electric "ground-problems" - "buzzing" question ;)

[Loempiaketzer]

I live in a crappy house and have been playing with no ground-cable so i hear the bzzzzzzzz all the time. *i hope you guys understand what im trying to say*

I watched a dave mustaine vid on youtube and he has some kind of gear which he can use to negate this problem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1U-Go1cPxA
@ about 6 minutes

I searched the internet for the thing he mentioned there but couldn't find it.

does anyone know what the real name for it is or where i can buy it or something like that?

[Deacon_Blues]

Try turning off any lights in the house. Especially dimmed lamps often cause a loud bzzzzzzz.

Try running your instrument signal through a DI that has a ground lift switch. That might help.

I've been the sound guy at several occasions, and it's not uncommon to run into these problems. One thing that mostly helps then is to run the whole PA from the same electricity phase and make sure all lights and the light mixer are on another one.

[Loempiaketzer]

i was saying im playing @ home in my room.

No PA system or such thing there.

I was just wandering how i could "fake" earth to negate the buzzing caused by that. And if there were any products to fake that.

Would be a lot more easyer than digging a 10 meter deep hole and putting a copper bar in it to reach water and make earth connection that way... i hope :P

[Chunk-O-Funk]

Originally Posted by Loempiaketzer

I searched the internet for the thing he mentioned there but couldn't find it.

does anyone know what the real name for it is or where i can buy it or something like that?

He's talking about a "ground lift switch" that is on one of the pieces of equipment that he is using.

All DI's will usually have a ground lift switch, and so do a lot of amps. They're usually not found on smaller practice type amps.


+1 to Deacon_Blues
If you are plugged into a circuit that has a fluorescent lamp fixture or a circuit with a lamp on a dimmer switch it will hum or buzz.

If your house doesn't have a grounded outlet (2 prongs only) try using one of these:

It's pretty much the cheapest way to test it. Remember to screw the green tab to the center screw in the outlet.