A Power Question (ft. a Power Conditioner & Extension Cable/ Power Strip)

kpbennett

New member
Hello!

I recently ordered a Furman Pl-8C power conditioner to combat some of the buzz from my guitar amp. While reading the directions, it said to plug the conditioner into a grounded outlet & after a test I realized my outlet wasn't grounded. However, the outlet in the next room is grounded. I was thinking of plugging a 3-outlet power strip into the outlet in the next room so that I could then plug my Furman power conditioner into that from my own room.

Three questions:
-Which power strip would you suggest (it'd have to be fairly long)?
-Does it make sense to plug the power conditioner into this power strip?
-Is it safe to have all of the power going into the one outlet in the next room? (My set-up isn't crazy, and I'd likely only be powering my Vox AC15 Amp, Tascam 424 4-track & golden age pre-73 preamp)

Thanks!
 
-Which power strip would you suggest (it'd have to be fairly long)?
Use an extension cord.

-Does it make sense to plug the power conditioner into this power strip?
Not really. Not if you plan to run everything through the conditioner.

-Is it safe to have all of the power going into the one outlet in the next room? (My set-up isn't crazy, and I'd likely only be powering my Vox AC15 Amp, Tascam 424 4-track & golden age pre-73 preamp)
None of those will draw a heavy load. You should be good.

Or you could fix the grounding issue with the outlet in your studio. What test did you do to determine the outlet isn't grounded?
 
Thank you. & I used the Sperry Instruments GFI6302 GFCI Outlet Tester, the outlet was "hot," whereas the outlet in the next room read normally. I was thinking of trying to fix the outlet but I honestly have no idea where to begin with that and figured it wouldn't be a big deal to just plug the Furman into the extension chord which was plugged into the good outlet in the next room.
 
Well, if you don't mind the extension cord, then that'll work just fine. Most outlet issues are pretty easy to fix. It's only 3 wires. If you were to try, be sure to turn power off at the electrical panel. Use the Sperry tester to verify no power is in the outlet. Then you can open and look for a loose wire.
 
While you are at checking that outlet for a loose/broken ground wire, check that the two rooms are actually on the same circuit.

Things that run on electricity find the easiest route to Earth ground. It the shorter way happens to be via gear on a separate circuit, then ground loop issues can occur. The fact that you do not have a connected ground on the one outlet can also be dangerous. If you have other gear connected to a different ground source, and the easiest way to ground is you? Then bad shit can happen. That is why it is never advised to use a wall adapter to eliminate ground. When an amp has a 'ground lift' switch, it still need connection to grounded outlet to be safe. It just separates the ground connection from the chassis so that a quicker way isn't found through say other gear that is rack mounted. Also, there are grommets that can be used for rack mounted gear that can help solve that problem. It can be tricky finding the issue but start at fixing your ground issue then finding where the buzz is coming from. It could be a completely different piece of gear than your amp.

Always best to run 'all' connected gear from the same clean circuit. Also that circuit should not have things that are known to cause issues like dimmer switches, refrigerators, or actually anything that can cause voltage or noise issues.

I had similar issues in my home studio that I had recently (hopefully) resolved by updating my main panel to a 200 amp model with dedicated/isolated Earth ground for the house and a separate ground for the studio power. Haven't been able to afford running the new outlets yet... :(
 
Thank you. & I used the Sperry Instruments GFI6302 GFCI Outlet Tester, the outlet was "hot," whereas the outlet in the next room read normally.
When you say "hot" do you mean "Open Hot" as indicated on the tester? This would imply the outlet is dead and won't power anything. Is this correct?
 

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When you say "hot" do you mean "Open Hot" as indicated on the tester? This would imply the outlet is dead and won't power anything. Is this correct?

Oh shit! Thanks for responding. I somehow missed that and didn't take the step to look up the tester itself. I just assumed when he said it wasn't grounded.... He did have his gear running with the outlet from what I understood.

So this is either a potentially fatal/dangerous situation, a simple reverse of two wires, or a combination of things that are all not good.

Find out what is wrong with that outlet KP!
 
IMHO there is a elephant missed here? The purpose of the Furman is to fix buzz on a guitar amp but the amp is running on a dodgy socket! Possibly reversed L&N and maybe no earth! No wonder the fekker buzzes!

Have you tried the amp on the "good" outlet? If it is quieter on that you are wasting money on a conditioner. Instead pay a lekky to sort your wiring. If ONE outlet is wrong, who knows what other life threatening horrors lurk?

And yes, it is not only safe to run all your audio gear (not a heater as well) on one outlet this is the best way. "Star" connection gives the lowest probability of hum, aka ground, aka earth loops.

Dave.
 
Odds are...the Furman will not even remove the buzz from the amp.

When it comes to house power issues...people need to check all their wiring and what's connected to which line...etc
If you don't know what to check or how to fix things...find an electrician.

Grounding in many homes is/was done half-assed.
 
Also be sure it's the amp and not something such as single coil PU's on the guitar that may be picking hum/buzz in the air. Or even a flaky instrument cord.
 
I dont think you'll have any issue adding an "extension" to the Furman? No...and use an extension cord as Chili said.
2nd question- same answer as above.

The only power safety issue you have is the guitar amp maybe, the little electonric things are using milli-amps...so the circuit breakers are generally 15 to 30 Amps! a milli is 1/1000 of 1 amp. 500 milliamps is 1/2 of 1amp... That Tascam and Great PRe uses nothing.
You could look up your VOX AC15...but its not going to be near 15 amps. So no problems all three on one circuit. Noise might be another thing....but you asked about "safe".

the original problem....AMP BUZZ....is it a faulty amp? is there a cold solder joint in the amp itself....i
1) does the amp buzz without a guitar plugged in?
if NO....the amps probably good.

2) buzz happen with guitar plugged in?
is it a Single Coil?
try a humbucker...does it go away? should....if not try a different guitar cable.

Im not big on the ac Furman things...other than ease of a rack mount outlet, the studio noise was actaully worsened with one that cost a few hundred I had. Its removed and sitting on the floor here somewher, replace with a $5 strip.
The furmans Ive owned didnt stop any noise, they have little capacitors inside but ymmv.

for single coil guitar ...noise reduction the Line 6 gearfarm has a "learn function" that really removes it a lot and also the Roland/Fender G5 has a single coil-sim without the noise, which is great and doesnt lose the tone of the single coil pup.
other than that a good noise gate/expander might be the only solution for the dreaded Single Coil Buzz Blues...

good luck
 
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