Troubleshoot Your Guitar Gear

You’ve got everything set up and practice is just starting. You go to strum your first chord and all you hear is silence. Now what?

Don't panic! There are only so many things that can be wrong so it’s simply a matter of troubleshooting. Stay calm and follow these steps.

Check Your Guitar

Is it plugged in with the volume up? Chances are this is your issue and you’ve solved  your problem already without even leaving your spot. It’s the number one problem and the easiest fix. Everything look good?

Check the Power

Are your pedals lit up? Did you switch your amp off standby? There have been plenty of times I turn the amp on and walk away to set up everything else without flipping the standby switch to the on position. If all your lights are on, it’s time to

Check the Signal Chain

If your guitar is plugged in and the power is on you’ve probably got a bad or disconnected cable. The best way to check is to plug your guitar directly into your amp. Still silent? Try a different cable. Have sound? Now it’s time to start working your way backward through your chain starting with the pedal closest to your amp until your find the culprit. This can be a little time consuming but if you are methodical about it you’ll find the trouble spot and either fix it or remove the offending piece of equipment.

The key is to always stay calm when you’ve got an issue. If you get frazzled you could end up skipping over a simple fix that would otherwise be obvious.

Jason Houtsma is the co-founder and guitar teacher at Worship Artistry, where he is helping musicians of every level answer the call to worship with passion and confidence. Jason has been leading worship and writing music since he was 15 years old and currently serves as Worship Pastor for Mosaic Church in Bellingham, WA. He is husband to Alli and father to Bjorn and Asher.

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Comments

pedalboard to computer

Submitted by chuck2120 on December 13, 2018 - 6:18pm.

I just set up a killer pedalboard for my electric. I am trying to figure out how to practice silently now. I want to go from a 1/4" mono out from my last pedal (an amp emulator) to my windows 10 laptop, then I would like to be able to play my downloaded worship songs thru a software program and change song Pitch (key) if necessary and have that song along with my guitar wet signal come out to earphones.

Any ideas?

thanks for your great site.

Great idea!

Submitted by Jason Houtsma on December 14, 2018 - 12:12pm.

All you would need for that is a USB interface like a focusrite.