EMF Noise - Anyone tried to divert it?

[abt]

In my room there's one very precise angle you can angle a guitar and you get almost no noise. It makes no difference what guitar you use or if the guitar is heavily shielded or not. Of course it just so happens to be a most annoying angle.

Anyway, I did some experiments using a guitar connected to an iPad with the power to the building turned off. The noise remains and the noiseless position still works. Unfortunately this means the noise is coming from somewhere outside the building so I have no control over the source.

TBH I think I'm too lazy to experiment beyond this though I'm interested to know if anyone's gone any further with the concept of shielding a room or building. There's no way I'm sitting in a Faraday cage!

 

[RedDog]

Radio towers, man. Always f*ckin mah sh*t up.

 

[abt]

Radio towers, man. Always f*ckin mah sh*t up.

Well there's plenty of thoses around my place. It's wierd that there's one very small specific angle I can sit and get almost no noise. I guess something's blocking it.

 

[greyskull]

I used to work at a studio where we had all sorts of weird noises coming in from out side rf and power tools in other units on the industrial estate.
A fix we used to do was to attach an old guitar string to the bridge and then gaffa tape it to the guitarist's leg. crude, but it helped.

 

[abt]

I can't believe you got me to try that! Haha. It did nothing btw.

 

[rlcramer]

Dude - I have the EXACT same issue in my house - but sadly I have no idea how to fix it. Yes - it is something airborne (high tension wires, radio station, etc), and has nothing to do with electricity or grounding issues. It actually caused me to basically give up the guitar because it drove me so fucking crazy.

This is what I did that convinced me it would never get fixed.

Grab a friend, sit them in the passenger seat in your car, with a guitar, ipad and a pair of headphones. Turn the volume knob on the guitar all the way up, have them monitor through garage band - they don't have to play - just lightly hold the strings so the guitar isn't actually "playing," and tell them to inform you when that annoying "bzzzzzzz" noise goes away.

Keep driving and eventually it will stop. If you have the shitty luck that I had, the place where the noise stops will be nowhere near your house / studio. For me it was across a bridge about 3 miles away from where I live.

If you ever figure it out, PLEASE let me know what you did. I'm sitting in a room full of midi keyboards and drum machines, and I would love to buy back a few guitars and amps some day if I can ever get rid of this problem.

Bobby

 

[abt]

Hey Bobby. Man that sounds worse than my situation. At least I have one very small angle I can sit and get away from it, all be it an impractical one. I'm not sure how much more l'll pursue this as I don't thinks there's much I can do about it.

 

[Mutant]

Only half serious:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage

Yeah i know the pain.
Kinda like Bobby said, my guitar collects dust in the corner of the room because of this problem.

 

[Studdy]

Im having a hell of a time with a brand new les paul studio. when touching significant metal the noise is gone. as soon as my fingers leave the strings the noise is there. Turning the tone pot to dull will also remove the noise. Any suggestions. Curious about the string on the bridge down the pant leg trick. How do you connect the string to the bridge??

 

[Studdy]

bump

 

[Sweetnothing]

Im having a hell of a time with a brand new les paul studio. when touching significant metal the noise is gone. as soon as my fingers leave the strings the noise is there. Turning the tone pot to dull will also remove the noise. Any suggestions. Curious about the string on the bridge down the pant leg trick. How do you connect the string to the bridge??

It is supposed to be that way. The strings act as a wire to ground, in this case, your body. The bridge has a wire connected to the pot's encasing.

 

[Studdy]

this is what everyone tells me but it cannot be right because the buzz/hum i hear is always present, im not saying its a ground issue but the di tracks im recording definitely dont sound right through this new les paul studio. when i play an open note you can hear it come through. this hum/buzz can be removed by lowering the tone pot completely but then its not the tone i want.

thanks for your reply.

 

[Terminus]

Could be a ground issue with the outlet, old wiring to the room and house, your guitar cable, some appliance in the house like a fridge that runs constantly, or even in a neighbors house or some business nearby with some machinery running on the same line as you are.

 

[Studdy]

the outside source is all it could be at this point. i've tried having everything in the building off but my rig and it still happens. any suggestions on a fix or solution?

thanks!

 

[Mutant]

If it is the so called "dirty power", you could always try a power conditioner...

 

[hurdy]

a bass i have was humming/buzzing the other day.
Removed the back cover and pulled on the wires. One of them broke off, so I re-soldered the wire back on and now its gone

 

[Studdy]

i have tried a cheaper power conditioner and i also tried the Monster Pro 200 for guitarists. No change whatsoever

 

[Djunn]

I have this problem with my LP Studio with passive pups on my Engl e530's lead channel. I can clearly hear radio / TV shows while not playing and hum-buzz I hear is terrific. On the other hand my Schecter with Duncan Blackouts is dead silent no matter how much I bring gain up. Fucking radio towers.

 

[Studdy]

I took a piece of wire and wrapped it around the bridge of the guitar with i tough the end of the wire the noise stops. Im tempted to get an Anti Static Wrist band that they use to work on electronics. I could put it on my ankle. This is my last resort. Any comments on this?? has anyone tried or heard of anything like it?

Thanks!