Noise Gates

I get the noise when just playing through my pod with headphones. So it isnt the computer in my case, but that is a good thing to remember. Im really starting to think that these type of guitars are fairly noisy, i just find it weird that the noise is 100% completely gone with the tone knob is down. Thanks for all the advice \m/ \m/
 
It isn't weird, the tone knob kills high frequencies. The noise is somewhere there probably. Have you tried walking around the room with the guitar to see if there's any difference?

If it almost goes away when you touch the guitar then is it really that much of an issue?
 
Yes, i have walked around the room. I also tried through my pod at home not where studio is and i get a similar result. Could be bad wiring at both locations or radio transmissions or something but the studio and my house are 5 miles apart.
 
It is a USA les Paul studio, brand new in box not even an hour on it. Bought from sweetwater and they have a fairly decent inspection system. They have sent me a new guitar once and also they have checked the current one. They see no issues with it. The noise is quite significant I would say, and like I posted earlier I have a cheaper epiphone similar design that behaves the same. Just wondered if u think a di box with a ground lift or a noise reduction unit would be a decent thing to try.
 
that might help, do you have a EMG equipped guitar around? I had a similar problem once, with a guitar with passive pickups,
not with my emg equipped one, so it had to be some kind of grounding or shielding issue.
After some time, I found out that the grounding from the bridge had a little "break", you almost couldn't see it, but I replaced
it and everything worked well.
Took the guitar to a shop before, they didn't find the issue because they only tested it in a pretty quiet setup with a clean
sound, hard to hear the issue there.
 
"Track your DI's, edit out noise manually."

How do you manually edit out noise that is heard over top the track? I obviously remove the noise during silence. Touching the strings kills 90% of the noise but not 100%. The only way to truly get rid of the noise is to turn the tone knob completely down. I've been through 3 of these les pauls brand new so it isnt this specific guitar. I also have an epiphone with similar electronics that behaves the same. I thought maybe a ISP Decimator or alike would be the answer. I could also buy a noise reduction plugin of some type, but I hate the thought of not getting it right at the source.

No, it's not obvious what you do. Turning the tone knob down is probably a bad idea if you're tracking di's to be reamped later. If you sent me di's with the tone rolled off I would poke you in your eye. If by "noise over the top of the track" you mean fizz or hiss, that's kind of what amps do. You would be reaching for the wrong solution with a decimator. A gate is a gate, a noise solution would require you to post a clip, because your descriptive skills aren't lending you a very good case.
 
You're probably not playing hard enough hence the low signal to noise ratio, but the problem could be the pickups.
I had this cort guitar that sounded alright but had a very loud noise, but moving the pickup or pushing it down a little did the trick. I also had a guitar that had noise if I came close to the computer and I also had a cheap ass guitar that was too noisy by default.

So one of those two things are more likely to be the problem. If you play very hard like it should be, then it's the pickups. Not that it's necessarily defective, but might be picking something else in your room. I don't think that les paul is noisy by default.
 
The constant noise is there when not playing at all just hand on strings for ground. It is there just slightly. I appreciate all the tips but it's not related to my playing style, been playing for 20 years. I could be over analysing how quiet the guitar should be, I appreciate all the advice and suggestions. I just find it weird that sweetwater would send me 2 guitars that were noisy? So i figured it must be something in my area or signal chain or something. We do have a local radio station (fm) that has a wide spread, could that be it? If so any suggestions on taming it. My studio and home are both with in 2 miles of the radio stations towers.
 
that could be a reason, a friend of mine had a similar problem because of the subway 50 metres away from his house.
He wanted to built a little video-recording studio and had to move places because there was so much interference.
 
I've had guitars pick up radio stations before, but you could hear the radio coming through the amp, so I would say this is not likely - you would probably know it was radio interference if this was the case.

It could be CRT monitors, old school TV with a tube instead of LCD/plasma, neon signs, etc. And these don't necessarily have to be in your place - they could be next door (in an apartment building or commercial space) or somewhere close enough for the EMI to cause problems. Do you have any older electronics around?
 
No old electronics around. As posted earlier I have had power off in the entire building except the rig and the noise was still present. It certainly sounds like a grounding issue, but the outlet is grounded. I had an electrician check it. When the guitar is grounded "touching metal" 90% of the noise goes away, but not completely. The only thing the electrician suggested was to add a ground spike? I believe we are currently grounded to a water pipe??? I'm not an electrician. This is a large commercial building and im not exactly sure what is up with the electrical. Could be dirty power, but i use a power conditioner, and a monster wall mount conditioner. Neither have made a bit of difference. Thanks for all the help.