
Plugs in, turns on - no "authorization" for the program and of course he doesn't bring the discs - because of course it's never happened before. (This guy's a serious tech head too - he should know better.) So he spends the 3 hours between sound check and gig figuring out how to get some sounds happening. Which he did, so catastrophe averted. But, here's the kicker ... on the plane home he decides just to 'check' and see if 'Reason' will open ... well of course it did! (a Mac by the way just in case anybody want to start the Mac v. PC b.s.)

Actually the footswitch for trem and verb on the rented Deluxe Reverb RI didn't work which was a slight bummer for me but that's like par for the course with rented gear - it sounded fine.

There's this new program out from Apple that's called Mainstage, it's bundled with the new Logic pack and its samples absolutely kick major arse. It's a sampler/synthesizer/drum machine with a killer user interface and it sounds almost analog really. I think it's heaps better than Reason so maybe he can check into that.

With my band our *biggest* gig was disastrous, gear-wise. There was a big competition around the province for which there had been a lot of rounds and semi-finals and stuff. Via the public vote at one of the semi's we got into the finals, which were held at a really cool venue. A bit of the level where bigger indie bands would play. Richard Bona played there two days before us even. We set up our gear really quickly as more time setting up would cost play time. Somewhere at the end of the first song our other guitar player had blown up his amp. We kept on playing the intro to the second song until they finally found out that it was the amp (and not a crapped out patch cable or something), the techs grabbed another amp from the other side of the stage (a JCM900, if I remember correctly) and set it up. Then two songs later the bass amp blew up (which miraculously restarted working by turning it off and on) and another song later the hanger of my EWI was entangled in the jack cable which took off probably the longest minute ever of not playing from that song. See, you really need that cord as some notes are played with most of the fingers loose, and you wouldn't want the thing falling to the ground..

Thanks for the 'tip' on mainstage NJlo. I'm going to pass it along.

And WOW! that gig does sound like a disaster :0