Trouble with wireless transmitter

[jcreed6484]

Hello,

I recently installed a new L.R. Baggs Violin Pickup, after my last L.R. Baggs Violin Pickup's bridge started to warp a bit.
I'm noticing a "distortion" in the tone at high volumes when going trough my Line 6 G30 wireless system. I thought that this problem was because of the warped bridge, but since I just replaced the entire pickup, I started thinking that it may be the wireless system. It sounds as though the pickup may be overdriving the wireless transmitter. This theory was confirmed after plugging my violin directly into my amp...no distortion or overdrive.

The Line 6 G30 transmitter has an input input impedance of 1.3 M-Ohm...slightly more that what is recommended in the L.R. Baggs' Violin Pickup's User's Guide. However, I'm wondering if that may be too low to handle the pickup's output at high volumes.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?
Any recommendations?

I hate to give up the wireless functionality on stage, but I'm not going to choose it over clean tone.

Thanks in advance for the replies!

- J

[Caleb_Elling]

Hey jcreed6484,
I've done a bit of digging into the G30. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have an input trim control like some other wireless units. Wityhout a trim or pad of some kind, louder signals will regularly overdrive the input of that unit. If you want to use the Violin pickup with the G30, you will need to attenuate the volume from the pickup. This can be done with a passive volume pot, but since you probably won't want to mount a pot to your violin, you can also add a small capacitor to the jack. A 1500pf cap added between the hot and ground leads on the jack will attenuate the signal by about -10dB. It may be too much, but it might be the best way to make the pickup work with the wireless.

I hope that helps.

[jcreed6484]

Hey jcreed6484,
I've done a bit of digging into the G30. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have an input trim control like some other wireless units. Wityhout a trim or pad of some kind, louder signals will regularly overdrive the input of that unit. If you want to use the Violin pickup with the G30, you will need to attenuate the volume from the pickup. This can be done with a passive volume pot, but since you probably won't want to mount a pot to your violin, you can also add a small capacitor to the jack. A 1500pf cap added between the hot and ground leads on the jack will attenuate the signal by about -10dB. It may be too much, but it might be the best way to make the pickup work with the wireless.

I hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply! I was thinking of adding a resistor/capacitor to the transmitter. The only thing I was worried about would be any sort of coloration of the tone.
I haven't done anything like this before so I'm not sure if that is a valid concern. Would you know about that?

[Caleb_Elling]

It can be difficult to predict the precise tonal effect. The capacitance of the pickup and the cable that you're using also play a big part in the tone. From my experience, the tonal change should largely effect the low end response, which is typically cut with EQ on most violins anyways. It should be really easy to alligator-clip a cap onto the Violin jack to do a temporary and non-invasive test.