clr
Meter Reader 1st Class
Posts: 80
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Post by clr on Jul 30, 2009 13:37:51 GMT -5
I have noticed that my guitar picks up differing amounts of hum depending on the place I'm in.
At a friend's house, I barely get any hum, nigh unnoticeable.
But at my place, the complete opposite happens.
I used the same amp, guitar, and pedals.
What could be some possibilities to this situation and what should I do to go about fixing them?
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Post by newey on Jul 30, 2009 15:12:50 GMT -5
The likely suspects in your noisy area are fluorescent lamps, electrical motors, and CRT monitors or TVs.
Start by turning off these items, if present, one at a time, to see if you can pinpoint the source of the noise.
If none of those types of things are in the room in question, examine to see if anything of the sort is plugged into the same electrical circuit you are using for the amp- IOW, look for things elsewhere in the house that are connected to the same circuit.
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Post by sumgai on Jul 30, 2009 17:57:42 GMT -5
Sometimes, though maybe not very popular in this crazy-heat summer, the better/faster way to find the culprit is to open the circuit breaker box and turn off all the circuits, except the one that's powering your amp (and any effects boxes). That way, you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you can indeed achieve a hum-free sound in your home. If it's still gonzo noisy, then make sure everything else on the circuit is turned off, leaving your amp as the only "consumer of wattage" in your home. Conversely, you can move to another circuit (probably a different room, perhaps even on a different floor). being sure to turn off the first circuit at the breaker box. Again, make sure the amp is the only thing turned on in the entire house. If, after all that, it's still noisy, then you have one of two problems. The first possibility is that you're getting very dirty power from the power company. Sadly, that's not usually something you can "prove" to them, so it can be hard to rectify this one. The other possibility is that you're in a so-called "industrial zone" - somebody nearby, with lots of machinery, is generating huge amounts of electromagnetic interference.  This is also in the "that's never gonna get fixed" category.  Most weeks, I play in a bar that's in the latter zone. My QtB shielded Strat has no issues whatsoever, it's as quiet as the best hummers I've seen/heard. Some of the "cheaper" rigs are nasty to the point of being outright unusable, sad to say. HTH sumgai |
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Post by ijustwannastrat on Jul 30, 2009 19:43:20 GMT -5
I normally play in the dark, unless I practicing something for the first time. I don't know why, just something weird I picked up early on... No noise here...
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 30, 2009 22:27:44 GMT -5
I play "in the dark" as well, but the connotations of this statement are...  Now, in your case, does "I play in the dark" mean without light or without power? ;D ;D |
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Post by sumgai on Jul 30, 2009 23:18:56 GMT -5
.... I took it as "without a clue". Aha! a player who thinks like I do! But I'll give him a +1 anyway, just for the effort.  |
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Post by D2o on Jul 31, 2009 13:05:06 GMT -5
When we speak of fluorescent lamps, we don't just mean the long fluorescent tubes in your kitchen and laundry room.
Don't forget about all the new-fangled compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) - they tend to create a lot of hum as well.
D2o
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Post by ChrisK on Jul 31, 2009 18:37:49 GMT -5
And the CCFL backlight driven by a Royer oscillator in your laptop. It only generates aboot 10 Khz at aboot 1,200 VAC. |
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This is also in the "that's never gonna get fixed" category. 
