Count Bassie Posted May 8, 2010 Share Posted May 8, 2010 (edited) Just happened, and I'm a little wigged. My daughter has a violin recital coming up and I'm accompanying her on upright for a tune. I got a Barcus Berry screw-on pickup for my old Czech doghouse and jigged a cable for it. I'd planned to run it into my 250SMX and a single Bag End cab. I plugged the cable into the input and got a very low-level signal. Then I plugged into the Return on back of the amp. Seems to me I've done this before woth other amps... anyway the jack was a little stubborn, so I thought a minute... then went and jammed the plug in there, thinking it was just a jack clips inside being stubborn. Dunno- did the amp not like what I was trying to do? Then I got a low-but-dangerous-sounding 'hum' from the head- which isn't going away. No signal from the upright's bridge-mounted pickup. No signal from my electric bass going to the input now either. %*@&... what did I do? By the way- the Level control for the FX Loop was at +4. Am I screwed until it can come back from a tech shop now? Very bad timing, I have a major gig in a week. Going to have to use the AMP BH-420, which is definitely not the 250SMX. Edit: I got the Barcus-Berry pickup- a 3150M- without the preamp. I have a mixer, and this Trace head... it was the cheap way to go and I thought I could make it work. Edited May 8, 2010 by Count Bassie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deksawyer Posted May 8, 2010 Share Posted May 8, 2010 Bridge the send/return with a short patch cable and see if it sorts it.... D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 8, 2010 Author Share Posted May 8, 2010 Nope. There was a distorted metal thing on the jack inside (I opened 'er up), and I bent it back into a reasonable shape. Closed it, tried the short loop patch (jumped it). No change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mog Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 shorted? try by-passing the power stage if you can Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 9, 2010 Author Share Posted May 9, 2010 [quote name='Mog' post='831887' date='May 8 2010, 08:33 PM']shorted? try by-passing the power stage if you can[/quote] Interesting. I'll run the Send to another amp's return I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witterth Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 (edited) Trace Elliot problem?.....paging Dr "obbm"?.........Dr "obbm" to casualty, please! he fixed my less "serious" injury/question ..he'll know.. Edited May 9, 2010 by witterth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 9, 2010 Author Share Posted May 9, 2010 [quote name='witterth' post='831913' date='May 9 2010, 02:12 AM']Trace Elliot problem?.....paging Dr "obbm"?.........Dr "obbm" to casualty, please! he fixed my less "serious" injury/question ..he'll know.. [/quote] [i]Groannn... *cough*[/i] Thanks, witterth... [i]...moannn...[/i] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 9, 2010 Author Share Posted May 9, 2010 I've had a minute to set up the amp and run the following, according to Mog's suggestion (thanks Mog): My gig-dawg Franken-Squier P-bass [b]>[/b] Input of my Trace AH250SMX. [b]Send[/b] (out...) from SMX fx loop on back panel [b]>[/b] [b]Return[/b] (...in) on fx loop of an AMP BH-420 head. BH-420 [b]Speaker Out[/b] [b]>[/b] single 15 cab. Voila, she's-a-worky nice. Things that do not function on the 250SMX in this arrangement are, from end of signal-chain backwards to the point of injury: Output Volume; Standby switch; Effects Level; EQ Balance; Compressor. This is obvious I suppose, if you know the workings of this amp, I just include the list for completeness' sake, and in case it's meaningful. I'm the guy who asks the otherwise-obvious questions at work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deksawyer Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 Try reversing what you've just done - use the 420 as the pre and the 250 as the power, and see if that works. Either way though, you need to take your amp to a repairer......... D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 9, 2010 Author Share Posted May 9, 2010 [quote name='deksawyer' post='832500' date='May 9 2010, 02:56 PM']Try reversing what you've just done - use the 420 as the pre and the 250 as the power, and see if that works. Either way though, you need to take your amp to a repairer......... D.[/quote] And if it works then it's just the link at the fx loop thing. I expect the power sectio will work, as it did produce a 'sound'. Righty-o, thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 9, 2010 Author Share Posted May 9, 2010 My amp is working again. Don't get it, but I'm sitting quietly until the events of the past few hours sort themselves out here for me. I do know that a metal clip-thing that was part of the jack was badly bent out of shape inside the amp. And that I wasn't getting useable signal passing through a circuit- now I am. I've left a jumper strapping the Send and return jacks at the fx loop, even though it works without it... maybe that bent jack was the bugger, and I'm just applying a little barnyard-style insurance. Thanks everyone for chiming in, I appreciate your time and consideration. I'm calling B.A.S. tomorrow, see if they can answer some questions for me, and maybe I'll send 'er in for a spell on their bench. There are a couple low-level, stray issues anyway I might as well fix up. Again, many thanks all, and Happy Mother's Day! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 (edited) Just a quick addendum here. At rehearsal last night my SMX cut out. Not suddenly, I was asble to listen to it taper off to total silence during a tune. Bum city. We put me into the PA, played a couple tunes. The keyboard player said "Let's try this..." and plugged me into his little Roland KC300 keyboard amp (it's a small room). That was all "okay" (i.e., "lousy") until we found we had blown his speaker. Finally I remembered my second bass. It never occured to me that it could be the bass- my Squier parts-plank with the 25 or so year old Duncan in it. I put the Dillion 5-string MM copy, with its very hot output, into my SMX head and boom! So it was the Squier bass and not the amp after all. And there was great rejoicing. I had been playing just the Squier for several days and it never occured to me that it was the source of the problem. Of course now I have to find the dude a new 12" driver for his amp. So I've been pretty busy, and the shape of our day-to-day life is fairly demanding here. You only get so much room in your personal file cabinet (brain) to remember/process whatever sundry information comes in a day. Besides, I wasn't nicknamed "Space" in high school for nothing... Anyway, the amp is fine. Sorry! Edited May 13, 2010 by Count Bassie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mog Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 Big thumbs up for the blonde moment from me. Brightened up my day Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 Two days' worth of blonde... Good to see it was edifying to somone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mog Posted May 13, 2010 Share Posted May 13, 2010 I've those moments all the time. Most common is plugging in to the output of my pedalboard and taking 15 minutes to realise! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Count Bassie Posted May 13, 2010 Author Share Posted May 13, 2010 [quote name='Mog' post='836413' date='May 13 2010, 12:41 PM']I've those moments all the time. Most common is plugging in to the output of my pedalboard and taking 15 minutes to realise![/quote] I can relate- this latest was just an expanded version of the kind of small "where's my sound?" episodes that happen on a regular basis. What did I not plug in, turn on/up, etc... I'm sure there are more of us out there! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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