With an active pickup like that, you’re already using a preamp, so now you’re running a preamp into a preamp. It doesn’t necessarily mean that this is the problem, as evidenced by the color box alone being fine, but maybe something about the reverb widening the signal is causing some issues.
Try your same setup with the strat, just so we have an idea of whether the issue is with the signal coming out of the acoustic, or within the pedal chain / 404 side of things.
Just keep everything how you had it while it was clicking, and if there’s no clicks from the electric then I think we’ll have to try some gain staging.
Might be completely unrelated but since an additional gain stage exists amplifying the signal before the outboard preamp then we just don’t want to ignore that it’s present, that’s all.
Yeah as @shigginpit suggest I think there is a gain problem.
Btw I used my APX T2 straight in Tempera ! (Instrument gain mode selection).
I recorded it with a Zoom H4n but I think it could have been better with Digitone 2 I usually use.
Acoustic guitar straight in Tempera. Drum track, 6 loops recorded with Tempera, played with random octave and reverse, and Livegrains. IPhone mic. Loops soloed at the end.
Ended up a late night, everything ran late! I did manage to plug the strat in with the CB and M7 and I immediately noticed how hot the signal was. It was overdriven like crazy and louder than the acoustic and I didn’t make any changes! It was so loud and distorted it was hard to determine if I could even reproduce the problem.
This is telling me the signal is probably too hot for the pedals and they are clipping.
At this point, in my exhaustion, I decided I was going to punt! I mean if it sounded good to me with the CB end of chain, why keep fighting it! I’m all for troubleshooting and figuring shit out but I just want to jam!
After a late night, power up the rig, hit record and go! Life’s complicated enough, this doesn’t need to be! Thanks for the help @shigginpit and @sezare56
I appreciate it!
I’ll see if I can read a bit about your pedals later and maybe we can figure it out. Something must be going on though, especially if the strat is that much louder than the acoustic. If we can figure it out it might be better for your gear too, but totally feel you on not wanting to kill the vibe!
The problem is time! I don’t have any for the foreseeable future with everything we have going on. So when I waste it troubleshooting it’s a super bummer!
The other problem is I’m new and dumb with all this. Mostly due to ignorance and just picking up an acoustic rather than plugging in and messing around. I try on the days I’m not feeling creative but I usually get frustrated and turn on the XBox!
Sometimes I really understand why those super mediocre sounding big rectangular all in one effects pedalboard things (with the built in wah pedal for modulation) were so popular with guitarists back in the day! (I actually had one at some point in the 90’s too lol)
But the thing I mostly remember about the one that I had is what a pain in the ass it was to program! I like the ease of knob per function / function per box of using a pedal chain, but then you run into new problems. Anyways, maybe we can figure it out without too much physical troubleshooting.
I’ll read some of the pedal literature later when I have a bit to dig into it and maybe something will jump out at me. Fear not my friend, we will definitely 100% maybe find you a solution 60% of the time, every time!
Also, if you could tell me your exact model of acoustic and the strat model, and if possible, the years of manufacture and then any version number of the pedals like how yours is ver 2 of el capistan, for example.
During my brief stint using an electric in a band, I used a Line 6 Pod. Pretty cool but mostly used presets! Ha!
Gear:
2017 Stratocaster American Special (no mods to my knowledge)
2024 Fender Highway Series Parlor
JHS Colour Box V2
Strymon El Capistan V2
Meris Mercury 7
Pedals powered by whatever adapter I have on hand with a 3-plug daisy chain cable.
Definitely doing something wrong 100% of the time! Every time!
Strymons can definitely produce some digital noise or cut out on one channel if the input is too hot. Meris pedals will have a bit more headroom to work with.
i toured for year and years with a tube screamer a dm3 and a tuning pedal into a variety of decent tube amps - always had a great sound and vibe - nowadays its a rat into a frontline analog delay into a jazz chorus, i think the crispyness of the rat helps with my hearing these days and i cannot be dealing with tube amps hissing and crackling anymore plus its all bedroom volume no touring anymore - except touring the cheese shops of northern france
Hello guitar people! I’m seriously thinking about getting a guitar… I’ve been mainly using grooveboxes for the last four years or so and I’m really happy with what I’ve achieved over the time without any prior experience. But the one thing that bugs me to this day is that I can’t really “play” an instrument. While the piano (or any midi controller) is technically easy to pick up, I never came to a point where I’m able to jam along to something. Now I’m thinking that a guitar might be easier to deal with if I learn a few chord shapes and just go with the flow…
Any ideas on this? Or will I just buy another instrument that needs a ton of memorization before I can do anything at all?
PS: Thought about getting the Ibanez S521-MOL because it seems to be pretty comfortable…
If practical, I’d definitely recommend trying different guitar shapes, makes and models in store. Different body shapes, neck shapes and sizes, etc, will all determine whether a guitar will feel comfortable to you. The more comfortable it is, the more you’re likely to play it.
Another tip - be prepared to invest in a setup. Many stores offer this service in-house. Whilst some guitars come out of the box and feel great, others can benefit from having string height lowered, frets smoothed and levelled, nut adjusted, new strings fitted, etc. This all feeds into making the instrument easier for you to play.
Not played the guitar you’ve mentioned but have owned other Ibanez guitars and they were good value for money.
All instruments need practice. Whether or not committing to playing guitar is easier (in whichever way) for you is, of course, a personal thing as instrument choices are very much a “go with your gut feeling” type of thing after all.
Is it easier to play guitar than piano or keyboard instruments in general, probably not. Just different.
To add to this, make sure you also like how the instrument looks. It’s much easier especially at the start to want to play something you like the sound, feel and look of. Even if the “other option” is better tech spec wise, it’s more important to go with the option you personally like more.
It is hard to buy an outright bad guitar in this day and age.
Aaaand as the last thing as a tiny counter-point to this, don’t think too much about the technical parts when starting out. You can adjust plenty of things yourself without any prior knowledge or tools. Once you’ve been playing for a while, you’ll understand what you want to change and when. At the start it is always better to get to playing and learning with as little technical friction as possible.
