Home Forums Help/Technical Questions Urgent: What’s wrong with my 2880 looper???

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  • #81933
    kimruiz
    Member

    Hey guys.
    I just bought the 2880 a few weeks ago, and it has been working perfectly fine, until now.
    From one day to another, while the pedal was just sitting on my table over night, it wouldn’t function properly in the morning.

    – First off, the buttons wouldn’t respond. Only the “new loop” would respond, but when i tried to press “record”, nothing happened. Then, if i tried to press the “new loop” button again, it wouldn’t respond to that either. If I remember it right, the only other buttons that would respond, were the “ext. clock” and “quantize” buttons.
    – Secondly, this really high pitch white noise was coming from the pedal, and only occasionally.
    I read about some other people having the first problem I had, and they said that formatting the CF card would do it. I tried it, and the problem was solved.

    HOWEVER the second problem wasn’t resolved. This loud noise still comes from my unit, and it happens everytime I switch on some other electric device nearby, like an amplifier, and the 2880 is running. It doesn’t even have to be the same outlet! If i unplug one of the cables (input or output) and then plug it back in, the noise is gone. Then, if I switch on some other electric device nearby, it’s back again. The other day while I was rehearsing with my band, the noise came back spontaneously in the middle of a song.
    I’ve tried different cables, but they don’t seem to be the problem.

    What is happening? I love the 2880, but I can’t rely on the damn thing if it keeps crapping out on me.

    My band is going on tour in two weeks and I’m desperate for help. What should I do?

    Please help.
    /Kim

    #116162
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    How do you have it hooked up? What’s going into it, what’s it feeding, etc?

    #116163
    kimruiz
    Member
    Quote:
    How do you have it hooked up? What’s going into it, what’s it feeding, etc?

    Signal chain:
    Fender Telecaster –
    Boss Blues Driver BD-2 – Line 6 M13 –
    Line 6 M13 effects send – [Morley FX Blender send – EHX Nano Stone Phaser – Ibanez DCF10 Chorus/Flanger – Yamaha Magicstomp Multi Effect – Morley FX Blender return] – EHX 2880 Looper – Line 6 M13 effects return
    Line 6 M13 output – Roland JC-120 Amp

    Thanks man.

    #116164
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    alright so to me, this sounds like a ground noise problem, probably caused by the AC adapter of either the M13 or Magic Stomp (both of which are 9vAC units, as opposed to the typical 9vDC adapter- AC power, while not necessarily BAD, doesn’t get caught by power filtration caps and so can pollute a ground bus with hum.)

    -Are you using the supplied adapters for the M13, Magicstomp and 2880?
    -Your JC120 probably doesn’t have a ground switch, huh?

    You could also probably eliminate this with a DI box or two- so the end of your signal chain looks like
    M13 output -> DI box (ground lifted) -> xlr F to xlr F adapter/cable -> DI box -> JC120 amplifier.

    Otherwise, try removing single pieces of your setup and seeing if the hum vanishes.

    (also the first problem sounds like what happens when you don’t have a CF card in it, or if the CF card came dislodged. Be gentle when you insert/remove the cards- those card readers are not cheap to get fixed on these units.)

    #116166
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    Oh also, this should probably go without saying, but make sure your tele is properly grounded n’ all that – not just for noise issues but also in case someone at the venue’s you’re going to be going to decided to cheap on the wiring.

    #116160
    kimruiz
    Member
    Quote:
    alright so to me, this sounds like a ground noise problem, probably caused by the AC adapter of either the M13 or Magic Stomp (both of which are 9vAC units, as opposed to the typical 9vDC adapter- AC power, while not necessarily BAD, doesn’t get caught by power filtration caps and so can pollute a ground bus with hum.)

    -Are you using the supplied adapters for the M13, Magicstomp and 2880?
    -Your JC120 probably doesn’t have a ground switch, huh?

    You could also probably eliminate this with a DI box or two- so the end of your signal chain looks like
    M13 output -> DI box (ground lifted) -> xlr F to xlr F adapter/cable -> DI box -> JC120 amplifier.

    Otherwise, try removing single pieces of your setup and seeing if the hum vanishes.

    (also the first problem sounds like what happens when you don’t have a CF card in it, or if the CF card came dislodged. Be gentle when you insert/remove the cards- those card readers are not cheap to get fixed on these units.)

    Thanks for your reply!

    I do use the supplied adapters for the 2880, the Magicstomp and the M13. For the Boss BD-2 I use a Boss PSA adapter, and for the rest of the pedals I use a Onespot and a daisy chain.

    The weird thing is that if this is a ground issue, shouldn’t it had been around from the beginning? It just came out of nowhere after using it for a couple of times. It came at the same time as the CF card problem (which I solved by formatting it), but the noise is still there.

    Also, the noise is nothing like a 60 cycle hum, it’s more like loud static noise.
    And the really wierd thing is that it’s not there all the time, and that it comes back as soon as i turn one some othere electric device nearby.
    I’ve narrowed it down to being the 2880 that is the source of the noise. Could it be a faulty unit? Or should I try out the thing with the DI box?

    And could you explain thatt XLR F thing for me? I know what an XLR cable is, but not XLR F. Sorry! My english isn’t that good.

    Thanks!

    #116168
    kimruiz
    Member

    Oh, and another thing that left me puzzled, is that when I have my FX blender toe down (passing signal through the Nano stone, Ibanez DCF10, and the Magicstomp), and I turn on another amp in the room, there is no problem with the noise.

    However if I turn on the amp having it heel down, bypassing those pedals, and going straight into the 2880, there is a ‘thump’ in my amp, and the noise is back again.

    !!???

    #116170
    kimruiz
    Member

    And to get rid of the noise, all I have to do is unplug one of the cables in the signal chain prior to the 2880, and plug it back in. I tried to see if perhaps something was wrong with the FX Blender, so I bypassed the 2880 and tried the same thing. But this time: No thump, no noise. It’s the 2880 that seems to be the problem.

    #116174
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    hm. i’d skip the DI suggestion then, if it’s not ground noise.
    Does the sound that happens sound more or less like velcro? I had that happen with mine last night, although the Clip LEDs weren’t lighting it was rather audibly clipping. Is it constant or does it depend what you’re putting into it (ie, you play louder, the noise gets worse)?

    Also, how high do you have the gain?

    XLR F is the end of a mic cable that goes into the mic. It has the holes that the prongs of the mic go into, so it is the female (F) end. DI boxes typically only have Male ends so a female-to-female adapter would allow you to take an XLR balanced signal and convert it back to unbalanced but whose ground plane was disconnected from everything before the first DI box.

    #116181
    kimruiz
    Member

    quote author=”Cryabetes” date=”1318960328″]hm. i’d skip the DI suggestion then, if it’s not ground noise.
    Does the sound that happens sound more or less like velcro? I had that happen with mine last night, although the Clip LEDs weren’t lighting it was rather audibly clipping. Is it constant or does it depend what you’re putting into it (ie, you play louder, the noise gets worse)?

    Also, how high do you have the gain?

    XLR F is the end of a mic cable that goes into the mic. It has the holes that the prongs of the mic go into, so it is the female (F) end. DI boxes typically only have Male ends so a female-to-female adapter would allow you to take an XLR balanced signal and convert it back to unbalanced but whose ground plane was disconnected from everything before the first DI box.[/quote]

    Yes, a bit like velcro i guess you can say. It is pretty loud, and sounds kind of like when you’re trying to dial in a radio station and gets stuck right between stations. Static, white noise.

    It doesn’ matter if I play loud or not. It’s there even when I have no signal at all coming from the guitar.

    I have the input gain set to 0.

    BUT if I put the 2880 at the very end of the signal chain, going into the amp, the noise problem is all gone. Then it functions just like it should. The problem is that I don’t want to have it at the end of my chain. It shouldn’t behave like it does.

    #116182
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    I’m not really sure what the problem is. Do you have a spare mixer you can use? preferably one with two effects sends? I have two ideas you could try but i’m not entirely certain they’d work, and one requires a mixer.

    #116183
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    The first involves using the input/output panning on the 2880 for a second effects send. I’m fairly certain it has significant drawbacks due to not being able to choose the input source (and your non-looping sound ending up being half dry if you want any effects). The second should work quite a bit better but would be prone to feedback loops if you’re careless.

    #116184
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    setup 1:

    telecaster to blues driver

    blues driver to left input of 2880

    left output of 2880 to M13 input

    M13 effects send to FX blender input

    FX blender send to small stone

    small stone to DCF10

    DCF10 to magic stomp

    magic stomp to FX blender return

    FX blender out to M13 effects return

    M13 output to right input of 2880

    right output of 2880 to JC120

    downsides to this: can’t play guitar through JUST the M13 + its effects loop effects, or loop based off that. may have some awful phase cancellation.

    setup 2

    telecaster to bluesdriver

    bluesdriver to channel one of mixer

    FX send one of mixer to M13

    M13 effects send to FX blender

    FX blender effects send to small stone

    small stone to DCF10

    DCF10 to Magicstomp

    Magicstomp to FX blender return

    FX blender out to M13 return

    M13 out to channel two of mixer

    FX send two of mixer to 2880

    2880 to mixer channel three (or three/four if using stereo)

    mixer output to JC120

    This would allow you to route everything pretty much however you want (dry, m13-wet, 2880-wet, m13-and 2880-wet only, etc). You’ll want to leave the dry slider on the 2880 all the way down.

    Downsides: JC120 probably expecting high impedance signal so may result in ‘weak’ sound. Will probably take a bit of playing to get the levels to the mixer right, so they aren’t clipping. Have to buy a mixer.

    #116185
    Cryabetes
    Participant

    do you know if you can use the FX blender as an expression pedal with an insert cable? and can you set up the M13 to use an expression pedal to control effects send level?

    #116186
    kimruiz
    Member
    Quote:
    do you know if you can use the FX blender as an expression pedal with an insert cable? and can you set up the M13 to use an expression pedal to control effects send level?

    Nope, doesn’t work!

    I get what you’re saying with the mixer. Sounds good!

    But the problem is, that with the Line 6 M13 you can put the effects loop where you want to in the chain of 4 independent effects “modules” that the pedal essesntialy consists of. The M13 is designed so that you have four modules set up in a chain, where you can assign different effects to each module. For example you can have first an overdrive, then a filter, then a delay, and then a reverb.

    In the setup menu of the M13 you can choose where in the chain you want to place the effects loop, and you can save different preferences for each preset.

    With having the 2880 after the FX Blender in the effects loop, I can place the looper anywhere I want to in the M13 chain. I can have my filter after the looper and toy with it as the loop goes along.

    Can I do this with the mixer solution?

    Cheers!

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