radio interference

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rucarlso

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There's this radio station where I live that always comes through my guitar amps. (DC area, Maryland side, WTOP if anybody out there is local and feels my pain.) Sometimes the signal is faint, sometimes it's loud and clear. Is there something out there in the way of a noise suppression system anyone can reccommend to get rid of this interference?
 
The only thing I can thing of is those RF filters you sometimes see on equipment power cords, usually located very near the end of the cord going into the piece of equipment they are powering.

This would help if the noise is getting in through the power line, but I suspect it's being induced inside your amplifier, in which case the only thing you can do is shield your amp externally (put it in a grounded metal enclosure) or internally (I've seen this done but have no idea how to do it myself).

I've seen special enclosures for computers, maybe someone makes them for larger pieces of equipment.

I wonder if an RF signal could induce noise in a speaker coil? Just wondering...
 
The first thing I would do is make sure that you are using good quality cables everywhere in your signal chain. They are most often the culprit in my experience.

got mojo?
www.voodoovibe.com
 
thanks for the tips, guys. i've tried the RF filters to no avail...i'll go through my patch cables and see if I can reduce the noise that way. I do have a number of pedals in my chain.
 
rucarlso said:
There's this radio station where I live that always comes through my guitar amps. (DC area, Maryland side, WTOP if anybody out there is local and feels my pain.) Sometimes the signal is faint, sometimes it's loud and clear. Is there something out there in the way of a noise suppression system anyone can reccommend to get rid of this interference?
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It does this without a guitar plugged in?

I've never seen that.

I have however - seen this quite a bit with single coil guitar pickups.

The Fender Mustang was well know for this problem (for one exaple - probably one of the worst in fact).

I have experienced this with even the newer Fender Strats, but never with say a Les Paul.

Sometimes when this occurrs building shielding is required to stop it - but that is DAMNED EXPENSIVE.

Good luck with this one,

Rod
 
when you listen to jimi hendrix on woodstock you can hear a conversation on radio picked up by his amp, he sort of plays around it. very cool.
 
I had that problem with a local FM station once. Make sure you have your stuff well grounded. That and reducing cable length fixed it for me.
 
I have that same problem when I run my 2 amps together and really crank it up. I run a fender blues deville and a marshall tsl 100. I only have a compressor to a Y box hooked up to the amps. It only happens in my second floor, not downstairs. I found if I just turn the amps a little bit,left or right, it stops. I actually believe that the cables are where it comes in at. I think they act as an antenna. Just try rearranging where you have the equipent placed.
 
I moved the amp few feet and turned it alightly--the problem was reduced but hasn't gone away. I've lived in different houses in this general area for years and this has always been a problem. Someday I'll figure it out and get rid of the noise. In the meantime, I'll always know the traffic situation and weather forecast when I'm playing guitar.

Thanks for all the help.
 
The same thing happends to me, yet only when I have my Crybaby hooked up. I think it might lie in the one of the pedals.
 
It might be a bit extreme but I have heard rumors of people surrounding their studio (some layer under the visible layers) in chicken wire just for such problems. I guess you wire the mesh wire to the house ground and supposedly it will act as a barrier for the interference??? I don’t know, maybe someone else can confirm or deny this?
 
Fret said:
It might be a bit extreme but I have heard rumors of people surrounding their studio (some layer under the visible layers) in chicken wire just for such problems. I guess you wire the mesh wire to the house ground and supposedly it will act as a barrier for the interference??? I don’t know, maybe someone else can confirm or deny this?
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What you've described is a Faraday Cage
 
Cool... but what do you do if you can't or don't want to rebuild your room?
 
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