Sudden drop in tone quality.
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I received my Spark a week ago and absolutely loved it. For the first time in years, I was actually excited and motivated to play my guitar and could barely put it down.
Then yesterday, I plugged in for another practice session and everything sounded like garbage. Every single profile that I had been happily using for a week suddenly sounded muddy and hissy like a crappy solid state amp with a $20 distortion pedal.
At first, I thought it might be the speakers, but it sounded just as bad through headphones. I also noticed there is a lot more buzz and feedback when I turn off the noise gate, but it's more or less quiet on clean profiles; the muddiness is still very apparent, however. It also makes an awful popping noise when switching between profiles.
Has anyone else had this issue? I'm at a loss.
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@kyle-dixson-crow I'm sorry to hear that -- have you tried a factory reset?
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@dhbailey Factory reset didn't change anything. Changing out the cable tamed the muddiness a tiny bit, but it's still hissy and buzzy.
Any other ideas?
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Kyle,
Open a ticket with Support...
Was your power supply plugged into the wall between sessions the entire time (LED on?) or did you plug it in just before the session? Please, I'm just asking, I don't think every issue can be the result of a bad power supply, but there have been enough examples of buzz, hum, weird behaviors that seem to have been corrected by swapping power supplies that it makes me wonder. But seriously open a ticket ASAP.
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@keoki It has been plugged into a power strip since I first hooked it up a week ago - LED on.
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Kyle I was asking because over the years I've noticed components seem to give up the ghost when their operational state changes e.g. from unpowered to powered. Obviously that wasn't the case here. If you've got a buddy thats got a 19VDC poster supply for a laptop and the proper sized pin I suppose you could see if that changes things. Meanwhile file the support ticket. If youre anything like me, I know I'd keep trying to power it up and see if it changes back to clean. Keoki
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@keoki I'll look into it and see what happens. Giving up on the Spark is out of the question for me; I haven't had this much fun playing guitar and playing around with tones in the entire time that I've been a guitar player.
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I had a similar thing happen to me. I turned the spark off and unplugged it for about 10 seconds then plugged it in and turned it on. Everything was back to normal.
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@kyle-dixson-crow You plugging it into a power strip is interesting. Can that that help or solve the grounding and noise problem many are talking about ?
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@rexlarsenphoto I can only speak to my experience with Spark however, I can tell you a power strip made no difference for me. I have been plugged into a power strip since receiving my Spark and the original power supply left me with significant hum on all four presets, getting worse from 1-4. Adding the DTK 3-prong power supply, still plugged into the power strip, eliminated the problem completely. I am absolutely loving the Amp, especially without the excessive hum. One thing I did not understand Kyle's post was that he said "plugged into a power strip since I first hooked it up a week ago - LED on." For the LED to be on, the unit would have to be continuously powered on. Not sure why that would be the case. I turn mine off when not playing, although still plugged in. Definitely agree about how much fun it is to play through. I just want PG to provide me with a functioning, tested, and verified power supply and of course the bag from my original order.
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@cmcwillieb Thank you very much.
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@rexlarsenphoto all my gear is plugged into a switched Furman power supply. I just don't trust the electricity coming out of the wall.
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@valascia Great idea. Thanks for your input.
Rex -
@cmcwillieb said in Sudden drop in tone quality.:
One thing I did not understand Kyle's post was that he said "plugged into a power strip since I first hooked it up a week ago - LED on." For the LED to be on, the unit would have to be continuously powered on. Not sure why that would be the case. I turn mine off when not playing, although still plugged in.
@cmcwillieb He was responding to a question I asked in my initial response to him. Read my first two posts to him and you'll see why I asked. To reiterate what I was saying, I'm not even sure what he's experiencing is related to a power supply, I just suggested he try an alternate PS to see what happens as so many weird noise issues have bene related to PS's. But its not like swapping out power supplies is going to eliminate EVERY issue people are having. ( User Issue: My speakers fell out!! Forum Response: Did you try swapping your power supply? Lol!! ) Really glad you're enjoying the Little Beast!! Keoki
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@cmcwillieb I was under the impression that the LED @Keoki was referring to was the green one on the power supply. Sorry for any confusion!
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@kyle-dixson-crow said in Sudden drop in tone quality.:
@cmcwillieb I was under the impression that the LED @Keoki was referring to was the green one on the power supply.
@kyle-dixson-crow it was indeed Kyle, I wanted to know if the PS was energized as indicated by the green LED...by the way my LED will say on for minutes after the PS is unplugged does yours? Some serious capacitors in that LED circuit!!
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@kyle-dixson-crow that makes much more sense. I have that tucked away, so all I see is the red power indicator on the Spark. Thanks for clearing that up. So yes, mine has been on since I got it.
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@valascia
Same for me.
