Constant "Beep" during Gig

[bimmer]

Hello,
I'm having some trouble during some Gig's.
In some places I have a very annoying Beep on top of my sound.
It gets harder when I turn the volume-pot up.
It really hurts some ears, people are really complaining about it.
At home and in the studio I don't have any problems at all.
 
I was thinking about bad power at some Gigs.
 
Do you have some advice for solving this problem?

[mica]

Hi Chas,
 
I talked to my dad about this, and it doesn't sounds like a problem he's heard of before, so we'll need some more information from you to help troubleshoot.
 
Is the beep intermittent or is it more constant like a squeal? If you can try at a sound check, so you don't sure the patrons ears, see if the sound is the same in both pickups. Your email today indicated this was an EVH model, so try the pan at both ends to see if the sound is the same or changes.  
 
Do you use the same equipment at home/studio/gig?

[bimmer]

The Beep is constant.
 
The Beep sounds the worst at the bridge-pickup.
If I turn the pickup-selector totaly towards the
neck-pickup, the beep is almost gone.
 
Also if I pan the sound, it doesn't really matter.
 
I play always over the same equipment home/studio/gig.
 
The Glockenklang Heart-rock amp/Take Five (4x10)

[dela217]

Cell phone in your pocket perhaps?

[mica]

Is the sound directional? Meaning, does it change depending on which direction you (and your bass) face?
 
And just to clarify: When you say the beep is constant, is it like, BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP or like BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP?
 
And one other clarification: Your electronics are volume, pan, filter & Q for neck pickup, filter & Q for bridge pickup, mono output.

[bimmer]

The sound is like BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP
and it's a very high frequency
 
It isn't my Cell phone, that's for sure.
 
oke, if I pan towards the bridge-pickup the high
beep is the worst. If I use the filter, the beep gets softer by closing it. But the beep still remain above the bass-sound.
 
Question:
Are both pickups the same, or are they made to sound different?
Because the neck-pickup sounds more Hi-fi than the bridge-pickup. That one sounds more aggressive.
 
Behind the backplate I did screw both trimpots totally open, because I like the sound of it.
And it fits my playing style.
Maybe it infects this problem, but I think it doesn't suppost to do this??
 
(Message edited by bimmer on March 04, 2008)

[adriaan]

I think Mica's question was if the beeeeep sound was the same in both pickups, not if the pickups have the same natural sound.
 
Does turning down the trimpots make the beep disappear, or does the beep volume go down as much as the normal volume? Does it make a difference which of the two trimpots you turn down?
 
There should be a big difference in the natural sound of the pickups, because they're looking at different sections of the strings, which offer totally different vibration patterns. In fact both pickups are exactly the same (at least on most Alembics) so the neck pickup reproduces the string movements with the same high fidelity as the bridge pickup does.
 
(Message edited by adriaan on March 04, 2008)

[paulman]

Cell phone was first thought I had about that.  The disgusted look from bandmates when that cell phone noise eminates from my Skylark or Further in the middle of a jam is a harsh reminder!
 
Could it be a microphonic p/u that gets touched when played, causing the beeeeeeep?  Sometimes I acidentally tap my p/us when playing and can hear the tap in recordings.

[David Houck]

Hi Chas, welcome to the board!  EVH's are cool basses!
 
The comment about the cell phone was not to suggest that the cell phone was making the noise, but that the cell phone may be causng the noise in the bass; i.e. causing interference.  The simple test here is to take the cell phone out of your pocket and place it somewhere away from your bass and rig.
 
The trim pots in the control cavity do not change the tone of the bass, they increase or decrease the amount of signal being sent to your amp.  If turning the trim pots up changes the tone, it's because you are overdriving your amp; which may indeed be your intended effect.
 
As Adriaan said, there is no difference between the pickups.  The only exception would be if a standard Alembic AXY had been replaced with an Alembic Fatboy pickup.
 
And as Adriaan said, the pickups will sound different because they are looking at different vibration patterns.
 
Also, changing the height of the pickups will change the tone.
 
Here are a couple more tests to give Mica more info.
 
- Turn the trim pots down to halfway.  This will test to see if overdriving the amp may be causing the noise.
 
- Inside the cavity, gently (by grasping the housing and not the wires) unplug the pickups from the PC board and switch them.  Now try moving the pan again and see if the noise is still in the same place relative to the pan knob, or if it moved to the other end of the pan knob.  This will see if the noise relates to a pickup, or if it is in a preamp or further down the signal chain.
 
Are you using a wireless setup?
 
You said the noise only appears at some gigs and not at home.
 
- At home, have you tried playing at the same volume as at the gigs?
 
- And is the volume the same at the gigs with the noise as it is at the gigs without the noise.
 
- Between gigs with noise and gigs without noise, are there noticeable differences in lighting around the stage?
 
- Are you using a power conditioner in your rig?
 
- Does changing cables between your bass and amp change the noise?
 
- Can you try a different amp at the gig (perhaps during sound check) just to determine if the noise is related to the bass or to the rig?

[olieoliver]

I had similar thing happen when I got my first Alembic (MK with Eurpoa electronics). It only happened when I played it thru my Eden Combo not my SWR rig.  
It fried the fuse to the horn in the amp twice. This made me think that maybe I had the high hz up too high or the horn cranked up too high.  
 
The beep (almost a squeel) stopped by either turning down the horn or the high hz on my EQ.
 
Is your beep coming from your amp or the PA? If your amp try turning down the high end or horn (if you have one) and if the PA try using the EQ to pull down the highs some. Also if you run your bass thru the floor monitors (if used) it may be them reacting with the bass.  
 
I assume this is due Alembics have a greater ability to reproduce all freqs. where other basses or guitars are less responsive.
 
It's worth a try
 
Olie

[olieoliver]

Another thing that made the beep go away on mine was turning the filter on the bass down (counter- clockwise) to not allow the higher hz thru.  
 
 
Olie

[bimmer]

Thanks you all for the response!
 
I'm really loving the sound of the bass, when both filters are fully open and just the Q from the bridge-pickup is active. And the pan is exactly in the middle between the neck- and bridge-pickup.
 
some anwers on questions:
 
- the beep-sound sounds the worst at the full sound of the bridge-pickup. only when I pan totally towards the neck-pickup, the beep seems to disappear.
 
- I'm not using a wireless setup.
- At every Gig I'm playing with the same volume.
- I'm not overdriving my amp, because the gain doesn't hit the red zone.
- I'm not using a power conditioner in my setup.
- changing cables doesn't make any difference.
- the beep does come out of my amp, and if I connect it through it's DI the PA does Beep too.
 
I hope you have some better information...

[mica]

Still collecting some more details here. In each location, are you standing the same distance from your speakers?
 
We're not sure we understand the character of the noise because of language. If you are able to make a recording of the BEEP you can send it to my email so we can hear exactly what you are hearing.

[adriaan]

How would you describe it in Dutch? Perhaps I can come up with a more fitting translation than beep.

[bimmer]

okee, in Dutch language for Adriaan:
 
Ik vind het zelf ook moeilijk om dit technische probleem te vertalen.
 
Allereerst wil ik vertellen dat de piep heel hoog is, waarschijnlijk boven de 6 Khz. het is geen fluiten, het lijkt op het rondzingen van een microfoon. Alleen dan constant en constant op dezelfde frequentie.
 
Als ik aan de filters draai c.q. langzaam dichtdraai, gaat de piep niet weg. Enkel word de frequentie van de piep verplaatst.
 
Ik heb van alles al geprobeerd, Gsm uitgezet, zangmicrofoon weggehaald, zang-monitor uit, electriciteit van een andere groep gehaald, andere kabels, direct voor me versterker staan...3 meter ervan af staan...
 
ik moet wel zeggen dat de piep het zwaarst is
op het brug-element volledig open met (pan)
pas als ik helemaal naar 't neck-element swith, is de piep vrijwel weg.
 
Dus misschien heeft het met het brug-element te maken?
 
Ik moet wel zeggen dat het brug-element wat aggressiever (rauwer) klinkt aangezien beiden even hard staan afgesteld.
 
Ik zit alleen met de handicap dat ik er thuis en in de repetitieruimte er geen last van heb, waardoor ik geen opname kan maken van het probleem.
Als ik via krachtstroom werd aangestuurd heb ik er nooit last van gehad, enkel op 220v.
 
ik hoop dat het nu wat duidelijker is?