I had a gear experience that made me realize I need to change my gear around.
I took my rack gear and a Fender 410 to last week's camp. I had my pedal board with me like usual, but after the first day, a hissing started being voiced through the speakers. It was my pedal board. No matter what I took off or in what order I tried, the pedalboard caused a hiss.
Day 3 the hissing returned even without the pedalboard and my volume seemed a little low. Out of frustration, I attempted to just play directly with the amp and bypass the sansamps, compression, and tuner. The amp didn't work. It supplied and received power, but it would make a single sound on it's own. We changed all the cables I had in the back and tried to adjust the ground on everything. Nothing worked.
Day 4 the volume was even lower and with higher hissing. I decided to change the batteries in my bass and see if that would help. With new batteries, the hissing was gone and the volume was way up. The amp still didn't work though.
Some of my bandmates suggest it was the power of the old building we were in, but I use a power conditioner and it read that we were always between 120-130 volts.
There was a certain difference in volume. I feel it was a frequency or something. I would play without the band and without an audience and be pretty loud. Once playing with the band and having a bunch of people screaming, by bass dropped down below where I wanted it. I could have turned it up, but it was already at 65% on both sansamps. I think the next camp will be a test to go with just the pedalboard, the Ampeg, and a 410. If it works out well, I may get a miniMEGA as a backup to take with me. Carrying around a 150 lbs rack though was a pain in the back.
