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Post subject: Grounding my Blues Jr NOS
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:27 pm
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Hey everyone,

I posted this question in the strat forum thinking that it was a problem with my 4 month old American standard strat. I'll give the background then get into my troubles.

About 2 weeks ago, I began getting an extra hum through my Blues Jr NOS, when playing my strat. I proceeded to bypass my pedal board, and the hum continued. I know it isn't the normal 60 cycle hum associated with the SC PUPs because, it gets louder on positions 2 and 4 (which normally cancel the hum). Well, as I play, and am touching the strings, bridge, tuners, etc... this hum goes away, but as soon as I take my hand off, the hum begins again. I thought that it was something wrong with my strat, because I tried my Epi LP at the initial onset of this hum and I didn't notice it.

Well, yesterday, I pulled all of the tubes out, and re-seated them, then fired up the BJr, and lo and behold the hum continued with my strat. Well after playing for a a while, I decided to try the LP to see if the hum persisted. Well, this time, it did. Again, on my LP, when I touched the tuners, strings, and bridge/tailpiece the hum disappeared. This leads me to realize that the hum is coming from my Blues Jr. I've had her since August, and I got her from a guy on Craigslist, who bought it in April of this year.

Is this a grounding issue with the Blues Jr?

If so how would I be able to fix it/get it fixed?

Is this something that new tubes would fix?

Should I try to rearrange the preamp tubes order?

Should I contact Fender customer support? (I do have the receipt and therefore have transferred the warranty).

Any other thoughts, suggestions, comments?

Thank you all so much! Blessings!

(Here are the objects in question)

Image

The amp on the left is my old Epiphone Galaxie10 all tube amp. She sounds great but has problems burning through 6L6's (one at a time thankfully) but that's another story!


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:48 pm
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How's the quality of your cords? On that note, you have a rats nest of wire there. You may want to try a different power strip. Also televisions, computer monitors, and fluorescent lights can cause hum and buzzing as well as cell phones. You can also try a different room because the ac line may be "dirty".


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 6:58 pm
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The issue may with dirty electricity. If your amp is plugged into a circuit with large appliances, certain lights, computers, tv's, etc. it will have the hum.
Try plugging it it somewhere else in the house.

I had a dedicated circuit put in my house just for my amp.

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:02 pm
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CAFeathers wrote:
The issue may with dirty electricity. If your amp is plugged into a circuit with large appliances, certain lights, computers, tv's, etc. it will have the hum.
Try plugging it it somewhere else in the house.

I had a dedicated circuit put in my house just for my amp.


I would agree with this one........I once had the same problem, only to find out that the amp was plugged into the same circuit as one of the new florescent light bulbs. Went to a different outlet, and no more problem.

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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 7:04 pm
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Thanks guys.

I first thought it was my cables, but i checked the amp straight in with the brand new noiseless pro cable that came in the goodie bag with my strat, and the hum was still there. I will check the circuits, and try plugging the amp in another room. I didn't have any trouble, with my set-up downstairs, in the same room as my parent's desktop computer. My rig (if you can call it that) is in our spare bedroom now directly above where I had it set up before. I will try moving the amp to another outlet first in the room, then to another room and see if the problems continue. I'll keep you all posted! Thank you so much!


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Post subject:
Posted: Tue Oct 13, 2009 8:16 pm
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Hey guys,

Crisis is solved. As per your advice about checking outlets, I took the Blues Jr and my strat and went around to 6 different outlets upstairs and down. The last one I tried came off clean, with no hum or buzz at all. After this, I brought the amp back upstairs, and decided to plug it in to my power conditioning pedal board, to see if that keeps the noise off. I tried this, and there was again, no hum. So I got ambitious, and plugged the amp back into the powerstrip (off of the conditioning), and the hum remained gone. I'm hoping it will stay that way, but if it returns, I know what to do! Thank you guys so much! I really appreciate all the help!

Blessings!


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:21 pm
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Very Cool.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:55 pm
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Hello JohnWhirl,

Good deal you found a clean zone.
I got the same thing but no clean zone for me. :shock:

Cheers.


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:36 pm
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Rats, Mr. Bill!

That's no good at all. I hope you're able to find one soon though. I had gotten to the point of almost tolerating the hum, but it was really irritating to me, and would have been a nightmare had I been micing/recording with the amp.

I really do hope that you can find a clean outlet, to get the amp singing sweetly again!

Blessings!


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Post subject:
Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:48 pm
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Hi John Whirl,

I been living with it for decades you see
High tension line are right out my window.
I'd have to shield my entire home in copper. :lol:

Cheers.
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Post subject:
Posted: Sat Oct 17, 2009 7:13 am
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If you want a clean circuit without going through the expense of putting in a dedicated circuit, you could try an isolation transformer.

Has anyone tried one?


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