What? You Don't LIKE Ground Noise?

StuGort

StuGort

New member
Google "galvanic skin potential".

For those who record electric guitars...whether through mic'ing or going direct...we all know the frustration of dealing with intermittent ground noise due to fingers touching (or not touching - as the case may be) the strings.

This eliminates the issue 100%....and then some.

A stripped wire end contacts either end of the plug and fixed with tape in this case. The other end is soldered to the brass plate and that plate is placed into your waistband or sock, making contact with your skin.
If you try this....you won't go back because you get the kind of ground that only happens when you lick your hand and rest it on the bridge.

Galvanic skin potential explains why this idea below works so well. The skin of your waist conducts electricity better than the calluses on your fingertips. There's also a MUCH larger contact area with the brass plate than through your fingertips.

BTW...you're not trying very hard to record something noise free if you haven't licked your hand yet.Ground Arrest.jpg
 
I never lick my hand.
Who knows where it's been.
Sometimes you have to pull out a wedgy while playing...and you don't want to be licking that hand. :p

While your rig works (I've tried something like that...though no brass plate, no hand licking)...the best thing is to sort out your AC and how you have your gear hooked up and grounded.

Most of the time I don't have any ground noise in my audio or my amps...though sometimes a pedal or some other device when added will upset that. In most cases, I just grab a jumper wire with alligator clips, and go from some metal point on the amp over to another amp or piece of gear and that solves it...but usually I don't even bother, since my right hand is almost always on the strings or bridge, and therefore there is no noise.

Now....with some single coils and P90s, when I step close to the monitors or computer....that's another issue, and I just find the spot in the room where there is no interference. :)

You'll be OK as long as you don't get some kind of power spike and short in your AC....'cuz that brass plate will do a great job of directing it to you! :D
 
One of my first studios was near a phone exchange and single coils were great for picking up RF from the exchange rectifiers. I made something very similar where I had a metal plate that slipped inside the guitarists waist band and a wire with an alligator clip on the other that I clipped on the guitar bridge.

Alan.
 
miroslav said:
I never lick my hand.
Who knows where it's been.
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I've always wondered why I have to wash my hands after taking a piss. My dick is a lot cleaner than my hands. If anything, I need to wash my dick after touching it with those filthy hands.
 
Maybe you can run the wire down your pants.
AFA how to lick way down there, well...
...we are not that lucky, like our cats and dogs, to be able to that . :)

We would never leave home....
 
Am I right in thinking, for the non-soldering person, that a bit of just about any conductive metal, a drilled hole in it, a piece of wire and an alligator clip (a la Alan's solution above) or even a stationery foldback clip (like you'd use to hold a stack of paper too big for a paper clip together) would do the same thing?

I've never really had a noise issue with guitars, but the bass is currently in the "shop" getting a ground wire reattached and its pots scrubbed, and it can be a tad noisy at times when it's in single coil mode. Could be worth a try.
 
This whole thing kinda freaks me out. I mean, I suppose that if you're in the (presumably) controlled environment of a studio where you are reasonably sure that all of the gear and the outlets into which they are plugged are properly wired, the risk is small, but there are real dangers involved here.

If the AC power cable on your amp only has two prongs then you should get it re-wired to meet modern safety standards and remove those damn "death caps" which are waiting to fail shorted and drop hundreds of volts onto the chassis. Do that whether you're tethering yourself to chassis or not!

But even with otherwise properly wired gear, there are so many situations where your amp's chassis will sit at some potential that is different from any number of things in the environment - the concrete floor, your bass player, the mic you're supposed to sing through. The worst AC ground leakage I've ever personally felt had sparks jumping from my nose to mic and made my eyelids flutter, but I had a friend who actually ended up doing the fish flop thing once, and there are plenty of other stories. I guess if it's really bad you won't have any more ability to let go of the guitar than to pull this thing out of your waistband, but you do have at least a chance that you won't be touching the strings when things go south.

I just really don't like it. With most guitars you can get quite enough noise reduction just by doing a decent job of shielding the cavities. Frankly, guitars are kind of supposed to be noisy, especially when pushed into a high gain/distortion situation. It's how you know that it's loud!
 
well, it's understood that the deeper meaning of threads is you taking a leak ....... doesn't always have to be said.
 
Lt. Bob said:
well, it's understood that the deeper meaning of threads is you taking a leak ....... doesn't always have to be said.
Click to expand...
True. I guess I just thought the subtlety might be lost on those that aren't aware that everything is about me taking a leak.
 
RAMI said:
True. I guess I just thought the subtlety might be lost on those that aren't aware that everything is about me taking a leak.
Click to expand...
point taken ...... newbies couldn't be expected to know that unless they really did their homework
 
ashcat_lt said:
This whole thing kinda freaks me out. I just really don't like it.
Click to expand...

It could be a sick, sadistic ruse to get gullible people to just friggin' NAIL themselves with a heart stopping shock...but I've found that this kind of thing isn't any fun unless I get to see it.
 
ashcat_lt said:
This whole thing kinda freaks me out. I mean, I suppose that if you're in the (presumably) controlled environment of a studio where you are reasonably sure that all of the gear and the outlets into which they are plugged are properly wired, the risk is small, but there are real dangers involved here.

If the AC power cable on your amp only has two prongs then you should get it re-wired to meet modern safety standards and remove those damn "death caps" which are waiting to fail shorted and drop hundreds of volts onto the chassis. Do that whether you're tethering yourself to chassis or not!

But even with otherwise properly wired gear, there are so many situations where your amp's chassis will sit at some potential that is different from any number of things in the environment - the concrete floor, your bass player, the mic you're supposed to sing through. The worst AC ground leakage I've ever personally felt had sparks jumping from my nose to mic and made my eyelids flutter, but I had a friend who actually ended up doing the fish flop thing once, and there are plenty of other stories. I guess if it's really bad you won't have any more ability to let go of the guitar than to pull this thing out of your waistband, but you do have at least a chance that you won't be touching the strings when things go south.

I just really don't like it. With most guitars you can get quite enough noise reduction just by doing a decent job of shielding the cavities. Frankly, guitars are kind of supposed to be noisy, especially when pushed into a high gain/distortion situation. It's how you know that it's loud!
Click to expand...

There is no risk, the potential of the earth to the body through the suggested wire to the skin is exactly the same as the earth potential through the fingers when you touch the strings. There is no extra risk. The risk you are talking about is if the amp has incorrect earthing you will get a shock, if this is the case you will get the shock as soon as you touch the guitar or if you are touching the guitar and then touch a mic that is connected to a mixer that is correctly earthed (as has happened to me in live gig situations due to the PA company not having correct earthing in the power supply, Ouch!).

Alan.
 
Of course there's a risk, Alan. If you try to give RAMI a prostate exam he's not expecting...well he IS an instructor, don'tcha know...could end up with something bruised! :)
 
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