Yet another question, my friends,
Wednesday, working with a harmonica player, I was introduced to a Harmonica Honker. Cool little ring with volume control, and a belt-worn box where the player could dial in some distortion.
It is unbalanced 1/4 out, so I sent it through one channel of a Radial Pro D2 (passive DI) into an x32. All was well. The same experience he mostly had with it.
Then came the question - he bought a VOX VX50KB expressly to use with his Honker, but gets a noise - as he describes it - kind of like a noise from a single coil pickup guitar. It only happens with this combo. He does not get the noise from any other amp, nor from the PA I described above.
He bought an active DI for the benefit of the ground lift, but after mulling what he said over for most of the night, I asked him about that. Let's see, you have 1/4 unbalanced out, and 1/4 unbalanced in on the VOX. Are you using the instrument-to-amplifier passthrough on the DI? Why, yes, he was! aHA! the ground-lift part of the circuit was not in play wired like that. Honestly, his description of the noise does not lead me to believe the ground lift would solve the noise anyway.
He also has a similar British harmonica mic+dirt device that plays well with the Vox. No unwanted noise. Also, all 1/4 unbalanced.
Any thoughts?
thanks
frank
