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Noise in the signal chain: What to do?


Ender_rpm

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Latley I've been noticing that all of my amps are a little buzzy, especially my bass amps. Also, my Geetar pedal board has a lot of noise in it when running off of AC power. So here's the question: What do I do about it? I'm fairly certain its cause is the wiring in my apartment building. I have George L's on the way for the p'board, to cut out RF interference, but what do I do about the amps? Would a Furman power conditioner help? What about a Monster power strip? Saw one designed for home thatre systems that promises to remove RF and power noise. Would that make more sense? ANy help at all wopuld be appreciated. Side note: I'd like to keep the fix under $100. Thanks!!

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Pedal power is Boss adapter into TU-2, and daisy chained out to the rest of the board. I have a one spot, but I'm not sure that'll change anything. Straight into amp gets a buzzing sound that changes dependent on what direction the bass is pointing, so I'm thinking power issues. The pedal chain just has a lot of unshielded wires, but it also pics up RF when I am playing @ church. My position is right next to the monitor for the power point computer. Last time I played, I got some relief by unplugging ONE pedal. Seemed to kill the loop. Thoughts?

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Best solution I've found for the occassional ac hum of lousy wireing in venues etc is the ebtech hum eliminator. Bout $50 bucks for the stereo one. All passive. No change to sound. Jus plug into the ins at end of effects chain then its outs to mixer or amp. No more hum. Better then trying to do it with direct box ground lifts etc imo.

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IF you plug the bass directly into the amp and get hum, (use the shortest instrument cord you can find!) and are getting hum, try unplugging the bass and see if it's still there. If it is, your cord is picking up interference, and needs replaced. If not, then it is probably electronic noise being picked up by the pickups. (It's what they do). Single coil pickups don't do any phase cancelling to clean them up. Flourescents, computers, TV's, monitors, and even other electronics can be picked up and amplified.

 

If you have an effects loop, use it! If you have a high quality outboard preamp, make sure it's first in line. Once your instrument signal is up to line level (after the preamp), noise has to be pretty effin' bad to get in and be noticeable.

 

Shielded cables should help, keep them all as short as possible! A big coil of cable acts like an antenna! A coiled extension cord laying anywhere near your instrument cords will add hum like nobody's business!

 

Hope that helps!

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If it is only at a few venues, it could be the wiring of the building. You could try a "ground lifter". Couple of bucks at Radio Shack.

Not sure how safe they are to use all the time. We used one this past weekend while recording in my basement. Totally eliminated the hum.

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