Getting rid of amp "hum"?

  • Thread starter Thread starter mjr
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mjr

mjr

ADD -- blessing and curse
All:

Kind of a dumb question, probably.

Here's what I am trying to set up, and my problem:

Electric guitar plugged into amplifier, amplifier plugged into 4-track, 4 track plugged into computer.

I want to be able to record my electric guitar like that.

Problem is, my recording software picks up the "hum" from the amplifier (or is it the pickups from the guitar?). Anyway, I want to get rid of that, with the setup I have. I'm doing the recording at home, and I'd stick the mic in front of the amp, except that I don't have an acoustically sound room, so I pick up background noise.

I could just run the guitar directly into the 4-track (this eliminates the hum), but then I couldn't get any distortion if I wanted.
 
mjr said:
All:

Kind of a dumb question, probably.

Here's what I am trying to set up, and my problem:

Electric guitar plugged into amplifier, amplifier plugged into 4-track, 4 track plugged into computer.

I want to be able to record my electric guitar like that.

Problem is, my recording software picks up the "hum" from the amplifier (or is it the pickups from the guitar?). Anyway, I want to get rid of that, with the setup I have. I'm doing the recording at home, and I'd stick the mic in front of the amp, except that I don't have an acoustically sound room, so I pick up background noise.

I could just run the guitar directly into the 4-track (this eliminates the hum), but then I couldn't get any distortion if I wanted.
Click to expand...

It sounds like a ground loop to me. Try liting ground on your amp.
 
ggunn said:
It sounds like a ground loop to me. Try liting ground on your amp.
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He means lifting. Normally I don't split hairs on grammar, but a lit amp!!?? :eek:


:D :D :D

Pete
 
battleminnow said:
He means lifting. Normally I don't split hairs on grammar, but a lit amp!!?? :eek:


:D :D :D

Pete
Click to expand...

Don't tell me what I mean! Get some lighter fluid and light that sucker up!

<ahem> Of course I mean lift the ground... ;^)
 
What mic did you use on the amp when you tried it? Did you even try it? IMHO, it would be worth the little bit of background noise to get a better tone from micing the amp than going direct. Just my $0.02.
 
You didnt' say what kind of amp it is. If it's an old vintage tube amp, then yeah it could be the amp making the hum.

If its a fairly new amp, it's more likely coming from the guitar pickups. A lot of magnetic fields fill up space in every house in the country. Things like tv, monitor, motors, appliances, radio stations, cb radios, microwaves, etc. Even if nothing is running or turned on in your house you can still have magnetic fields in the space around your guitar.

In 30 years the only way I ever got rid of hum in my guitar was to put noiseless pickups on it. Now I never have hum, even when I stand in front of my tv or my computer monitor.
 
Maybe the outlet isn't ground to start with.

That or if its a single coil guitar infront of a CRT computer monitor, there will be trouble.

Turn the TV off too.
 
Any single coil will hum by itself (60cycle hum). I would put an SM57 in front of the best sounding speaker and have at it. Crank it up, watch the background noise disappear and piss off your neighbors! :D ;) :cool:
 
i use a noise suppressor pedal, that eliminates feedback and any hum, even at loud volumes, while im standing near it. It works just like a gate.


side note: what do you think about using a Boss noise suppressor pedal and Boss Compression Sustainer? I'm not so sure how they would "talk" to each other, being the compression sustainer is telling it to hold out the sound longer, and the gate/suppressor is like shut the hell up. thanks in advance
 
soundchaser59 said:
You didnt' say what kind of amp it is. If it's an old vintage tube amp, then yeah it could be the amp making the hum.

If its a fairly new amp, it's more likely coming from the guitar pickups. A lot of magnetic fields fill up space in every house in the country. Things like tv, monitor, motors, appliances, radio stations, cb radios, microwaves, etc. Even if nothing is running or turned on in your house you can still have magnetic fields in the space around your guitar.

In 30 years the only way I ever got rid of hum in my guitar was to put noiseless pickups on it. Now I never have hum, even when I stand in front of my tv or my computer monitor.
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Well, it's a new-ish (only a couple of years old, I believe I bought it new in 2003) Crate amp. I think it's a 70 watt amp. It's in our "media room" (basically our computer room). I'm playing a Crate guitar (that looks like a strat) through it. I suppose I could try either another guitar, or turn off my computer monitor (does a flatscreen LCD have the same problems?), or something.

Any other advice?
 
mjr said:
Well, it's a new-ish (only a couple of years old, I believe I bought it new in 2003) Crate amp. I think it's a 70 watt amp. It's in our "media room" (basically our computer room). I'm playing a Crate guitar (that looks like a strat) through it. I suppose I could try either another guitar, or turn off my computer monitor (does a flatscreen LCD have the same problems?), or something.

Any other advice?
Click to expand...


No. But some types of light bulbs will.
 
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