Hi all
I feel I have significant noise issues (have mentioned it several times before!) although I'm led to believe it may be more to do with my lack tolerance of said noise. Mrs reckons I have some very form of misophonia as certain frequencies of noise do bother me, I jump out of my skin at the kitchen cupboard doors closing even when I myself have closed them!
However, back to the noise. Has happened in two separate houses with various guitars, pickups, amps and pedals etc. There are only two ways I've found to remove it - a Variax guitar, and an old cheap Audio Technica (i think, will check later) wireless system thing. It's quite old so I don't think it's of the same type of thing as the Line 6 or Smooth Hound type products, radio frequency maybe rather than digital? Who knows.
I believed the reason this worked was because of isolating the ground from the instrument. However an Orchid Effects ground isolator (and a crappy Behringer one) do not work the same. With those, the noise reduces when I don't touch the strings, but is worse when I do touch them which is odd.
So does anybody know why the wireless works for this but other ground isolating things do not? If I were to upgrade to a decent wireless system like the Line 6 or Smooth Hound ones, will they also work?
Thanks all
Matt
Comments
Does the collective mega brain of the fretboard have any ideas on this?
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Does it do it with a different amp/guitar?
Does it do it when you play at a studio with your stuff or anywhere except your home?
It might be possible to use some kind of low pass filter to reduce 50Hz hum. The low E on a guitar is 82 Hz.
Are you using single coils or humbuckers? Single coils will pick up stuff that gets cancelled out by humbuckers.
I'm not really going to solve the noise being caused I just kind of want to check if another wireless system would work as mine is old and battered, or if there was any other method like that which would perform the same function (whatever it is that the wireless is doing to stop the noise)
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Main question is, why does wireless remove noise when other ground isolating things don't? Secondary question is, will another better wireless system than what I have do the same trick?
Thanks
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If you live anywhere near me, you can borrow my wireless system for a week to test for yourself. I'm in South Wales and I have a Line 6 G75 system.
I've never had the problem you speak of with or with out the wireless system, so I'm no help in that way, but if you're close you can try it yourself.
I'm not sure what it is really, but it was exactly the same where I used to live (different town, different age of house, different lighting). I thought it might have been the burglar alarm back there but I am not sure that could be the same here as I've a completely different alarm set up here.
Whether lights are on or off it's the same (I do often play guitar and piano in the dark, weird as that may seem, it's refreshing). There is a dimmer switch downstairs here but there was not at the last House
Here's a recording of it with some awful playing for comedic effect
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I use a Helix myself these days, which itself has a ground lift button, but I've never had to use it.
Many years ago when I was playing the circuits in South Wales, we'd occasionally play a pub or club that had shit wiring that would cause a slight hum. Not really much of a problem if you're blasting the shit out of your amps, but would of totally been a pain in the ass at home.
Next time I Hulk out the laptop I might try to record just the static noise and see what the frequency is, to see if I can eq it out without affecting the sound but I'm pretty sure I've tried that before and there was crossover with the guitar sound so didn't sound as good.
I don't think I changed any settings when I did that video to be honest, just straight into the gsp. The noise gates on there never get switched on as they mess with the reverbs and note decay
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A graphic EQ or maybe a parametric EQ would be a good way of isolating the frequency.
I'm trying to investigate if it's perhaps static electricity, as I do get a lot of static shocks in day to day life and as I've said above, several times I've even static shocked my barber whilst having a trim just by sitting there. Things can get a bit dusty in my spare room as the Mrs uses it as a dumping ground and I can't clean it as much as I would like to - does that contribute?
All internet wisdom seems to be contradicted by my experiences - every discussion on it says the same, test your cables, ground your guitar, change to humbuckers, stop wearing the nylon knickers etc. All very logical stuff but when it has happened with loads of different guitars in different locations, it can't be the normal factors can it?
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If you didn't like the actual guitar, it's possible to have the Variax electronics built into something else - it won't be cheap, but if it solves the problem then it's probably worth it. It should also have the advantage that you will only ever need one guitar (or two, if you need a backup).
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Prices for Variax guitars seems to be about 3x what I struggled to sell mine for in the past, but I do always keep my eyes open for a JTV69 at a reasonable price just in case
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The TL:DR version of the thread so far is that I get static noises that bother me when playing guitar, but these noises go away when I use an old Audio Technica RF wireless unit. I wanted to try to understand why that was the case and could i replicate the same trick with a newer better wireless, or some other trickery.
Whilst tidying up my spare room/temporary office/music room, I have positioned the aforementioned wireless unit thing underneath my computer monitor, connected to my modelling unit which is also there, to enable easier "pickup and play" and without the noise.
The power lead has died a death so I'm using a different one, when plugging it in, I've noticed something else on the back panel. Something called "Squelch" with arrows pointing to min and max settings. Seems to be a screwdriver required to adjust it which I've not done yet,
A google search brought up this link:
https://blog.audio-technica.com/audio-solutions-question-of-the-week-what-is-the-squelch-feature-used-for-on-my-wireless-system/
Which I think means the Squelch is just a noise gate, ie it cuts out RF signals below a certain level.
So - forgive my ignorance, would this mean a noise gate pedal such as the Boss Noise Suppressor, do the same thing? I always thought they affected the cut off of my notes too much but if this works on the wireless and it's the same process with the pedal, it could be possible?
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