Cool Vibes

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spantini

spantini

COO of me, inc.
Strange but cool . . . the last dozen or so times I've set my Strat up to record, or at least practice, I've gotten this intermittent humming or smooth buzzing sound in my headphones. Not an electrical sound at all, more like what you hear in your head when one or both ears are plugged with water and you hum - but not loud. Confused yet ?

It happens right as I plug into the interface and strum my Strat for a level, so I thought it was coming from there, but no fiddling with the interface or the line at the insert point produced the sound or removed it when it was there. The gain on the interface was all the way down and I'd see a low signal on it's meter with no sound, except this hum-like sound. Now. . . when I'd lean back in my chair the hum sound would flicker off and on then off as I'd leaned all the way back. As I would rotate the chair or lean forward, the hum would flicker or come full on.

This has nothing to do with he single coils on the Strat, BTW, and it's only there when I strum the strings. It's like putting your ear to a wall and hearing the muffled sound of a guitar being strummed in the next room.

Well. This afternoon I took the time to figure this out. It's coming from the Strat's body. The body rings beautifully unplugged and is transmitted via the headphone cable to the phone's cups where it faintly sounds. But the cable can't be in contact just anywhere on the Strat's body. I only hear it when the headphone's cable is touching the upper horn. . . if it's not on the horn, it doesn't work.

Now I'm thinking this is pretty cool. I can practice unplugged and get a cool sound from the body vibes wearing phones.

I've seen quite a few posts here and there where people are hearing double or delayed sounds which haven't been purposely dialed in, but I don't think this could be described as such because it doesn't behave in that manner. There is no delayed signal as I'm monitoring it through my DAW - and once the guitar is fired up there, it's loud enough to completely smother this sound from the headphones/Strat thing.

Here's a pic showing the cable/body connection that transmits the vibes :

good vibes.webp
 
I try to wrap a loop of headphone cable in my belt so that it stays out of the way, and it has enough slack that if I step on it, it doesn't yank them off of my head. That seems to be an issue with me. Last year, I was getting ready to rip into a solo for Hey Joe, and my guitar went silent! Some idiot forgot to loop the cable through the strap first. ?
 
That happened to our guitar player on an audition one night. He talked me into doing this back-to-back stance with him while he soloed, so we did that and as he was winding down we broke and he jumped straight up in the air. He landed on his guitar cable and yanked it out with a great "POP !" and that was that. We didn't get the gig.
 
My Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones sound good, but the coiled cable is driving me nuts. It wouldn't be so bad if I were to stand up and away from my PC while tracking, but I've become accustomed to sitting at the desk. Standing up and away would raise the coiled cord out of my way. Sitting at the desk, the cord is always dangling in the way. Even when I try draping it over my shoulder or around my back, that gets it out of the way but puts tension on the phones and my head. When I run it behind the guitar body and up my chest, it's uncomfortable and distracting - and sometimes it picks up some of the body's resonance and transfers it to the cups.

So I've ordered a 10 FT stereo extension cord.
 
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spantini said:
Now. . . when I'd lean back in my chair the hum sound would flicker off and on then off as I'd leaned all the way back. As I would rotate the chair or lean forward, the hum would flicker or come full on.
Click to expand...
Every wire/chord in your chain, especially with a DAW and external interface is going to act like an antenna. The fact that your hum goes away as you move is really indicative of an RF problem. Your interference may be coming from your computer, your interface, your phone, etc.
spantini said:
The gain on the interface was all the way down and I'd see a low signal on it's meter with no sound, except this hum-like sound.
Click to expand...
They all work at a frequency FAR above, what we think of when recording. The A/D converters, (and they are getting very very good) ignore frequency, it's amplitude.
Minimize your wires, GROUND EVERYTHING TO THE SAME POINT. Use the same outlet for everything you have in your chain.
To minimize the "antenna effect" try a wireless Tx/Rx set. I got a great one, Xvive, about 150$ USD. IMHO, this works great, it noiseless, has a good range and is impervious to RF interference. YMMV.
 
OMG, he found the problem. The cable was hitting the guitar body and it was transferring up the cable physically, not electronically.
 
You just have to read his first and last post!!!

spantini said:
Well. This afternoon I took the time to figure this out. It's coming from the Strat's body. The body rings beautifully unplugged and is transmitted via the headphone cable to the phone's cups where it faintly sounds. But the cable can't be in contact just anywhere on the Strat's body. I only hear it when the headphone's cable is touching the upper horn. . . if it's not on the horn, it doesn't work.

Now I'm thinking this is pretty cool. I can practice unplugged and get a cool sound from the body vibes wearing phones.
Click to expand...


spantini said:
My Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones sound good, but the coiled cable is driving me nuts. It wouldn't be so bad if I were to stand up and away from my PC while tracking, but I've become accustomed to sitting at the desk. Standing up and away would raise the coiled cord out of my way. Sitting at the desk, the cord is always dangling in the way. Even when I try draping it over my shoulder or around my back, that gets it out of the way but puts tension on the phones and my head. When I run it behind the guitar body and up my chest, it's uncomfortable and distracting - and sometimes it picks up some of the body's resonance and transfers it to the cups.

So I've ordered a 10 FT stereo extension cord.
Click to expand...
 
OK.
I have 2 sets of Sony MDR-7506. (and the coiled cord IS a PIA). And have never experienced this problem.
Well. This afternoon I took the time to figure this out. It's coming from the Strat's body. The body rings beautifully unplugged and is transmitted via the headphone cable to the phone's cups where it faintly sounds. But the cable can't be in contact just anywhere on the Strat's body. I only hear it when the headphone's cable is touching the upper horn. . . if it's not on the horn, it doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Notwithstanding that this is a physical and electrical impossibility, I'm glad he got it fixed.
 
Fact or fiction?

It is more pronounced on cables with old growth copper and insulation, otherwise, cable touching the horn or not, it will still require plugging into an amp to practice?
 
Absolutely true. Old growth insulation is very resonant due to the years of curing, allowing the copper inside to more completely transfer energy to it's surroundings. I find that my oldest guitar cables also have that warm, inviting sound that I heard on records. This is especially true with the coiled cables, when stretched from an old wah pedal to the top of an amp on top of a speaker cab. I think it helps focus the energy from the "ether".
 
Old Music Guy said:
OK. This has to be a joke post.
Click to expand...
Ya think so? You probably don't believe in pyramid power, or how crystals can purify you existence.



If you're really an "old guy", surely you remember that nonsense from the 60s and 70s. It lives on the the audio world today. People will believe anything!
 
Really old... like over 40! ? But you're the one who said you were an Old Music Guy.... unless you just like old music, in which case you could be 16!


Nah.... 16 year olds don't listen to old music! They think Tupac is old music.
 
It's a good thing I listened to Grace Slick. She said not to trust anyone over 30.



I haven't trusted myself for 40 years!
 
I have in my cable trunk a guitar cable that worked like a mic. Tapping the outer was like a drum machine and the th8ng was unstable on stage, the guitar would feedback at quite low volumes. We called it the magic cable. I guess its perfectly possible the body is coupling into a microphonic pickup something like that?
 
I know the vibes I get at my headphones aren't electrical in nature, merely physical vibrations. What I'm "hearing" is not coming from the HP speakers, it's vibrations from the Strat's body, through the cord, through the cups into my skull. Maybe something like Bone Phones.
 
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