Question about stomp boxes and hum

E

enferno

New member
Is there any way to reduce, or even, eliminate hum on stomps when using an AC power supply? They just suck up batteries too fast whenever i play live, but the hum is also annoying. Particularly when using my Digitech Metal Master. I know it is rather infamous for humming, but is there anything out there for buy or even build that can help reduce hum?
 
When all else fails, you can always use a noise gate. Put it last in your effects chain and set it where it just chokes off the hum. Of course, when you play the hum will still be there, but not nearly as noticable as when you aren't playing and it sounds like a bee hive in your amp.

Also when using power supplies, keep the end that plugs into an outlet as far away from your guitar cords and amp as possible. Make sure to use the proper
power supply for your pedals. Sometimes the generic radio shack and wall mart supplies don't filter out interference very well.
 
Check out the NS-2 from Boss. It's a great noise supressor plus it's a power supply for your other pedals. I've been using one for years and I love it. You just put all of your noisy pedals in the send/return loop of the NS2 and voila! You won't hear a peep from them again.
 
Power Supply, Pedals and Noise Gate

Hi Enferno,

What kind of power supply are you using? Most pedals seem to work well with a regulated power supply. If your pedal needs one of them and you use a unregulated powersupply you are in for some serious hum.

I am not sure what the Digitech MM needs, you may be able to use a Boss
PSA.

You could try a simple test by running the pedal on the battery, then plug in the powersupply and see if your sound is exactely the same. Very often when using a powersupply your pedal will perform slightly different, as powersupplies seem to give a bit more power that the average battery.

Some of the older Boss pedals do want the unregulated powersupply,use a regulated one and again, you are into trouble.

bbop73 thanks for the great link!!

Using Noise-Gate;

I think in this case the noisegate would not help, as it will only trigger on Hiss and we are talking about Hum here which is a different matter altogether, but then again I could be sooooo wrong.

Cheers,

Eddie
 
timmerman said:
Using Noise-Gate;

I think in this case the noisegate would not help, as it will only trigger on Hiss and we are talking about Hum here which is a different matter altogether, but then again I could be sooooo wrong.

Cheers,

Eddie
Click to expand...

Using a noise gate for this is covering up the problem not solving it...kind of like spraying air freshener around your house when you really need to change the cat's litter box....

The problem seems like a 60 hz hum, which should be eliminated by a filter in the power supply but apparently is not. Try changing power supplies...make sure the voltage and polarity are the same.

Incidently, there's no ground loop current because there's so separate ground conductors for stomp boxes. The power supply only has 2 prongs. (the 3rd prong on plug-in things is the ground connection)
 
the pedal is recommended to use a PSA200 or something of the like. but i'm sort of cheap and don't really know if dishing out $30 for a powersupply with the exact same voltage and amperage as the one i am using will solve the problem. if it does, then i'm out $30 which isn't easiably replaceable at my age.
 
Well I can see you point enferno, but really you will be so happy that that hum is gone when you do use the correct powersupply. And true man, I wish that there was just one powersupply which would power ANY pedal, as it is I have several, and they all do the same job [give power to a pedal] but each pedal wants a different current or polarity. If you do not use your pedals often you could, of course, go for the battery option....................

Good Luck,

Eddie
 
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