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Do I Need a Noise Suppressor? If so, help me pick one!

Obese Chess

Obese Chess

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Supporting Member
Sep 4, 2005
4,713
5,595
Portland, OR
#1
Hi folks,

My signal chain is hot enough that even at low volumes at band practice I get fairly significant hum or buzz coming through my amp. This can be stopped by turning my bass all the way down or even by resting my hands on the strings. This is my first active bass so I haven't had to weed this out before. The hum is especially obnoxious at practice, and I can't imagine what it's going to be like live with in-ears.

My chain is Dingwall NG-2 -> Peterson StroboStomp -> Darkglass B7K -> BBE Opti-comp -> Hartke 2500 -> Hartke 4x10 (I have a 482i Sonic Maximizer that I run through the effects loop of the amp at smaller shows, if this makes a difference).

Do I need a noise suppressor or something like it, or is my issue rooted in something else?
If option one: which should I get?
If option two: what am I doing wrong?

Thanks!
 
#5
punisher911 said:
Hum that can be canceled by touching the strings? Is that a grounding issue?
Click to expand...

A grounding issue would get louder when you touch them strings/metal/bridge. OP, you are getting RF interference. It might not be the bass but that is a potential culprit. The ground wire is a very possible cause, double check it is getting good contact. I am not certain about Combustion pickups but Dingwall shields their Canadian made pickups in foil prior to potting them in epoxy. That being said, they do fail from time to time. I had to add additional shielding to my ABZ4 in order to remedy some RF interference it was getting.

I would recommend you remove all the your pedals and give it a test to see if it is the bass or not. I would also ensure you try swapping out cables as I have had cheap 1/4" cables give me RF interference before. I would not recommend getting a BOSS NS-2 for your issue. They are tone suckers. If you get a gate the only one to get in my books is the ISP Decimator. At this point I would still troubleshoot though.
 
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#6
DiabolusInMusic said:
A grounding issue would get louder when you touch them strings/metal/bridge. OP, you are getting RF interference. It might not be the bass but that is a potential culprit. The ground wire is a very possible cause, double check it is getting good contact. I am not certain about Combustion pickups but Dingwall shields their Canadian made pickups in foil prior to potting them in epoxy. That being said, they do fail from time to time. I had to add additional shielding to my ABZ4 in order to remedy some RF interference it was getting.

I would recommend you remove all the your pedals and give it a test to see if it is the bass or not. I would also ensure you try swapping out cables as I have had cheap 1/4" cables give me RF interference before. I would not recommend getting a BOSS NS-2 for your issue. They are tone suckers. If you get a gate the only one to get in my books is the ISP Decimator. At this point I would still troubleshoot though.
Click to expand...

RF Interference is certainly possible and strikes me as more likely. We're a five piece band and we all use wireless in-ears and wireless transmitters. I'll play around with the bass today at practice and see if it hums without pedals.

If so, I'll check the shielding and make sure that the ground wire is connected.
If not, I'll look into a pedal - I've had guitarists with good luck with the Decimator in the past. The NS-2 is also popular, but the tone suck issue is new to me. I understand they're not true bypass but I figured that as long as the pedal was on, it doesn't matter, is that not the case? Is the Decimator true bypass?

Thanks for the help, all.
 
#11
Okay, the quest continues - the pedalboard is quite tidy.

I can solve the "hum" issue by touching ANY piece of metal in the signal chain - strings, bridge, even the metal housing of my Darkglass. The hum is not audible through anybody's in-ear monitors, just my cabinet.
 
#12
Obese Chess said:
Possible, I suppose, but I would hope unlikely at this price point.

Then again, who knows what I goofed up when I changed out the bridge. Would that be a likely point to check? I know there's a grounding wire there.
Click to expand...
Yes. That is where a bass is grounded. There should be a wire coming out of the body that is soldered to the bridge. If it isn't there or is not properly soldered, it will cause a hum.
 
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#13
Gravedigger Dav said:
Yes. That is where a bass is grounded. There should be a wire coming out of the body that is soldered to the bridge. If it isn't there or is not properly soldered, it will cause a hum.
Click to expand...
It was not soldered when I changed out the bridge as far as I could tell - it's an ABM bridge with individual saddles rather than a one-piece.
 
#15
Obese Chess said:
Okay, the quest continues - the pedalboard is quite tidy.

I can solve the "hum" issue by touching ANY piece of metal in the signal chain - strings, bridge, even the metal housing of my Darkglass. The hum is not audible through anybody's in-ear monitors, just my cabinet.
Click to expand...

Does the issue persist if you remove the board from the equation? I would double check your cables and your power supply. If at all possible, try your rig in another location and see if the issue persists.
 
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#18
I had this same issue with my favorite strat after doing some work on it. I believe the ground was not on the bridge which was the culprit.

That said your power supply could also be the problem if the noise is only present when using your pedals. If that is the case you may need some isolated power supplies.

As for a noise gate, I recently got a Line 6 constrictor:

constrictor.gif

It is a digital compressor but has a simple gate built into it, I got mine for 45$ which is a pretty sweet deal. It has 3 compressor modes modeled after classic tube comp and 2 different styles of modern pedal comps. The only downside is the tonecore pedals don't have any bypass and are always on, not the worst for a comp/ noise gate though and you can always put it in a switchable loop if you want to bypass it easily. It also doesn't work very well with the comp cranked past 75% or so where it starts "pumping". Personally I find comp sounds at milder levels anyways and this pedal can get plenty compressed if you need it.
 

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