Bass amp sporadically stops receiving any sound

Rexhutch

Rexhutch

Nov 14, 2022
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#1
Hello! About a year ago, a family friend let me borrow his bass amp, because my old one would randomly cut out while playing... amp didn't lose power, and the sound could come back after a few seconds or so (time varied), and sometimes it happened more frequently than others... this new borrowed amp started doing the same thing, so I recently got a new Rumble 200, and I heard it start doing that again! This leads me to think it's a pedal or something in there. I have already switched out all the cables, so I know they are good.

Does anyone know of something like this happening? I am not sure how to test it because I don't quite know how to make the issue happen. These are the pedals I have: BOSS DS1 distortion, MXR Bass compressor (which is always on), MXR Bass envelop filter, an Ernie Ball volume pedal, and a tuning pedal.

If anyone one knows anything, it would be much appreciated
 
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#2
One of my basses has been doing the same thing. Something is wrong with the output jack....it might be shorting against the shielding tape in the control cavity. It's on my list to repair this week.

I've also had that happen with a bad cable in the pedalboard. I was able to diagnose by gently wiggling cables until I found the root of the problem.
 
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#4
blastoff99 said:
Might be Accessories (cable problem)
Might be Hardware (jack problem)
Might be Effects (pedal problem)
Click to expand...

This. Now you need to troubleshoot these three items. You've already eliminated the amp as your root cause. If you can use some other cables and still have the problem, then you can eliminate cables as your root cause. If you can use a different bass and still have the problem, then you can eliminate the output jack as your root cause. See where this is going?
 
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#6
We need to troubleshoot before offering solutions.

Go bass to cable to amp and play for a long time.
Did it happen then?

If yes, swap out to a different bass and cable and retry.
Did it happen again?

If yes then it is an amp issue.
If no it is a bass issue or that single cable.



If the first try of bass-cable-amp had no cut out, then add one piece in at a time until problem appears.
Be sure to play with each piece for a good while to make sure it is not the problem.
 
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#9
I have had this happen with a scratchy pot on my bass or on my amp. To check this, tap on your volume knobs (or other knobs) and see if it makes a difference. Or twist a bit to see if you hear any scratchiness. But, yeah, it could be all of the other things listed. But hopefully you just need to clean a pot!
 
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#10
Clean all of your input and output jacks with some Deoxit D5. You can spray it on the cable plug then rapidly plug it in and unplug it several times.
Start with the output on your bass, and work your way through every jack in your signal chain.
See if that clears it up.
Good luck
 
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#11
What bass are you using?
I had similar problems with my Ibanez bass guitars and their barrel jacks constantly giving out.
Ultimately it could be a number of things and each link, cable, connection and battery needs to be inspected.
 
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#12
Steve88 said:
One of my basses has been doing the same thing. Something is wrong with the output jack....it might be shorting against the shielding tape in the control cavity. It's on my list to repair this week.

I've also had that happen with a bad cable in the pedal board. I was able to diagnose by gently wiggling cables until I found the root of the problem.
Click to expand...
Me too. Yes on both counts.
Could be a cable. But . . . the sneaky problem is the tip of the plug shorting on any shielding tape in the control
cavity, as you say. I experienced BOTH problems at the same time before, and it can be a real problem to
diagnose.2 independent failures that give the same symptom.
 
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#14
Welcome to TB.

Oddly enough, I think your first instinct (in your title) may be more correct than you realize.
The amps (all three of them) may not be getting a signal, intermittently. From a troubleshooting standpoint, that does not eliminate all three amps from exhibiting the same problem, but it makes amps the least likely suspect.

By the way... is your bass active or passive? Yes? No?
If active, replace the batteries.

As mentioned by @S-Bigbottom simplify the process by elimination. Get all those pedals out and start with the bass directly to the amp. Play long enough that you are reasonably sure there either is a problem or is not with the direct bass to amp setup. Then before you do anything else, check back and report the results.

The two things that will make this harder to figure out is guessing, and getting ahead of yourself in the troubleshooting process. You need to first identify which major part is the cause of the problem before you can go further to diagnose what's happening with with the major part.

.
 
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#17
It could well be a the misuse of the Gain vs. Volume. If the preamp is overloaded it could be jumping to safety. But it could be something else altogether.
Do you dail in the gain on the amp with your volume pedal all the way open?
 
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#18
There is some good advice already provided here. May want to check what source you are plugging the power into. I have heard of similar things happening when plugged into a gfi outlet. If the electronics on your bass is good, I would move right to your power source for powering the amp.
 
#19
Well it's definitely not the amps. Bass output jack/ wiring? Bass battery wiring? Pedal jack wiring? (I had this on a high pass/low pass pedal, took a while to figure it out). Power to pedals? Power wiring to pedals? Power jack on pedal?
 
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