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wideload
Member
Username: wideload

Post Number: 88
Registered: 6-2003
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 10:59 am:   Edit Post

My 97 Rogue has developed a crackling and distortion when the PAN is set at other than extreme. All neck is fine (and sounds great!), all bridge is fine (except the neck pickup seems microphonic when tapped). When in a mixed position, there is distortion, and cord movement or pan pot movement increase the problem. Anyone dealt with this before, or am I on a trip to the Mothership? Thanks for your help!

Larry
davehouck
Moderator
Username: davehouck

Post Number: 2045
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 3:27 pm:   Edit Post

Larry; open the control cavity up and see if anything has moved and is touching something else.
dfung60
Member
Username: dfung60

Post Number: 88
Registered: 5-2002
Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2005 - 1:58 pm:   Edit Post

I don't know too much about Rogues, but on many basses with active electronics, crackling and static-y noises are often the byproduct of grounding problems. A very common problem on instruments that have aftermarket active EQ upgrades is that the 9V battery case isn't sufficiently insulated and you get noise when it shorts things together in the electronics compartment. On a Series bass, the batteries live in their own compartment, so this isn't an issue, but it's something to check on your bass. It's often ignored because you're looking for a more blatant short. A wrap of any non-conducting tape is sufficient to solve the problem.

I don't know the exact details of why this happens (the noise effect usually is related to moving the pots or plug but it's not like a total thumping short on the audio output). Someone had told me once that the intermittent short can be causing high-frequency oscillations as the power is disrupted to the onboard opamps, and you're hearing a byproduct of that disruption. This kind of problem is often worse with a wireless system, since many transmitters include some compression of the output signal and unfortunately are sensitive to noise that's beyond the audible sounds of the instrument.

Worth looking at anyway,

David Fung

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