Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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howlin'dog

New member
Help... I am getting sick of the buzzzzzzz !!!


I am playing an American Standard Tele and an American Standard Strat through a Marshall VS100.

I love this combo but in my house i get "60 cycle" hum. it is worse on the Tele but I also get it a bit on the Strat.

Before anyone says " its a fender it does that" or somthing to that affect, I really want to keep everything as is ....exept for the hum. I can cut it in half by standing diffrent ways. ( 1 leg over my left shoulder, Tounge touching right ear.):D

Any suggestions?

Howlin' Dog
 
First you need to determine if the hum is coming from the guitar or the amp.
With the guitar plugged in and the hum present, unplug the guitar cord from the amp, not the guitar, and if the hum is still there it is from the amp. If it dissapears its from the guitar.
Maybe theres a bad ground in the amp. If the amp has a ground swithch, reverse it. In the old days you could turn the plug around in the wall socket and that would reverse the ground. Some amps had (ampeg) hum balance pots on the back of them you could adjust with a screwdriver.
Try a guitar that has humbuckers and see how much that reduces the hum. Single coil pickups such as the ones in teles and strats are much noisier than humbuckers.
 
...they also make hum cancelling single coils....also try using a gate.....its also help to make a louder noise playing to drown the hum:D
 
Ahh but you can't get a single coil sound out of a humbucker! Try plugging a bare cord into the amp (e.g. no guitar on the other end) and see if you still get the hum.

Try moving the amp to a different outlet, or reversing the plug like gidge mentioned. I wonder if a line conditioner helps with 60 cycle?

Slackmaster 2000
 
If the amount of hum varies with your position, I would suspect that at least some of the hum is being picked up by your guitar. Neon lights, flourescent lights, and computers cause hum. High gain amp settings, of course, magnify any hum in the signal chain. Fender guitars will benefit a significant amount from extra shielding as mentioned.

If you are using effects pedals, watch out for ground loops! I had a problem with my old pedal setup: a loud hum that varied with my position, and was louder at some gigs, etc. I tried everything! Turned out that when I tightened the nut on the 1/4" input jack of one of my pedals(metal case) the hum disappeared. Oh what a relief it was. Always keep your nuts tight.

If you suspect your house wiring, see if a local music store will let you demo a power conditioner in your home. Even if you don't want to buy it, it might help indicate where the problem is.
 
Lotsa great help

Thanks for all the help

I tried the cord into amp with out guitar and get a little hum. the amp on with out cord or guitar...no hum. Most of the hum is from my guitar. When i use my accoustic W/Pickup i dont get any noise.
I am using pedals. and I think i need to strip my set up and trace any problems with them. I think it is a couple of diffrent problems adding to the noise.
I have a power conditioner in my DJ setup and will place it in my home rack to see if it helps. Will remove my pedals to start again and hope to eliminate any problems there.

Krystof01. That is a grest site. Thanks for the heads up on it. It will take me a couple of days to get the time to finish reading all the info. I am a bit aprehensive about doing to much to my guitar myself but i have a buddy that is great with that stuff.

I am taking a good hard look at my whole studio. A while back i had a problem with my Fire dept. pager. it was always triggering with static as i entered my house. it turned out to be my drum machine was left on. I thought of this after Major Toms comments regarding computers/lights etc.

Thanks again. If you can think of anything else let me know.

Howlin' Dog
 
what happens to the hum when you set the pickup switch to the in-between positions? Aren't the adjacent pickups reverse-phased such that their combination has a humbucking effect? That may help, if you care for that tone.
 
On the Tele' the middle position does remove some (very little)buzz and on the strat i can achieve closer to a clean sound with the switch in the 4th position. (neck and middle pickups. ????) the ladder i have been using for now until i fix it.

Removing the pedals from the loop didnt help. Next i will add in the power conditioner.

Howlin' Dog
 
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