Engl E530 noise...

[MindsinK]

I just bought one of these bad boys and dig the tone. But it's noisy as f*ck with the gain halfway up. Irritatingly so. I'm running a Loomis Schecter 7 string with active EMG's into it. I'd like to run it direct into ProTools and throw some impulses on it once I can de-noise-ify it...

Will shielding the cavities of my guitar help? This is my first crack at actives; does shielding help like it does with passive pickups?
Should I throw a Rocktron Hush or equivalent after the preamp?
Will new tubes help the background noise on a preamp? I'm guessing no, but what the hell...
Is it cool to rely on large amounts of software noise reduction when recording guitar direct?

 

[Torniojaws]

Are you using it in a grounded or ungrounded wall plug?

 

[MindsinK]

Grounded. I wired the room myself, so it should be hella grounded.

 

[Erkan]

This thread is interesting to me since I have noise problems too with my guitar... an LTD with EMG 81 in the bridge. I've got this huge electrical hum, think it's some problem with the grounding or some shit but I'm not sure. Then again, I have only been recording stuff at home lately since I'm still working on scratch tracks for my new project... I'll have to test the guitar in the rehearsal room once I move over all my gear.

I'm sorry I can't help btw, I'm not very good at these things, I'm not even a guitarist by means Just wanted to chime in and mention my noisy problems and hope we get something out of this thread!

 

[MindsinK]

I forgot to mention that I also have a Radial JDI passive direct box in between the guitar and the preamp; the "thru" is routed to the preamp.

 

[motomoto]

Do you have other ECC83 tube to swap the stock ones?
Tubes can be a bitch....and the ENGL tubes are definitely not as high quality as the amps themselves.

 

[FIXXXER]

i never had noise problems with my E530, must be something else.
the tubes, yeah you should switch to bette rones. the stock tubes are shit,
as already mentioned by motomoto. i made good experience with "EI" tubes.

cheers
S.

 

[MindsinK]

Nah, no spare tubes available... I'll order some to try.

 

[motomoto]

I think its the best thing to do ,meaning that even if its not a tube issue,you are gonna have a spare for later on.Its about 20 euros for a pair of JJ's or Sovteks and they're much better/solid than the stock

 

[DaWolf]

I forgot to mention that I also have a Radial JDI passive direct box in between the guitar and the preamp; the "thru" is routed to the preamp.

We run a similar setup here. A Rolls passive Di thru to the 530. The groundswitch helped a bit with the noise, but it`s still there. Also turning the line level up in the back and turning down the preamp level instead helped as well.
Could you please post your experience when you changed the tubes ?

 

[MindsinK]

Will do (the JJ's should be here within a week.) Thanks for the input guys!

 

[MindsinK]

OK, that was unexpected. I swapped the stock Engl ECC83 tubes with a set of JJ ECC83s. I found that they were noisier and had less gain than the stock tubes!

The first is the stock tubes, guitar plugged in (not playing), strings dampened. The second is random riffing on the stock tubes. The third and fourth are the same tests on the new tubes. Shoots that theory in the ass...

 

[Sacha]

Good preamp tubes are hard to find, especially for the 1st position which is the most sensitive. You'll often find you can buy 'selected' tubes which are hand picked for low noise and high gain to go in V1 of your preamp. Of course they cost a bit more since most tubes won't make the grade here.

Your noise could be coming from many sources though...did you try lifting the ground on your DI box and / or your preamp if they have those options? Could also be your cable or just bad power in your house in general...