Ridiculous levels of feedback

    Heya,


    Both my guitars becomes extremely microphonic in my band's rehearsal room, when we rehearse. I was wondering what could be done about this. Turning the gain knob down helps, but I'm playing crunch in death metal setting...I need to get the gain back up without having my guitars scream and sqeal uncontrollably. Both guitars have direct output, so the volume knobs on the guitars don't do anything.


    I'm kinda hoping its the way I use the amp. I have it in browse mode when rehearsing. I haven't figured out how to use Performance mode...


    If anyone knows how I can keep the gain up and feedback sqeals down, I'd like to hear it.

    I use a lot of gain and mine goes nuts on small stages especially if I coil tap. I have to be at least10 feet away from the amp. Other than that get off to the side and definitely no guitar in your face from monitors.

    I've never tried this, but you could try turning up the Noise Gate. If it's really high-pitched squealing and not guitar-pitched howling, then (re-)potting your pickups may help. If your pickups are direct mounted to the body, you may want to consider adding some padding in the pickup cavities to dampen any vibration of the pickups. Some guitars have microphonic parts (e.g. Telecasters where the front of the bridge plate lifts off the body and rings like a tuning fork), but something tells me you're probably not playing a Telecaster. If all else fails, you have to adjust your distance from your speakers, turn down the treble and/or volume (assuming you really can't live with less gain), and/or try a different guitar. Browse/Performance mode won't make any difference.

    I can't see why definition and/or clarity should be part of the described problem. "Scream and squeal" sounds more like a PU problem. I'd first try a noise gate in stomp A (maybe together with the input noise gate) and see what happens...

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    @Kempermaniac
    I have one guitar which sounds very bright with the kemper.
    I see on many high gain profiles from rig exchange a high value of definition (almost 10)
    which is to much for this guitar. A combination of a bright guitar / pickups, high volume
    and I high definition could produce (IMHO) unwanted feedback.

    One of my guitars is an Ibanez RG2550 Prestige loaded with Bareknuckle Painkillers. Both the volume and tone potmeter is taken out.


    The other is a Fernandes Vortex loaded with Seymour Duncan Black Winters, again the potmeters are taken out.


    Both guitars are geared towards high output and high gain sounds.


    I didn't have this problem with my Randall GH100 solidstate amp. But I also think that one had a VERY aggressive noise gate.


    So I guess I can try and angle the cab a different way, put more distance between me and it, and turn up the noise gates (perhaps both), and if that doesn't work I can fidget with the difinition and clarity settings, and finally consider repotting the pickups?

    I frequently switch between my amps and Kemper (including the same amps profiled) at band practice. I can play the amps at high gain and high volume without my noise gate (ISP decimator), but the Kemper is tougher to wrangle in to avoid that microphonic feedback- it needs much more aggressive gating, either a Gate in slot A or the Decimtaor in front for the high gain stuff.


    This is not a big a factor when playing by myself at seemingly any volume, but a band room that is pushing all of the extra volume from drums, PA and Bass seem to create more concerns here. Not an issue with the amps. I'm guessing not an issue live where the room is likely to be much larger.

    The pickups on my Washburn Falcon went microphonic on me last year. With high gain and volume it was always hit or miss, if a venue was a miss only turning the gain down would stop the bees nest. Replaced the pickups and it's my quietest with high gain now.


    sounds like nice pickups, they shouldn't be microphonic.
    lowering Definition might have an impact, I don't see Clarity making a difference.
    Are you aware that the Profiler is capable of massive amounts of gain?
    If you put the Gain knob to where you are usid to having it on your amp, you're probably getting quite a bit more.
    What is a typical Gain value you're using/having these issues with?

    Quote from DonPetersen

    sounds like nice pickups, they shouldn't be microphonic.
    lowering Definition might have an impact, I don't see Clarity making a difference.
    Are you aware that the Profiler is capable of massive amounts of gain?
    If you put the Gain knob to where you are usid to having it on your amp, you're probably getting quite a bit more.
    What is a typical Gain value you're using/having these issues with?


    I did notice that the gaining on the kemper is quite characteristic. After 5 minutes first of playing over it I stopped adjusting the gain up, simply no need to. On all my high gain profiles I've had to lower the gain to about noon. It does solve the problem but metal using a hard rock crunch setting? Nah...won't do! =oP


    My old Randall amp was left at 90 to 95 % gain. It was just shy of maxed out. I haven't profiled, because I got the kemper to get a better sounding amp.

    From Don Peterson: " I don't see Clarity making a difference."


    Don, I set my Clarity between 3 and 4.5 on many Rigs, if I turn the Gain down to control feedback at certain venues (my Gain is usually around 75%) I also turn down Clarity to get the Gain to come more to the forefront again. To my ears doing both these things gets my Gain back to where I want it but with feedback under control. Am I nuts?

    Quote from Booyah

    From Don Peterson: " I don't see Clarity making a difference."


    Don, I set my Clarity between 3 and 4.5 on many Rigs, if I turn the Gain down to control feedback at certain venues (my Gain is usually around 75%) I also turn down Clarity to get the Gain to come more to the forefront again. To my ears doing both these things gets my Gain back to where I want it but with feedback under control. Am I nuts?


    I guess I didn't run the Profiler with such a high gain setting in venues were this becomes an issue (yet!) - but if it worls for you: good to know, thanks! :)

    Yesterday i got a strange rig from RigExchange. There was a "green scream" stomp with drive and volume pushed up.
    It was the first time i became feedback with my Kemper (which i like). Perhaps you have this stomp too in your rig or any
    other drive stomp pushed up.
    Browse mode and Performance mode shouldn't be that problem. And when you have the same problem with both guitars,
    i would search in the Kemper:
    - Same Problem in all rigs?
    - Step by step turnig off all effects and stomps in the problem rig
    - Turn off all outputs except the one you need for amplifying
    - Turn off all inputs except the one you need for amplifying (especially the Aux In - main)