ok, im screwed.

i have a RG550, and a laney lh50 (i think) various pedals, (which i plug in to the mains) including a noise gate. some times i use a jmc800 instead of the laney.
this all works fine in practise. every time. but when i gig it, it has problems. the volume cuts in and out every five minits or so. last night i played a gig, and decided to use the jmc instead of the laney, and it still happened. half way through the first song, it turned itself up all on its own so loud i couldn'd hear anytihng else. and it carried on changing itself all the way through the gig

so it cant be the amp can it? unless something different is happening at gigs which affects both amps.

i change my leads over regularly, and the same thing has happenned with 2 different distortion pedals. could it be a problem with the noise gate? but why would it only happen at gigs.

some how i can believe its the guitar, because 1. ive had the guitar checked out twice by the local music shop, and both times they said it was nothing.
also, the noise gate is set with the threshold very high, so if the guitar volume was not on full, the gate would stop it.

so anyway, i have a gig tommorrow, and i cant stand to have it happen again. what can i do. what is the problem

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umm... if its a tube amp, that might be it. I was playing an old fender twin reverb the other day and the volume was allll fucked up after an hour or so. it would go up and down and everywhere, the guy who owned it said the tubes were pretty old... so it might be that. i have no idea about the pedals and scheiss.

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Did you gig at the same places? It might be a power issue.
And yes, it could be the noise gate. Check it out in your room with all levels like you would gig (wear ear plugs)

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If you have the time before your gig you could try the process of elimination.

I would break your rig down to the simplest setup possible. Guitar, cable and amp – test it at gig volumes and for gig durations.
If the problem turns up start substituting these three components (I doubt it’s the amps unless you have really bad luck and if you don’t have another guitar – try and borrow one for the test, etc.)
If there is no problem (with the guitar, cable and amp) then start including each pedal in the chain (one at a time) until the problem materializes.

Even after all that who knows, you might find that the interference in the room you are gigging in is closing down the gate or the battery in your active pickups (if you have them) is acting up. Or like Brains said – it could be a power issue.

Good Luck.

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Make sure they have a good clean power supply and try to recreate what happened. If you got a true bypass loop switcher then loop all the pedals into it. When the problem happens again bypass the pedals and see if you get sound. If so the problem is the pedals.

I'm sure the problem is in the pedals anyway. I have seen this very thing happen before. It even happened to me once. Somehow a pedal will just cut out. I have never found out if it is power supply related or if it is something with the input buffer, but I have located problems like this in pedal equiped rigs before.

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yes, we have gigged more than one venue. the thing is, we sometimes practise at gig volume for longer periods of time and nothing. and in anycase it happens within 5 minits of starting. i just don't understand why it doesnt happen during practise. one other thing, our practise space is a cellar, which is kind of dark and slightly damp and very dusty. but again, the logic doesnt follow.
if anything that should affect it the other way round.

ok im going to try gigging without the noise gate tomorrow, i dont have any time to do any testing before hand. but their power supply is fine for everybody else who plays at this venue tomorrow.
soul: have you seen what your talking about still happen if you run the pedals on batteries? if not i might try that.

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maybe someone doesnt like you...and they keep fucking it up...just a thought...

Well, he said he gigs at different places. So unless all those venues use the same sound tech...

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it doesnt have to be a sound tech...maybe they kicked someone out of the band...and he is exacting his revenge...

and how would he do that? It is either far fetched, or you suck at sarcasm

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The dude could stand near his gear with a emp pulser in his pocket or some other interference device.

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it may be far fetched...but ive seen it happen...on a smaller scale...of course... band kicks out bass player...bass player decides to try and ruin band...ends up ruining three gigs before he is discovered...

shit happens...

get a power conditioner. clean, safe and constant power...

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well, i gigged last night, and no problems at all. oh well who knows, thanks for all your help/advice/pisstaking.

whats a power conditioner, and where can i get one? it sounds usefull anyway.

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All I know that it is some kind of rack gear, and it cleans your power, and makes it more reliable. I guess xdx should give you more on that.
I don't think their that expensive..

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It's not just rack gear now days. You can go to Walmart or Radio Shack or Best Buy and buy them for other stuff like your computer. They look like a normal power strip but some actually have isolation transformers and filters to clean and regulate the incoming AC. It's the same thing really because most have a protection breaker/fuse. It will help because the electric that comes from a wall socket is actually very noisy and inconsistate and that can be transfered into your sound.

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+1

a good powerconditioner will clean up the power coming from the wall to the amp. and yes that can affect your tone.

i've had places that you would plug the amp in and you'd get so much annoying noises and inconsistancy in the sound. yuck.

plus it helps keeps things tidey and my power conditioner has a built in tuner.

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