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Post by mule43 on Feb 13, 2021 17:00:41 GMT -7
I play in my living room surrounded by my wife's fish tanks, 5 of them, which have 2 to 3 pumps each. These pumps are noisy electrically and radiate 60 Hz. Or is it 120 Hz I am hearing? When I am touching the metal on the guitar the hum is much less than when I am not touching the guitar. Does anyone have a suggestion on how to lower the hum? I know that the tank pumps are the problem since I can stand in certain places and make the hum louder. It got better when she went to LED lamps from florescent lights which were very noisy.
I am using an APC surge suppressor that the amp and pedal board are plugged into for AC power. I am using what I think are OK Lava cables and Mogami 2524 cable on my pedal board. When I plug in straight I still get the hum though not as much. When I am playing the hum is not noticeable. I don't think that the amp is the problem since I get the hum with all of my amps.
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Post by GuitarZ on Feb 13, 2021 17:17:00 GMT -7
Can you do an experiment where you turn off what you think are the offending items for a few minutes? That might help you isolate the problem.
Popping your fingers on your strings will definitely help ground the system and lower your hum. You're not going to get around that. If you were recording, you could always run a wire loop from your person to metal on the guitar to maintain the ground.
And, finally, I hope you're luckier than me. I once went through an experiment where I started shutting down breakers in my house to find the offending circuit. However, it seemed to just be in the air. I even threw some batteries into my little practice amp, repeated the experiment, and killed every single breaker in the house. Unfortunately, the hum was still there. I'm guessing my incoming electric is just noisy. I also tried a power conditioner without luck.
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Post by mrcapers on Feb 13, 2021 17:26:55 GMT -7
I am in a similar situation. My practice area is 6' from my wife's 90 gallon aquarium. At first it bothered me, then I found myself playing mainly humbucker equipped guitars. Now after years, I hardly notice the hum. It's still there, but like tinnitus, I only hear it when I listen for it. I have my hobby, she has hers. I don't say anything about the aquarium, she says nothing about the 5 guitars and 3 Dr. Z amps sitting next to it.
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Post by mule43 on Feb 13, 2021 17:57:12 GMT -7
Can you do an experiment where you turn off what you think are the offending items for a few minutes? That might help you isolate the problem. Popping your fingers on your strings will definitely help ground the system and lower your hum. You're not going to get around that. If you were recording, you could always run a wire loop from your person to metal on the guitar to maintain the ground. And, finally, I hope you're luckier than me. I once went through an experiment where I started shutting down breakers in my house to find the offending circuit. However, it seemed to just be in the air. I even threw some batteries into my little practice amp, repeated the experiment, and killed every single breaker in the house. Unfortunately, the hum was still there. I'm guessing my incoming electric is just noisy. I also tried a power conditioner without luck. With my Strat I can move around the room next to tank pumps and make it louder or softer depending on where I point the guitar so, at least the majority of the hum, is from pumps. I have found the spot where the hum is the least and like to play there.
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Post by mule43 on Feb 13, 2021 18:02:42 GMT -7
I am in a similar situation. My practice area is 6' from my wife's 90 gallon aquarium. At first it bothered me, then I found myself playing mainly humbucker equipped guitars. Now after years, I hardly notice the hum. It's still there, but like tinnitus, I only hear it when I listen for it. I have my hobby, she has hers. I don't say anything about the aquarium, she says nothing about the 5 guitars and 3 Dr. Z amps sitting next to it. Yep I am the same way. She likes her aquariums and I like my guitars and Dr. Z amps! Once I start playing I don't really notice it unless I pay attention or move into the really bad spot.
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Post by lowbudget on Feb 13, 2021 18:05:39 GMT -7
Don’t discount the possibility that a lot could still be your guitar. Reason I say this is your comment about “standing in certain places makes the hum louder”. How my guitar is oriented to the amp and power cord, i.e., 60 degrees, 90 degrees, parallel, etc. can make a lot of difference. Plus there’s your comment about grounding the guitar by touch making it better.
Have you tried putting your amp at normal volume but unplugging everything? At least then you’d know which piece of equipment to work on.
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Post by adam on Feb 13, 2021 19:19:25 GMT -7
I think we all have this and maybe it's emf or something. I can usually get rid of most of it by turning in a circle and there will be one plane that kind of gets rid of most of it. I like the idea of experimenting with turning other things off. I remember one guy having an issue with a wifi router or something. Maybe try moving the amp around too. I have a decimator pedal which works very well for a gate if you have a loop, or you can put it after your pedals if that's a problem. They guitar goes into that first and that's what triggers the gate, but what is gated is the stuff in the loop of the pedal. It's pretty seamless, but I almost never bother with it because it's another couple cords and that stuff just bugs me. And obviously it's an age old problem or they wouldn't have invented hum buckers way back when. Might add that sometimes I put together a pedal board and it makes no noise and sometimes it does, but I never really spend the time to figure it out because I change it all the time.
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Post by DeanG on Feb 14, 2021 10:07:04 GMT -7
Turn your guitar volume to zero. Hum goes away, then ground issue in your guitar wiring or external noise injected into pickups. Had tele hum issue. The after market wiring kit, ground wire jumper across vol/tone pot plus control plate for pots created a ground loop. Removed the unnecessary wire jumper across pots, hum source killed. With both guitar cavity shielding and noiseless pickups, I was puzzled until I discovered this Blog. www.fralinpickups.com/2018/11/12/understanding-guitar-grounding/
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Post by mule43 on Feb 14, 2021 12:10:09 GMT -7
Don’t discount the possibility that a lot could still be your guitar. Reason I say this is your comment about “standing in certain places makes the hum louder”. How my guitar is oriented to the amp and power cord, i.e., 60 degrees, 90 degrees, parallel, etc. can make a lot of difference. Plus there’s your comment about grounding the guitar by touch making it better. Have you tried putting your amp at normal volume but unplugging everything? At least then you’d know which piece of equipment to work on. When I say certain places that means that I am next to a pump. Maybe sometime I will ask the wife if we can unplug pumps to see what happens to the hum, maybe...... What I am thinking of trying is setting up in the garage and see how much hum I have there. That will have to wait until it is warmer. Also I need to re-do my pedal board, that will probably help. I am ready to have fewer pedals on the board, I think some of them add a little noise.
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Post by mule43 on Feb 14, 2021 12:14:11 GMT -7
I think we all have this and maybe it's emf or something. I can usually get rid of most of it by turning in a circle and there will be one plane that kind of gets rid of most of it. I like the idea of experimenting with turning other things off. I remember one guy having an issue with a wifi router or something. Maybe try moving the amp around too. I have a decimator pedal which works very well for a gate if you have a loop, or you can put it after your pedals if that's a problem. They guitar goes into that first and that's what triggers the gate, but what is gated is the stuff in the loop of the pedal. It's pretty seamless, but I almost never bother with it because it's another couple cords and that stuff just bugs me. And obviously it's an age old problem or they wouldn't have invented hum buckers way back when. Might add that sometimes I put together a pedal board and it makes no noise and sometimes it does, but I never really spend the time to figure it out because I change it all the time. Interestingly, my Les Paul has hum as well. Not quite as much as the Strat but there. I am getting ready to mess with the pedal board and see what happens to the noise. I want to go to fewer pedals.......hard to decide which to remove though.
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Post by mule43 on Feb 14, 2021 12:19:40 GMT -7
Turn your guitar volume to zero. Hum goes away, then ground issue in your guitar wiring or external noise injected into pickups. Had tele hum issue. The after market wiring kit, ground wire jumper across vol/tone pot plus control plate for pots created a ground loop. Removed the unnecessary wire jumper across pots, hum source killed. With both guitar cavity shielding and noiseless pickups, I was puzzled until I discovered this Blog. www.fralinpickups.com/2018/11/12/understanding-guitar-grounding/Ground loops can be a big problem, though in this case both guitars are stock so i don't think that is the case. I know with the strat that with the volume down the hum is still there faintly.
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Post by mule43 on Feb 16, 2021 12:53:28 GMT -7
I was able to shutdown the pumps closest to the amp and found that the faint hum went away. Did not try moving the amp around to see how directional it is. I was pretty sure that the hum was from pumps.
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