Noise In My Rig

[Seth_Guitarist]

I have a nasty noise that's just bad enough to be unbareable.. I have a Boogie Triple Rec, and a Fender Twin for cleans. It's not the fact that I run 2 amps because I have isolated buffered/splitters to take care of that problem.. I have a snake that has a cable coming from the Twin, the Boogie, 2 fx loop cables from the rec, Footswitch cable for the Rec, and my power cable for my board. The noise isn't so bad through my twin, but through the Mesa it's very bad. Here's a link of my gear so you can see what's on my board and what not. It's powered with a 1 spot. Thanks, any help is much appreciated!

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=103654779&albumId=2532206

 

[screamingdaisy]

It could be that you have an AC power cable running parallel to your audio cables. I'd separate it out of the snake.

That said, it's most likely a ground loop through the 1-Spot.

What's your signal path?

 

[Seth_Guitarist]

Guitar-Volume Pedal-Wah-Whammy-Compressor-Jekyll&Hyde-Plextortion-Xotic BB-Line 6 MM4-Boss Chorus-Boss Delay-Creation Audio Labs Clean Boost. (The TC Electronic Delay is in the Boogie fx loop.)

 

[screamingdaisy]

Is the A/B box last after the boost?

Also, try disconnecting the TC Delay from the loop and power supply and see if the buzzing stops.

 

[Seth_Guitarist]

Yeah my bad, the A/B box is the last thing in the chain.. I'm about at my wits end.. I've seen people run huge pedalboards and not have any noise issues. I've tried eliminating things and actually just put my volume, wah, plextortion, line 6 mm4, boss delay, and TC delay and my A/B box on my skb board and powered it with the 1 spot and the skb power and it was still noisy.. I dunno if there's something I'm not doing right or I'm not aware of, I just dunno what else to try.. And to make it worse, I start tour rehearsals monday!!

 

[screamingdaisy]

Most guys running huge pedalboards are using Pedal Power 2's to power their FX. It has individually isolated power taps that help eliminate potential ground loops when powering pedals going into FX loops or multiple amps.

I suspect that there's a ground loop going on through the 1 spot. If I'm correct, you're using it to power all the pedals you're running in front of your amp, as well as using it to power that TC delay. This'll cause a ground loop between the front of the amp and the FX loop. I had this issue before when using a Godlyke Powerall with my Recto, switching to a Pedal Power 2 cleared the problem up.

Anyway, the easiest way to fault find ground loops is to do one thing at a time.

- Unplug everything and switch to using batteries in everything that can use them.
- Hook the guitar into just the Rectifier and power it up. You should get no extra buzzing.
- Add the A/B box (unpowered or using batteries).
- Connect the Fender to the A/B box. If you get buzzing at this stage then the A/B box is causing a ground loop between the two amps.
- Connect power to the A/B box. If you get a buzzing at this stage then there is a ground loop through the 1-spot.
- Connect the TC Delay into the Recto's FX loop (unpowered or using batteries). It shouldn't buzz at this stage.
- Connect power to the TC Delay. If it buzzes at this stage there's a couple of potential ground loops.
- Disconnect the power from the A/B box. If the buzz goes away then there was a ground loop via linking FX that are in front of the amp and FX in the loop through the amp. If it keeps buzzing then there's a possible ground loop through the 1-spot and the mains power supply.

Anyway, since your A/B box is last in the chain those should be your main trouble spots. Adding FX in front of the A/B box shouldn't induce any ground loops. My suggestion is to get a Pedal Power 2. If you're going to run complex signal routing it alleviates so much headache that it's cost is worth it.

 

[Seth_Guitarist]

Thanks a lot, I'll get that stuff a shot. The TC Delay actually has it's own "wall wart" adapter, it can't be powered with the 1 spot.. So you really think my problem could lie in the power source??

 

[screamingdaisy]

Thanks a lot, I'll get that stuff a shot. The TC Delay actually has it's own "wall wart" adapter, it can't be powered with the 1 spot.. So you really think my problem could lie in the power source??

It could, but it could also be a few other spots.

Trouble shooting ground loops and other sources of hum has caused many a guitarist to loose some hair, and there's plenty of professional rig builders that make plenty of money sorting this **** out for some of them. It's probably why so many old guys prefer simple rigs with minimal pedals and no FX loop. :lol:

The main thing is to only make one change at a time. If you make two or more changes at once you run the risk of mis-diagnosing the problem, which'll just waste time and feed the frustration.

 

[jaquetapus]

Huge +1 on the Pedal Power 2! Does the 1spot even have enough power for the Line6?

-dave

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

One spot for sure.

Try a pedal power.

Have fun with that monster of a rig!

 

[colemaneuclid]

i've had noise in my rig and i noticed it first when i added the 1spot. the second i took that out the buzz was gone.