ive got a problem with my connection somewhere, and dont know if its amp, lead or bass. unfortunately i dont have any spares of any that i can test it with.
basically i start playing, but after a few minutes it intermittently cuts out and starts crackling. if i leave it it gets worse and i can end up with no sound at all and only the odd crackle as it plays shorts bursts. it sounds awful.
ive got a squier PJ, and its a borrowed lead and rumble 15. ive been using them for about 4 months with no problems but just this last couple of weeks its getting worse.
other than try and borrow other kit to test and eliminate things, has anyone got any advice, or things i could try?
thanks
Hmm - long shot but are you using a proper guitar cable or some kind of audio cable? Maybe try swapping and checking?
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no its a proper cable, been told its a good one and has worked flawlessly for a few months.
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Hmm well other than maybe the connection at the jack being loose, I’m out of ideas 
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Cable is my first thought, and may still be.
When I get that sort of noise, it is usually the screw-on outer sleeve of the jack has come loose and needs to be tightened back down.
Second most likely thought would be jack in either the guitar or the amp being loose.
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The proper way to trouble shoot this issue is to change one variable at a time until you find the component that is causing problems. Then dial in on that part of the chain to where exactly it’s breaking.
- Try a different bass guitar
- Try a different cable
- Try a different amp
If you don’t have all of these things yourself (totally understandable). Find another local musician who you can meet up with.
If you’re unable to do that… just jiggling things. See what makes things worst when jiggled.
Or… start feeling for anything that is abnormally warm.
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yep, i may have to wait until im anywhere near one of my bass playing mates.
i just unplugged everything, left it half hour and played again and it was fine. yet all the other times its been happening ive switched off the amp, unplugged everything then started up again and it was still the same.
weird 
ill keep monitoring, see if theres a pattern, such as playing along to my phone which is going through the speakers via bluetooth or suchlike.
thanks
Cables do go bad.
So do batteries - not sure you have one. If there is a local store, take your bass and cable and go down and plug in. See if the problem follows.
Should be easy to determine.
Spare cables and spare batteries if applicable are good.
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Is the power light flickering on the amp? If not then amp power is ok. Next play music from your phone through the aux without your cable plugged into the amp and see if it cuts out. Check the lead ends like @BeerBaron suggests. Perhaps plug your lead in the other way round (might be movement at the bass end) What happens if you are plugged in but just leave the bass without playing? At least you can do those things until you can swap stuff around.
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no batteries, its passive.
power light desnt seem to flicker on the amp. good idea about swapping the ends around, see if theres any difference.
not sure what you mean with the phone experiment. the phone plays deezer wirelessly over bluetooth to the hi-fi amp, it isnt connected to the bass amp in any way, but i did just wonder whether it was only happening when i was doing this rather than watching josh b2b course on the laptop. probably not but it was just a thought. its stopped doing it at the moment so i cant really try anything different 
if im plugged in and not playing theres just a bit of a low hum. which reminds me… sometimes when im holding the bass theres a louder hum, sort of static-ish, and it goes away when i touch any of the strings. thats why i did wonder if it was static in any way.
thanks
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I had a similar problem that took me a while to pin down. The problem turned out to be the jack was loose in the socket. So I pulled the socket apart and and bent the spring connectors in a bit and simple as that, it was solved.
Not saying that’s what it will be but worth checking as simple and cheap to fix. (Wasn’t that cheap for me as I bought another cable before I figured out what the problem actually was!!!)
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Most combo amps have an Aux in port. Plug in your phone or something else to play music through the amp. You can do that for a while to figure out if there’s an issue with the internals of the Amp.
With everything you’ve described and this seeming to be a time thing - rather than just turn it off and on, unplug and replug fixing it - my mind goes to heat.
If you have a connection point that is a bit loose you can get extra resistance at that point in the circuit. Resistance turns into heat. Heat causes metal to expand. Expanding metal widens the gap in the circuit until it breaks completely.
This would most likely be happening right where you jack the cable into the guitar or amp. To test, when things start getting crunchy - wiggle the cable in the jack and see if that changes the sound.
Edit: Exactly what @HighlandBass describes above.
Unrelated - the low hum is a common thing in the electrical circuit. Many (most?) basses do this. The circuitry grounds the electrical circuit to the bridge (and wires). It fully grounds when you body touches something metal on the bass and your body then conducts the electrical all the way to ground.
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As said above- could it be a loose jack or wire/solder problem?
I have had this and this is what it turned out to be in each case.
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…and expensive ones can go bad as fast as cheap ones. There is no scam quite like expensive cables.
I have a really overpriced Monster cable that I got for free and it is already needing to be resoldered in less than three years of light home use.
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I do think there’s a price floor it doesn’t make sense to go under. Get the $20 Ernie Ball or fender one, not the cheapest one on Amazon or AliExpress.
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Yeah for sure there is a quality floor to stay above. But it is like $20 as you say.
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Decades ago, I had a high end 7-channel home theater and audio system. I used Monster cables to start with. They sucked. The quality level was way below the price, and they were stiff as hell and really hard to route. But one thing Monster did do really well was power conditioning. I had one of these and was really happy with it.
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Did you also wait for 30 minutes the other times when it didn’t fix the problem?
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no, just unplugged, wiggled stuff, plugged back in, was ok for a few seconds then started again.
been practising again this morning, not a peep out of it, sods law really isnt it but i shouldnt complain
ill try some of those suggestions above when it does it again.
thanks
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If 30 minutes works, but quick power cycles don’t, my first guess would be a temperature problem. Something is likely overheating.
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