Gah! Amp hiss!

B

Brohnis

New member
OK so I'm recording an American Standard Telecaster into Ashton Bluetongue 50w Combo with an SM57.

Why does it have this annoying hiss? How do you get rid of it?

I'm recording clean and dry...its not too bad on a single track but double tracking is a hiss fest.

It's annoyyyyying!

Any tips/help/advice is appreciated hugely

Thanks in advance!
 
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Process of elimination:
- start with the amp turned off and record what the mic hears. Is it hissy?
- turn the amp on with no cables plugged in. Is that hissy?
- Plug a guitar in with the volume up but playing nothing. Is that hissy?
- If it was the guitar, try again but with a different cable.
- If you use guitar pedals, now plug them into the chain. Is it now hissy?

You should be able to find which item is causing the majority of the hiss. Deal with teh offending item as you see fit.
 
Turn the amp on with nothing plugged into it. If it's still really hissy, there isn't much you can do about it.
 
OK so I just did the test.

With nothing plugged in there is a hiss.

Can this be some kind of electrical inteference? I live in a terraced house so have a neighbour directly next door...do things like that affect it?

It's frustrating! I'm trying a denoiser but it just makes everything sound underwater!
 
Brohnis said:
OK so I just did the test.

With nothing plugged in there is a hiss.

Can this be some kind of electrical inteference? I live in a terraced house so have a neighbour directly next door...do things like that affect it?

It's frustrating! I'm trying a denoiser but it just makes everything sound underwater!
Click to expand...

Amp hiss is just life, high gain amps suffer from it more. My 5150 hisses like mad. My old blue voodoo was worse (haven't owned that thing in quite some years but it was hissy as heck).
 
I feel like almost every amp has a pre-out or headphone jack. Now, I'm a newbie, so plz tell me if there's something wrong with that, but that SHOULD kill all your amp hiss, cause the hiss comes through the speakers, and the signal will bypass the speakers if you use that port.
 
Clever thinking, Alec, but not always. Guitar pickups, high impedence cables and amplifiers are not very high tech bits of kit (even though many manufacturers do their best to minimise problems) and each can produce some hiss. I think the worst offenders are probably amp tubes.
 
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