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Post subject: Super Important Amp Question!
Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 12:00 am
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My amp has been humming louder than normal lately. I play with a Strat with single coils, so a little hum is normal but I'm positive this humming is coming from the amp not the guitar, and I'm sure it's louder than usual.

And sometimes it goes crazy and gets extremely loud and the only thing that can stop it is turning the amp on and off, and then it's gone. It seems like the really loud buzzing always starts when I change the volume suddenly or kick in an effects pedal (even kicking in the tremolo caused it to go off). It did that sudden crazy buzzing thing tonight at my gig, right in the middle of a slow, quiet song. I don't even remember if I hit a pedal or not, it just happened all of a sudden.

It could be the tubes, but I want to see if any of you have had a similar experience and know for sure what's going on before I go buy a new set of tubes and everything. I have a few gigs in Austin in a couple of weeks so I have to get this problem sorted out now.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:59 am
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Let us know if the hum is also present with your guitar cable unplugged from amp side.

By the way, I feel a bad ground connection ...

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 7:31 am
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I seriously doubt it's the tubes. The tubes are always in play not just when you switch the FX loop in or out. There's likely intermittent contact in a connection or switch somewhere. Tracking it down will be a job for an amp tech. Don't attempt to fix it yourself.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 9:12 am
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i had a problem recently that seems similar. after the amp warmed up, this annoying loud hum would kick in. just this constant low frequency that you could almost feel vibration from in the floor. Almost sounded like when you have sound equip. that needs to have a ground lift.

i believe it was a preamp tube, i exchanged it with another and i havent had the issue.

its true what they say, most amp problems lie in bad tubes.


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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 11:44 am
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BMW-KTM wrote:
I seriously doubt it's the tubes. The tubes are always in play not just when you switch the FX loop in or out. There's likely intermittent contact in a connection or switch somewhere. Tracking it down will be a job for an amp tech. Don't attempt to fix it yourself.


I'm not really using the effects loop, I'm just plugging my into my pedal board and the pedal board into the amp. Come to think of it, I played a gig last Monday with no effects and I didn't encounter the problem all night. But at practice the previous Thursday with the pedals it was did that sudden really loud buzzing several times.

If it's a ground problem what could be causing it? It is the amp or could it be part of my pedal board or my guitar?

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:02 pm
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OK. Now we're getting somewhere with deductive reasoning.
With pedals = buzz.
Without pedals = no buzz.

That tells me it's not your amp.
You have a pedal board issue.
Or possibly a shielding issue on your guitar.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 1:03 pm
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or a bad cable connecting the pedal board to the amp


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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:04 pm
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BMW-KTM wrote:
OK. Now we're getting somewhere with deductive reasoning.
With pedals = buzz.
Without pedals = no buzz.

That tells me it's not your amp.
You have a pedal board issue.
Or possibly a shielding issue on your guitar.


I just checked all the cables on the pedal board recently, so there shouldn't be a problem there. I use a 1 spot adapter, no batteries. But the only thing I don't get is that after this extremely loud buzzing starts, I can turn off and on the effects all I want but it won't go away unless I turn off and on the amp. And after I do it doesn't matter what pedals are engaged/disengaged, the crazy buzzing stops and it's back to just the slightly louder than usual hum.

I was just talking with my guitar tech about shielding the other day. He says he's pretty sure that it's not fully shielded. I was going to take care of that soon, but I literally just got booked for a gig Tuesday so it's going to have to wait unless I'm 100% sure that's the problem. And I just remember that this buzzing happened once when I was playing my Les Paul, so it's probably not the guitar.

Right now I'm going to hook my pedal board up to my Peavey Classic 30 with the same two guitars (Strat and Les Paul) and I'm going to play until I'm sure that 1. there is no crazy buzzing or 2. there is definitely the same buzzing. If it buzzes, and it buzzes with both guitars then I'm sure it's the pedal board. If it doesn't and nothing I do can make it, then the problem is my Fender amp. Either way I'll find a way to work around it for the gigs I have coming up soon.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:06 pm
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A process of isolation and elimination is always a good plan for troubleshooting. You're on the right track.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:12 pm
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Well, good news and bad news.

Good news, my amps both hum at about the same volume without a guitar plugged in. Their both tube amps and both of them sound normal.

Bad news, I couldn't get the buzzing to happen on either amp. I spent about half an hour just constantly playing and hitting stomp boxes and nothing happened. Last night at the gig it was happening about once every ten minutes and it happened about five times. Today nothing. At least I know for a fact it's not the guitar.

If I still can't get something conclusive by the time I have my next gig I'll just go for a minimalist setup. I really just need one overdrive and while having the tremolo and wah around is nice, I can do without.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 4:53 pm
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texasguitarslinger wrote:
Well, good news and bad news.

Good news, my amps both hum at about the same volume without a guitar plugged in. Their both tube amps and both of them sound normal.

Bad news, I couldn't get the buzzing to happen on either amp. I spent about half an hour just constantly playing and hitting stomp boxes and nothing happened. Last night at the gig it was happening about once every ten minutes and it happened about five times. Today nothing. At least I know for a fact it's not the guitar.

If I still can't get something conclusive by the time I have my next gig I'll just go for a minimalist setup. I really just need one overdrive and while having the tremolo and wah around is nice, I can do without.


Well, repeat this process for the next few days. It may be that you caught everything in a quiet moment so-to-speak. it's a grounding issue but where is what you have to determine. Move the cables around ...stomp on the boxes...play it until it happens again. Then you can isolate things.

-T

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 5:12 pm
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I have had a problem like that that from time to time over the years and every time it ended up being a cable in my effects chain.Usually the cable isn't completely shot but it may have a few strands broken away from the solder and causing a grounding problem when the cable is moved just slightly.I had a very expensive cable give out on me once and there was a break in the outer wires but it didn't show through the casing it was only when I put a voltmeter on it that I realized there was an invisible break in the core.Did you test your cables with a continuity tester or voltmeter?

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 7:46 pm
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Yeah, I plan on running the same test tomorrow and again everyday until I can pinpoint the source.

guitslinger wrote:
Did you test your cables with a continuity tester or voltmeter?


I'm not sure. My just handed me the cable tester and showed me where to plug the cables in and what lights to look for. I don't know what the thing was called. You plugged the cable in both ends (it had inputs for a bunch of different types of cables) and if it was good a couple of lights would light up.

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Posted: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:27 pm
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When you're up against a problem that has you stumped it's frequently a good idea to write down a list of the things you absolutely know for sure. Then write down a list of tests you tried with what intention and with what results. In the margin beside the results you can make guesses with question marks? Use diagrams too. It helps to be able to visualize the problem and the equipment when you're racking your brain. Then when an idea comes to you you can look at your data and decide if the idea fits what you know for sure before wasting more time on another experiment that teaches you nothing. Ultimately you're the one figuring it out. It's pretty tough for us back seat drivers to know what's going on without putting our hands on it. Keep logging your results and posting them here and eventually the process of elimination will narrow it down.

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Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:17 am
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if i read correctly, more than one gig has occurred throughout the duration of this thread...if so, were they at the same venue? if so, i'd investigate your stage.


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