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Summoning Elite Troubleshooters

#161
Crosscheck67 said:
Some of my outlets are grounded, some aren't.
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Ooooh... Is your amp plugged into a grounded outlet? One time many years ago, I went to a jam at an old house with old wiring, and I had a hell of a time with noise that I wasn't used to dealing with. It turns out that the outlet my amp was plugged into was not grounded. I ran an extension cord to the laundry room where the wiring was new and up to code, plugged it into a grounded outlet, and immediately my noise issues were solved.

Could it really be this easy in your case, after all that?
 
#162
BlueTalon said:
Ooooh... Is your amp plugged into a grounded outlet? One time many years ago, I went to a jam at an old house with old wiring, and I had a hell of a time with noise that I wasn't used to dealing with. It turns out that the outlet my amp was plugged into was not grounded. I ran an extension cord to the laundry room where the wiring was new and up to code, plugged it into a grounded outlet, and immediately my noise issues were solved.

Could it really be this easy in your case, after all that?
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I think he also used a battery powered amp. Though maybe the electric wire in the wall are creating the hum and not necessarily because he's plugged in.

I had the same issue as you described in my house. I had the ground replaced and it's fixed.
 
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#164
Crosscheck67 said:
I'm not quite catching the vision...and it's lighting my brain up with novice questions.
  • How big a piece?
  • Where would it go? If I'm using the adhesive side, I'm assuming that is not conductive?
  • The 6" x 11" sheet I have left is what I used for the last shielded test and I soldered to that, but did not ground to the aluminum foil - which could have been a mistake.
  • Am I grounding to both the copper tape and the cast iron pot?
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We may be going way down the rabbit hole here. Actually I'm pretty sure we're out of sight already! This was more a fun suggestion "FOR SCIENCE!!!!" than anything practical.

My assumption was that this was a traditional style bare cast iron dutch oven (or you could use an uncoated steel pot or anything similar). Wire the pickup to the jack, like you've done. Wire a short bare wire to the ground lug of the jack. Put the pickup and jack inside the pot. Use a postage stamp sized piece of copper tape to tape the bare wire to the inside bottom of the pot. Plug a short cable into the jack, run it outside of the pot. Put the lid on the pot. Plug the cable into your portable amp and turn it up to check for noise.

The cast iron pot is grounded through the short bare wire to the jack, and the tape bonds the wire to the iron. You've now built a cast iron cage around the pickup and the jack, with only the shielded guitar cable running to the outside world. This wouldn't work with an enameled dutch oven since you can't get continuity to the iron to ground it.
 
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#166
Crosscheck67 said:
Nope. I don't even use my amp at home because of the proximity to neighbors. I'm either using a small Amplug (basically a walkman for guitar and bass), or straight into my USB interface to my laptop.
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Now I'm curious. You wouldn't need a big amp, just a quality amp with an undamaged ground, which is pretty much any modern manufactured amp. (Maybe some amps have a better reputation for dealing with EMI, dunno.) Of course, you'd need a grounded outlet to plug it into.

It seems to me like you either have tried or are willing to try everything else. I think this could be a legitimate troubleshooting step, if it's something you haven't already tried.
 
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#170
BlueTalon said:
Now I'm curious. You wouldn't need a big amp, just a quality amp with an undamaged ground, which is pretty much any modern manufactured amp. (Maybe some amps have a better reputation for dealing with EMI, dunno.) Of course, you'd need a grounded outlet to plug it into.

It seems to me like you either have tried or are willing to try everything else. I think this could be a legitimate troubleshooting step, if it's something you haven't already tried.
Click to expand...
I'll add it to my list :D

bdplaid said:
I don't know about laptops, but in my experience computers are huge sources for noise. I get a hum and a whine every time I plug in a TC electronic pedal to my computer.
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But then I sit here and discover thousands of music demos from bassists, guitarists, all perfectly noiseless as they record with the same gear I have, and I think to myself, "how the hell are they doing this???"
 
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#171
Crosscheck67 said:
But then I sit here and discover thousands of music demos from bassists, guitarists, all perfectly noiseless as they record with the same gear I have, and I think to myself, "how the hell are they doing this???"
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Totally true. And I record in a studio to macs. The diff is that one signal is audio going in through an interface, and for some reason the TC Electronic connected to the computer not for audio, but for USB control. Grounding? Dunno.
Probability best to disregard that comment of mine.
 
#173
tylerwylie said:
Is using a battery powered amp or a USB interface off a laptop(2 prong or 3 prong adapter?) meaning that there's potentially no ground connection, meaning all the shielding is acting more like an antenna?
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Very well could be, but I'm not sure how the internals of those devices are put together. There is no question that I have a stupid amount of EMI from the power lines here, as evidenced in a video soon to follow this post. The popular opinion here is that only proper, really proper shielding or a Hum Debugger are the only things that can help. Otherwise I'm creating an antenna as you said.
 
#175
Was that kettle (Dutch oven?) grounded at all?

By the way, I'm still holding out hope that a powered amp plugged into an outlet with the ground connected can help. It might only be part of an equation that includes a shielded bass and a hum debugger, but I'm confident you will eventually have a noise-free signal.

But I hate noise and I understand your frustration.
 
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#178
tylerwylie said:
Yep, first thing I’d be making sure is that the shielding is grounded, the noise needs to be shunted to ground right, otherwise it has no where to go? Get something that’ll make sure that connection is established.
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kid-trying-put-metal-fork-260nw-349667828.jpg
 
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#179
Crosscheck67 said:
Otherwise I'm creating an antenna...
Click to expand...

You, me, and a few others are leaning in that direction. Your bass and Amplug, when connected together, are being smacked with beyond normal EMI, yet there's no solid earthing ground draining it away from that bass/Amplug assembly.

Blue Talon mentioned using a powered amp. Does your EBS Magni combo use a 3-prong power connector? You mentioned some of your home outlets are grounded, some aren't. Of course, ensure the Magni combo is connected to a grounded outlet.

Related side question that bdplaid asked earlier (post #154). When you initially checked y'alls guitars and basses (post #1), did the other guitars and basses remain quiet with the Amplug? I apologize if I missed the answer.
 
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