Hey there,
I've had my Railboard for a little over 2 years, I still suck at it, but that another story. Over the course of my ownership I've only had 1 technical issue.
From time to time, I will lose output from the bass side. It's not the cable because if I switch it into mono mode I get full range output on both sides. What seems to "shake it loose" is to intermittently apply phantom power to it, then it will start working again.
Phantom power is not part of my normal setup. I go from the railboard to a POD HD500x guitar/aux inputs, then to other stuff. At home, I can use the balanced cable to a mixer with phantom power to unlock the bass side, but I don't have that ability with my stage setup, which has caused me on one occasion to abort it's use on a song. The ONLY time I hit my railboard with phantom power is while trying to unlock the bass side, otherwise I always run unbalanced using the TRS to TS cable.

Any thoughts?
TIA!
Ken

just a guess but it just might be bass part the springy stereo jack contact on the inside is bent out a bit so that the bass part of the contact is not snug, making it intermittent. the balanced cable maybe putting enough pull on it in some way to make contact again.

I wish I had a solution but I seem to have a related problem that might stimulate some discussion and answers.

When I practice I usually run my Railboard thru my recording system. I don’t run it active. It goes Straight into a MOD Duo (effects unit and preamp) where each side of the stick has a separate input and output and then into Logic (Apple’s DAW).

Occasionally the bass side will start to distort and sound like parts of the signal are dropping out. My remedy is to restart Logic and then the problem disappears. It only occurs with the bass side so it might be related to what you’re experiencing.

I’ll try to see if the using active cord with phantom power has any effect on the problem.

Thanks, but pretty sure that's not it. Without changing the cable at all, I'll go from hi side/no side in stereo to hi side + low side out both Tip and Sleeve in mono , just flipping the switch.

But I do appreciate it!

I have a theory, but without a schematic of the R-Block it's just a guess. I'm pretty sure I can't get a schematic (if I were Emmett, I wouldn't give it out), and I don't want to open up the pickup and reverse engineer it. I suspect there are capacitors on the R-Block's outputs going from the hots to the ground, and thru static electricity or possible DC offset on the inputs of my POD, enough charge is getting built up to trip a solid state relay that kicks the bass side into active mode, but there's not enough energy there to actually work in active mode.

Or it could be something completely different.

If my theory holds water, then maybe dropping the input impedance down on my POD from 3.5M to 1M or lower will help me out. I've done this already, but it's only been a few days, and this issue is so random...

Other thoughts?
Ken

I've seen this before in other equipment.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-a-cold-solder-joint

I have been loving my Railboard, but I have been plagued by noise issues. I have all of them solved except for a 4000 hrz buzz. (i don't think its there using active mode, though I may be remembering incorrectly) Have tried many different cables and grounded outlets in different parts of the house. Also different speakers, setups, ect. I keep hoping its not the Pickups or the Jack. The best way I have dealt with it filtering the frequency out, which doesn't effect my tone too much. Wish I knew how to stomp it out for good though.

This is getting really annoying, losing audio from the low side of the railboard. I have simplified my troubleshooting: unplug cable from railboard, plug it into an adapter to my iPad, get sound both sides. Plug cable back into railboard, only treble strings.

Send your R-Block back to Stick Enterprises. They’ll solve the problem either by repairing the unit or replacing it.


Envoyé de mon iPhone en utilisant Tapatalk

IT could still be your cable. Did you try another cable?

Yes, I've tried a different TRS to (2) TS cable, not one from Stick, but same function, it's not that. After I "shock" with phantom power, the usual cable works.
Ken