Bzzzzzzz!!!!!!!

K

kludge

New member
How does one chase down and debug buzzing noises, especially in a guitar chain? I'm picking up an annoying buzzing sound with my electric guitar (two guitars, in fact), even at low/moderate gains. String grounding reduces but doesn't eliminate it. The amp doesn't buzz when the guitar volume is down, so it's not the amp. It buzzes with or without effects in the chain. Cords are good quality (George L or Fender). Moving around the room may increase/reduce it, but doesn't eliminate it. Oh, and it's not hum, it's too high frequency - it's noise.

The guitars in question are a Gibson Blueshawk retrofitted with Dimarzio Virtual P90 pickups (humbucking) and wired pretty carefully; and a cheap lap steel with a Lace Sensor pickup (hum-reducing if not humbucking). These guitars don't generally buzz in other venues, either.

I've tried turning off the lights, the computer and monitor, every electrical thing I can find that might be radiating strong noise, and I'm still at a loss. Any ideas at all? :(
 
That's a ground loop buzz you're hearing. The dangerous and simple way to fix it (don't do this) is to break the ground pin off the plug for the amplifier. :) but that could kill you.

I had this happening in my control room. I couldn't play any instrument without it buzzing. I had to eliminate all possibilities before I went futzing with the ground though, so I turned off my computer monitor to make sure that wasn't it, then I turned off all the lights in my studio, and made sure any flourecsent lights upstairs were off. But the buzz was still there. I just made sure all my grounds were tied together securely, my buzz is gone now. But I'm an electrician at work, and I really wouldn't recommend this for someone who's not used to working in power panels.
 
Cool, another Sparky

Hey Clang, also a sparky in the real world. Thanks for nice comments our studio.

Clang is correct about lifting your ground so don't do it. Check and secure all grounds #1. Since this is a location based problem, the next thing would be to take this rig to other locations in the building and see if the problem continues. You said out in other venues you don't have this problem. Is this on the same amp? Find out if the problem is receptacle based or if you have power quality issues in your whole building.
 
Thanks for the input. I suspect it's receptacle-based. The wiring in the house is kind of iffy. :( I'll check the sockets and rewire them if needed - I can do that much, at least!
 
Well re-wiring the sockets (outlets) won't do a thing if the problem is on the other end in the panel. Just so you know...
 
Yep, triple edged sword. Nail the problem down first. Might be ways of getting the guitar to somewhat behave rather than a new elec service. Filters, flip circuits, even rf chokes! However, better to update the guts rather than bandaid something that could do some real damage later.
 
Sure enough, the problem was an ungrounded outlet. The bad news is there's no easy way to ground that particular outlet. The good news is that another outlet on the same wall is grounded properly (three outlets on that wall on three different breakers, with poor/no labeling - I hate my house wiring). I moved the power strip over to the good outlet, and viola, noise is gone!

Thanks for the help, everyone.
 
Awesome! Easy solution. You could always mount an extension box on one of the good outlets and run some surface mount wireway over to the ungrounded outlet and run a ground wire through it. All my outlets are surface mount anyway.
 
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