Guitar Amp Buzz AHHH!!!

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mattstoner

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ok so i have seen a a hundred questions asking about buzz and humming,
i've gotten alooot of answers and none seem to work or apply to me.
so i'll be super specific if anyone can help PEASEEEEEEE! i'm desperate!

i'm in my room on a carpet floor, i have my laptop on a desk right next to my vox VT40+ (solid state tube pre-amped combo)
i have my squire affinity tele (with fender texas special pickups, a fender stero input and an american standard pick up switcher) running into my pedal board which is set up as listed:
Volume pedal
compression
overdrive
distortion
delay
tremolo.

now i have an initial buzz, and now that i ahve so many pedals the buzz gets louder..
when i hit my compression, it's even LOUDER, with overdrive or distortion plus compression FORGET IT!
my trem also gives a bit of a wavey buzz..
HOWEVER! when i play at shows i have NO buzz at all! i haven't used my comp at a gig so idk if that causes a buzz outside my room..
but it's driving me nuts..
this is where i practice and record so it's a problem for sure..
if i need a ground lift or power condition or somethinggg.. some one tell me PLEASE!

thanks
Matt
 
You should check your guitar's ground and definitely try some different allignment of your guitar axis and hardware.
 
The first thing I would check would be the power source(s). As in, make sure that all of your AC-powered gear is plugged into the same house circuit and that the polarity on everything is the same. Also, since your guitar has single coil pickups it's going to hum some because that's what (most) single-coil-equipped guitars do.

Another thing to consider is that in your home, things are normally packed in a little closer so there is more chance of various things causing interference with each other, whereas in a live situation you may be a little more spread out.

Have you tried moving your laptop away from your amp?
 
miroslav said:
Exactly.
A Tele, an amp, and pedals...next to a computer, and you want to know about why it buzzes? :D
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Definately. If I get my Tele or Strat near a CRT it lights up like a pinball machine. There's a bar we play where the stage is at the front window where they have all the neon beer signs. YIKES!! Good advice to get your stuff on the smae circuit to try to minimize ground loops. Move around the room to findd the best spot.
 
I don't even use CRT monitors anymore in my studio...but if I plug in a single-coil and move to within 5' of my LCD monitors and my audio monitors...it will start to buzz like mad. I have about 2-3 spots in the room where I am far away enough from other electronics where a single coil will not really buzz.
 
Unless you change the pickups, it's unrealistic to ask a guitar with single coils not to buzz, that's one reason why they invented "HUMbuckers".

When I record my Tele, I'm sitting right in front of my PC, so I finally bought a Seymore Duncan Hotrails Bridge pickup for it, and the buzz stopped. A hundred bucks installed, and it totally rocks!
 
I don't know if you've thought of this, but fluorescent tube lights and low-energy bulbs can induce a hum in guitars with single-coil pickups. If you have those, try turning them off and use ordinary filament bulbs, halogen bulbs, L.E.D. lamps or candles in your recording room. I would open up every mains plug in your setup and check that all the earths are intact. When you're touching the strings of your guitar, does the hum get less? Likewise, when you touch the metal parts of your guitar cord with your fingers? If so, it will be an earth/shielding issue. Don't sit close to any amplifiers either, as they induce hum, too.

Good luck. :)
 
mewsician2 said:
Unless you change the pickups, it's unrealistic to ask a guitar with single coils not to buzz, that's one reason why they invented "HUMbuckers"!
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The only guy here who has it. And, many pedals just add more noise and buzz. Compressors are the worst. Or maybe distortion. And if you have overdrive and distortion, you are just asking for trouble. The cheapest solution maybe another pedal though; I'm talking about the Hush pedal or the ISP Decimator. It works for me, and I use a stock Strat a lot to record. So you have my sympathy. Also, how are you powering the pedals?
One way to know is to just plug in the guitar straight. Now add one pedal at a time and check the noise level. You'll find the worst offender soon.
Lastly, read this; ="http://www.guitarnuts.com/technical/noisebucket.php".
 
Bubba po said:
I don't know if you've thought of this, but fluorescent tube lights and low-energy bulbs can induce a hum in guitars with single-coil pickups. If you have those, try turning them off and use ordinary filament bulbs, halogen bulbs, L.E.D. lamps or candles in your recording room. I would open up every mains plug in your setup and check that all the earths are intact. When you're touching the strings of your guitar, does the hum get less? Likewise, when you touch the metal parts of your guitar cord with your fingers? If so, it will be an earth/shielding issue. Don't sit close to any amplifiers either, as they induce hum, too.

Good luck. :)
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Dimmers on lighting circuits can cause line noise too.
 
Cheap pedals have a lot more buzz than booteek type pedals. Now you know why some people will pay more for the good pedals that you cant buy at GC. You can get rid of a lot of pesky pedal noise by modding the pedals and by using a good supply with isolated lines, like Voodoo Lab PP2 or a BBE Supa Charger.

When you are playing guitar and you hear buzzing, if you turn your body/guitar in a half circle relative to the computer, does the buzz get less or go away? Can you find a spot and an angle where there is no buzz, or it's greatly reduced? If so, then the primary source of your buzzing is your pickups. Flourescent lights are simply taboo in a studio, get rid of them.

Those guitars can have noiseless pickups installed, the standard off the shelf single coils are not intended to be noiseless, and the big challenge in noiseless Fender style pickups is making them cancel noise without making them sound like humbuckers. If your guitar is older then the routed void in the guitar body where the pickups are set will need to be coated with a special kind of primer/paint that has a metallic component in it to diffuse EM interference. Without the special coating, even noiseless pickups will not eliminate hum and buzz.

Start by plugging your guitar directly into the amp, no pedals, and see if the buzz is still there. If so, turn in a half circle and see if the buzz stops. Usuaully the buzz will be least when the pickups are at a right angle to the monitor screen, like with the headstock pointing toward the monitor, something like that.

If there is no buzz this way, then your problem is one of the pedals, or the power supply they are connected to. Are you using a 1-Spot? Is it plugged in to the same outlet that the amp and the computer are plugged in to? If so, big mistake. Use a long extension cord and plug your amp and pedal power into an outlet that is on a different circuit than the computer is on. (The breaker that turns off your amp rig does not turn off your computer)

Test one pedal at a time until the buzz returns. Then you'll know which pedal is to blame. If each pedal brings in the hum, then it could be your pedal power supply. I have a small rig at home with the amp and 1-Spot plugged in to the same source. I got lucky and got rid of the hum by simply reversing the way the 1-Spot was plugged in to the power strip.

The biggest clue you gave is that you have no hum at all when you play away from home. Suggesting that your rig is fine, it's your home circuits that are buzzing you.
 
mattstoner said:
....i have......my vox VT40+ (solid state tube pre-amped combo).......

Volume pedal
compression
overdrive
distortion
delay
tremolo.


.....but it's driving me nuts.....
Click to expand...

I forgot to ask you about the thing that is driving me nuts trying to understand.......

If you have a Vox VT40+, why in the world do you need all those pedals? Your amp already does all that stuff, and does it at least as well as the pedals do, assuming you are not using the $300 dollar booteek pedals....one of the main reasons I got my Vox amp was so I would not have to lug around my pedal board and amp rig to a simple church gig where they play 4 songs and pass the grape juice... amp in one hand, guitar in the other. That's what those amps are designed for. Have you tried using the stuff built in to the Vox to get your sounds? You can save 8 user designed sounds as presets, and switch them with a footswitch.
 
Zaphod B said:
Apparently you didn't read all the posts. ;)
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I did. CRT's, AC power sources, fluorescent lighting; all mentioned, and all likely wrong. Sure, they aren't good, but it is still likely a single coil problem and the pedals only compound the hum and buzz. That's why I gave mewsician2 props. He sounds like a man who knows from experience, as opposed taking guesses. Educated guesses, I am certain, but still guesses. A quick test is turn the guitar volume down to zero. Hum and buzz still there? I'll bet not. It ain't the TV's fault.
 
soundchaser59 said:
I forgot to ask you about the thing that is driving me nuts trying to understand.......

If you have a Vox VT40+, why in the world do you need all those pedals? Your amp already does all that stuff, and does it at least as well as the pedals do, assuming you are not using the $300 dollar booteek pedals....one of the main reasons I got my Vox amp was so I would not have to lug around my pedal board and amp rig to a simple church gig where they play 4 songs and pass the grape juice... amp in one hand, guitar in the other. That's what those amps are designed for. Have you tried using the stuff built in to the Vox to get your sounds? You can save 8 user designed sounds as presets, and switch them with a footswitch.
Click to expand...
Basic Human psychology - people don't buy things because they need them, only because they want them. They WANT the brightly-coloured devices lined up in front of them on the stage. :)
 
ranjam said:
A quick test is turn the guitar volume down to zero. Hum and buzz still there? I'll bet not. It ain't the TV's fault.
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That's silly. Of course single-coil pickups don't generally have hum rejection, but you can minimise the sources of hum that might be affecting them. You're putting the cart before the horse.
 
Bubba po said:
That's silly. Of course single-coil pickups don't generally have hum rejection, but you can minimise the sources of hum that might be affecting them. You're putting the cart before the horse.
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Care to repeat that in English?
 
ranjam said:
Care to repeat that in English?
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I think he's saying that yes, actually it IS the tv's fault. I have always taught my tv's not to come into my studio, and if they come in anyway then it's the tv's fault.

TV's should not give off that kind of EMI anyway, there oughta be a law.....
 
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