Radio station in my guitar amp!

  • Thread starter Thread starter AudioWebs
  • Start date Start date
AudioWebs said:
I don't think that if the outlets were not grounded, the maintenance crew would do a damn thing about it. Unless I convinced them it was a danger to something like computers in the building or something.
Ungrounded outlets ARE VERY dangerous... especially if used with gear that expects the ground to be there (ie 3-prong type)!!!!!!
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
Ungrounded outlets ARE VERY dangerous... especially if used with gear that expects the ground to be there (ie 3-prong type)!!!!!!

:eek:..................................................................................oh shit.....
 
oso azul tiene razon

AudioWebs said:
certain outlets in my apt produce less, and no (audible) radio.

yes it is of course the same station - it occurs because the frequency gets through.

the station is "wjzz" the local jazz station. Nothing like hearing whitney houstons "i will always love you" underneath my yngwie malmsteen riffs..........

:)

hey if everything fails bring the "believe it or not" crew to videotape some of that lol :cool:


no hehe, that sucks. get those outlets fixed man :rolleyes:
what mr oso azul (blue bear in spanish hehe) said is true, thats very dangerous. i wouldnt plug anything there

...

memo
 
Try this

Put a single loop in the power cable to the amp, that can help cut the FM interference.

Also check the ground to the amplifier.
 
Once we were jamming on a Sunday and the bass player asked what the score to the Browns game was. I stopped playing, we got the scores, and then continued to listen to the game through my Peavey half-stack.:D
 
You said that it comes thru without anything plugged in.

That leads me to believe you one of four things hapenning:

The input jack is also a switch. When an instrument is not plugged in, it grounds the tip. You may have a cracked solder joint on your input jack. If it is an older switchcraft, panelmount then I would clean the contact between the tip and ring.

Electrolytic capaicitors going bad can sometimes cause this. Rare, but it happens.

If you have a tube amp, dirty sockets or a poorly manufactured tube that has developed phonic properties can do this.

And of course, poor grounding. If you house has ungrounded outlets, if you have to use a 3 to 2 adapater, if the ground lug is broken off of your power cord, etc - get it fixed. As stated earlier, ungrounded enviroments are dangerous. For a solid state amp, there can be up to +40VDC and -40VDC on the output stage for a potential of 80V. That will hurt like hell if it hits you.

If grounding is not a problem with your house/practice area, then I would turn your amp in to the nearest reputable service center for a qualified technician to take a look at it.

There are amps out there though, that it was just a poor design that allowed the radio to come in, but these were no-name fly by night kinda POS's.
 
If your power and ground is in tact, sounds like your amp is lacking some fundamental RF shunting capabilities and/or, your rectifying the signal in one of your amp stages....is the station you're hearing an AM or FM station?

I've seen this when the guitar is plugged in (gawd...don't punish me...I know you said that it wasn't), putting a ferrite bead around the cables (power chord...oops cord and the guitar cable) sometimes helps.

Could be a design or assembly issue. I once had an older fender amp (transistor type) which picked up a local AM station at certain times of the day. AM signals can be easily rectified then amplified through non-linear devices like diodes and transistors (as in cheap amps). In the end, I added a few bypass capacitors across transistor junctions to bypass the amps at RF frequencies. 10 years later I'm thinking...what a cheap ass bastard I was! Should have coughed up the money and bought that sexy Mesa a long time ago.

I just love my Mesa...I think it loves me too. But that's another story.
 
ive got a horror story about this

me and a couple other people were playing a funeral(3 bagpipers, keyboard and 2 drums), for a teacher here at school that passed away, the keyboard player's amp, in the middle of the service, started playing pop radio
truly awful
-Jake
 
AudioWebs said:
certain outlets in my apt produce less, and no (audible) radio.

yes it is of course the same station - it occurs because the frequency gets through.

the station is "wjzz" the local jazz station. Nothing like hearing whitney houstons "i will always love you" underneath my yngwie malmsteen riffs..........

:)


Thats so fucked up, this happens in my studio sometimes and its always the sort easy listening/smooth jazz station thats come through!

Why is that? Is smooth jazz so powerfully sucky that it can be heard trough anything, like fillings and metal stuff?

And why is it that when you are on a road trip and you put the radio on scan the only stations that come in on the FM saide are country?

ANSWER ME!!!!! PLEEEEEASE!!

Twonky
 
AudioWebs said:
certain outlets in my apt produce less, and no (audible) radio.

yes it is of course the same station - it occurs because the frequency gets through.

the station is "wjzz" the local jazz station. Nothing like hearing whitney houstons "i will always love you" underneath my yngwie malmsteen riffs..........

:)


Thats so fucked up, this happens in my studio sometimes and its always the sort easy listening/smooth jazz station thats come through!

Why is that? Is smooth jazz so powerfully sucky that it can be heard trough anything, like fillings and metal stuff?

And why is it that when you are on a road trip and you put the radio on scan the only stations that come in on the FM saide are country?

ANSWER ME!!!!! PLEEEEEASE!!

Twonky
 
twonky said:
And why is it that when you are on a road trip and you put the radio on scan the only stations that come in on the FM saide are country?

Because out in the country no one cares about whos bitch you fucked or how much money you made.
 
Changing tubes might help ( if its a tube amp), also get a ferrite core bead ( from an electronic DIY or maybe radio shack)...thats the big cylinder you may see wrapped around the power cord of a notebook computer...or a CRT monitor ...it's a low pass filter ... snaps on the cord...real simple...get a few different values...but you can nail the frequency cause its radio!

/dara
 
Outlaws said:
Because out in the country no one cares about whos bitch you fucked or how much money you made.

hmmmmm i think that means that many other styles that are not country talk about that things, am i right?
 
Once I had a radio station in a little 50$ mixer... Now I can hear the radio and, sometimes, other people talking in the telephone.

:)
 
Once I had a radio station in a little 50$ mixer... Now I can hear the radio and, sometimes, other people talking in the telephone.

:)
 
Once I had a radio station in a little 50$ mixer... Now I can hear the radio and, sometimes, other people talking in the telephone.

:)
 
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