UE 405 wavering repeats...?

Log Out | Topics | Search Moderators | Edit Profile

Author Message Cestlamort Username: Cestlamort Registered: 05-2006 Posted on Friday, May 05, 2006 - 12:18 am:    I just picked up a UE405 and after giving it its longest run through tonight I noticed something odd. On the longer repeats for the delay, randomly the delay time oscillates a bit (for lack of a better word), slightly speeding up and/or slowing a few repeats into it. It sound pretty cool (like tweaking the knob), but not quite what I was hoping for. (very cool if I were in My Bloody Valentine, but I'm unfortunately not). Has anyone had this problem before? The delay (and the unit overall) sounds great otherwise. Thanks. Geoff} Heynicerack Username: Heynicerack Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 9:08 am:    Grab a screwdriver, open it up and play with the trimpots. Unlike most modern stuff they were designed to be opened up and worked on. Can't do any harm if you use something to mark the original trimpot position, that way you can get back where you started if you happen to make it sound worse. A lot of the time a previous owner has made trimpot adjustments to get a longer delay time, past what sounds decent. Maybe that's what happened to your one. If you decide to try it, make sure the outer case is taken well away from the inner case. I didn't do that when I was tweaking my AD150 and when the two accidentaly touched I tripped the safety switch in my fusebox. When I reset it I found that I'd toasted a couple of eq pedals I had plugged in at the time. Ouch. Not meaning to scare you off, just saying be a bit cautious. Cestlamort Username: Cestlamort Registered: 05-2006 Posted on Sunday, May 07, 2006 - 10:07 pm:    thanks for the tip. I'll get out the sharpie and a small screwdriver. A (possibly naive) question: for trimpot adjustments, do you leave it plugged in to do real time tweaking or should it be unplugged (tweak, plug back in, play, unplug, tweak, repeat)? I also have to try to lower the volume on the flanger/chorus section of my ue400 (hoping one of the trim pots does that), but am lazy and a bit wary of anything electronic. Your diagnosis might be right, since the delay time is way longer than I'd expected (maybe 50% longer than my ad80. Note: it also seems that the ue405 with the 9 series pedals is not the same as an ad80 in sound/tone after I did some a/b'ing, more like a ad9 from what I remember). Strangely, though it is only on some individual repeats and somewhat random. Heynicerack Username: Heynicerack Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 3:16 am:    Yep, do it while it's plugged in or it'll take about a zillion years to get anywhere. From what I've seen all the various Ibanez analog delays contain different circuits, different opamps etc. So I guess it's no surprise that they all sound a little different but still similar. If you can work out which ones are the trimpots for the chorus you can probably reduce the volume by playing with the regeneration/feedback pot. Something that a lot of people don't realise is that the modulation sections on UE400/405s were meant to go in an amps effects loop. I don't think the Loop section of the 400/405s was intended as a bypass looper, which is what most people use them as. If that was the case I reckon there would have been a switch for it on the pedalboard. What I mean it is I think they were designed to be more a splitter so that disto/comp could go into the amplifier's preamp and the rest could go in the amplifier's effects loop. Most rack gear of that era was designed to be used in the effects loop. Where I'm heading with all that is the volume coming out of an amp's effects loop is ten times louder than what goes in the front of the amp. Greater volume into an effect means more compression happens inside the effect and the volume increase at output isn't perceived as being so big. I guess I could've just said 'The chorus is meant to be louder'. I'm pretty sure I didn't make any of that up. Let us know how your tweaking goes. If you don't post the results I'll assume you've been electrocuted and died. Cestlamort Username: Cestlamort Registered: 05-2006 Posted on Monday, May 08, 2006 - 6:47 pm:    thanks for the advice. if I don't come out in 20 minutes, go on without me... It hadn't occured to me that the loop was meant to go to the loop, as it were. (Does that make sense: why, then, is the stereo output for the chorus by the main output (and not the loop)? Also: even with the loop, the chorus would hit the amp twice: with the main output into the preamp and again in the loop...?) (moot point, in some ways: I have a fender bandmaster without a loop, so I'm out of luck). The chorus on the ue405 doesn't have the same boost, so I'm guessing it is feedback/volume issue. thanks, Geoff Heynicerack Username: Heynicerack Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 2:29 am:    Like I said, I don't think I made it up! I had the first version UE400 which didn't have stereo outs for the chorus so I'll use that as my excuse. My amp doen't have a loop either so I can't say I tried and confirmed it. I started off with a PUE5 floor unit (which does have a footswitch for the loop section) and sold it to buy the UE400. I ended up selling the UE400 and getting another PUE5 because it seemed more suited to going in via the preamp. I like to hit my preamp with a huge volume to get some overdrive and the UE400 didn't sound so nice that way, similar to using them before a distortion pedal. Am I just digging a deeper hole here? Go and play with them trimpots dude! Heynicerack Username: Heynicerack Registered: 02-2006 Posted on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 2:34 am:    Check this link ... This guy has some cool Ibanez stuff including original brochures for UE400 and UE405 http://members.chello.nl/~t.heertjes/ Cestlamort Username: Cestlamort Registered: 05-2006 Posted on Monday, June 12, 2006 - 6:47 pm:    Finally got around to opening it up, and it looks like a simple trim pot tweaked helped things. We'll see if the ghost pops up again, though. Thanks for the help and advice.

Add Your Message Here Post: -Color- Black Red Green Blue Yellow Purple Orange Cyan Gray White -Font- Arial Courier Symbol Times Verdana -Size- Smallest (-2) Small (-1) Normal Large (+1) Largest (+2) Enter Item number: Username: Posting Information: This is a private posting area. Only registered users and moderators may post messages here. Password: Options: Enable HTML code in message Automatically activate URLs in message Action: