Proximity effect

[El Grinder]

I've widdled all of the noise out of my rack except for the EMI that my pickups tend to uhm.. pick up.. when I'm next to my rack (programming, tweaking etc...).

 

Besides better shielding on the control cavities or switching out the pickups for lower noise 'buckers, any other ideas for getting that noise down? (Except for the obvious, moving away from the rack, since I need to be next to it to tweak sometimes.)

[El Grinder]

Thanks, Jay. Shielding (non-lead... /sarcasm) is about the only idea that I've figured would help at all thus far.

[Mind Riot]

 

Originally posted by El Grinder Yup, figured I'd get at least one moron response in there.

 

 

Geez, man, chill out. I didn't mean to piss anyone off. I'll delete it.

[Cougar Hunter]

Try plugging your rack in at a different location. Sometimes the power itself coming out of the wall is noisy. Turn off the tv and all the lights. Test your cables one by one. Pickups do make a pretty big difference sometimes. I've never had a propblem with a dimarzio or TV Jones. Every Asian pickup I've played has been noisy. I don't know what else to say. Maybe your preamp tubes are dying.

[El Grinder]

Originally posted by jdwinger hmmm; well, shielding the guitar is a good bet just for general protection anyway other things to try 1) run the system barebones and successively add/power-up units to find a single offending unit...That unit's PS may need shielding 2) If you are hand with a soldring iron, brewing a 50/60hz notch filter may be in order (there is bound to be a commerical product out there)...that's sort of mitigatory though as opposed to solving the problem 3) I doubt shieling the rack would do much good, esp as you are at it's face (not a full faraday cage) but I thought I'd mention it (even though I doubt it'd do ya up - it's really just a cheesey method f accomplishing #2) 4) use a MIDI cc control pad so you can tweak from a remote location #1 is the one I'd be most concerned with doing as you are actally solving the problem #4 sort of obviates the problem and has some other benefits to the tweaker

 

I did run the system bare-bones, removed the AC power supply for the MIDI Mate, completely unplugged and bypassed my processor. I don't have any ground loops or anything in the system. Adding the power supply and adding the processor back in didn't add additional noise. I tried running a 6-band EQ in the Eventide to remove bands of noise, it turned out that it's really wide-band noise through the entire frequency range. A good deal of it sounds like EMI hum though.

 

I use the MIDI Mate for patch changes and some CC changes, but I'm still in the process of programming it, which is why I'm directly in front of the rack so much lately. :

 

Originally posted by guitarslinger213 Try plugging your rack in at a different location. Sometimes the power itself coming out of the wall is noisy. Turn off the tv and all the lights. Test your cables one by one. Pickups do make a pretty big difference sometimes. I've never had a propblem with a dimarzio or TV Jones. Every Asian pickup I've played has been noisy. I don't know what else to say. Maybe your preamp tubes are dying.

 

I've tried it with the TV, all lights, computer, fans, everything except the rack itself, off. I definitely get more noise if I'm near the computer monitor when it's on. What reduces the noise the most is standing five or more feet away from the rack. I went through the cables, and actually got to the point where everything in my rig was plugged in, except the guitar, and it was dead quiet. I've tapped the tubes to make sure they weren't going microphonic too. They are all still good.

 

Even when I plugged in my Washburn (with what are supposed to be pretty noise-free Lawrence humbuckers), I got noise from them too, though less than the stock Warlock pickups. I might toss some Duncans in the Warlock, but I really think that proximity to the rack is the biggest problem.

 

Maybe I just need to upgrade my Eventide from a GTR4000 to a DSP7000 and get the remote interface.. heh..

[Lockjaw]

It definatelly has nothing to do with the rack or cables. You could surely cut the hum a lot by switching out the pickups. EMGs are very quiet...except mine...lol. I'm going to mod my guitar so the battery isn't right next to the signal line.

[El Grinder]

 

Originally posted by jdwinger So you still had noise through just the power amp? (if your power-amp is not sensitive enough for inst level...use a pre, not your system pre if possible...physically remote from the power amp)- sounds like the poweramp's PS then -- If no other equip added noise and you have noise...it's the alpha that's good news -- looks like it won't be a long-range problem...once you get done getting your patches in order, you can step away from your rig

 

 

Not quite.. bare bones meaning just the Triaxis and the Strategy. I still had my pre-amp plugged in. And the Strategy is in a separate rack than the Triaxis. However, I still tried the Triaxis grounded and with the ground lifted and got the exact same level of noise. There isn't noise on clean sounds, just distortion sounds.

 

And I know that there are quieter pickups (like I said, the Lawrence in my Washburn was a little quieter, still picked up the hum though). I'm going to borrow my friend's guitar with an 81 in it to test it out. Only drawback with those is I like controlling my tone with backing off the volume knob to dull out the highs on softer parts. Unfortunately, EMG pickups don't do that very well.

 

Heh, the transformers in my Furman AR-1215 and in the Strategy 500 are pretty friggin large. I know that the Furman's is toroidal so there is lower EMI leakage, but, with the size of the transformers in the Strategy, those things must put out a large magnetic field.

[Task]

Grinder, are you sure they are real Lawrences?

 

Is your washburn a nuno?

 

PS, depending on your house power, you will always have the proximity hum at various degrees.

 

Unless your hum is excessive, I would think that you may be obsessing. I only say this because I am like you in that regard. {censored} (and sometimes pretty incosequential {censored} at that) can get on my nerves, and I have used other players racks whose incipient noise floor is a lot greater than my rack, when I thought mine was too noisy.

 

Try not to let this eat your lunch or it will drive you nuts!

 

 

[bjor]

I think your triaxis is making the noise. I have a tri, that I run throught a G-major on the way to my Rivera poweramp. There is some noise even if I use my ES 175, that is noisefree...

 

Tou will never be standing right in front of your rack while recording or playing live, so I can't se that this is problem in other situations than programming/adjusting.....

 

You can look at the condensors in the triaxis's powersection, but as long as it's not old (more than ten years) is will not make any differens. You can see what "Tubefreak" says about tubes for the tri on his webpage.

 

Good luck

 

Bjor

[bjor]

I think your triaxis is making the noise. I have a tri, that I run throught a G-major on the way to my Rivera poweramp. There is some noise even if I use my ES 175, that is noisefree...

 

Tou will never be standing right in front of your rack while recording or playing live, so I can't se that this is problem in other situations than programming/adjusting.....

 

You can look at the condensors in the triaxis's powersection, but as long as it's not old (more than ten years) is will not make any differens. You can see what "Tubefreak" says about tubes for the tri on his webpage.

 

Good luck

 

Bjor

 

Eugen custom strat (www.eugen.no)

Gibson ES 175

Mesa/Boogie Triaxis v2

T.c. G-major

Rivera S120

Mesa/Boogie 2*12

[El Grinder]

 

Originally posted by Task Grinder, are you sure they are real Lawrences? Is your washburn a nuno? PS, depending on your house power, you will always have the proximity hum at various degrees. Unless your hum is excessive, I would think that you may be obsessing. I only say this because I am like you in that regard. {censored} (and sometimes pretty incosequential {censored} at that) can get on my nerves, and I have used other players racks whose incipient noise floor is a lot greater than my rack, when I thought mine was too noisy. Try not to let this eat your lunch or it will drive you nuts!

 

 

The pickups are K-500MS pickups ordered directly from Bill Lawrence during the short time when they were in Pennsylvania and called the company Keystone-Lawrence.

 

The Washburn is a Dime sig. model. I installed the pickups separately.

 

Yeah, I probably am obsessing. It's not a huge problem unless I'm both using a high-gain patch and right in front of my rack. Just gets to my ears when I'm sitting there using the Eventide patch editor. It's about time I hook it up to my PC and edit via Vsig anyway.

 

 

Originally posted by bjor I think your triaxis is making the noise. I have a tri, that I run throught a G-major on the way to my Rivera poweramp. There is some noise even if I use my ES 175, that is noisefree... Tou will never be standing right in front of your rack while recording or playing live, so I can't se that this is problem in other situations than programming/adjusting..... You can look at the condensors in the triaxis's powersection, but as long as it's not old (more than ten years) is will not make any differens. You can see what "Tubefreak" says about tubes for the tri on his webpage. Good luck Bjor

 

 

Like I said, with everything the same with just the guitar unplugged, the noise problem went away. Yes, the Triaxis has a little hiss on all of the Lead 2 channels, but all of the hum I was talking about was gone. The tubes are all good. I'm running tested NOS Telefunken ECC83 smooth plates in the V1 and V2 input stages with regular Mesa Russian-2 tubes in the V3 - V5 stages. I checked all of them and none have gone bad.