Axe-Fx Standard loud HUM. Ground lift/cables/ebtech hum-x didn't help. Sample inside

T

templton89

New Member
As the tittle say - I'm getting loud hum from my axefx.
It's present on all hi-gain presets. First two notes in the sample are with noise gate - so it's axefx is completely quiet when I'm not playing anything, but as soon as I play something that's louder than gate's threshold - it's there, especially annoying on palm muted stuff and fast staccato.
Chord progression at the end of the clip is using patch with gate turned off, you can hear it every time I pause between chords.


I tried just about everything I could - plugging into power strip, or straight into the wall, Ebtech hum-x did absolutely nothing, lifting ground, different guitars (active and passive pickups) , playing through interface or straight into monitors or headphones.
This issue is driving me nuts, and none of the solutions I found on google worked, if anyone could suggest anything, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks.


 
Is it racked with any other equipment? I have found that the power transformers in my tube pre's can make noise if they're racked near the Axe's analog front end (near the input jack area)?

Do you have a breaker/fuse box or CRT computer monitor nearby (I get noise through my guitar's pups from the fuse box in the next room, even humbuckers)?

Does the noise null out if you position the Axe differently, or the guitar pups etc?

Good luck...

templton89 said:
As the tittle say - I'm getting loud hum from my axefx.
It's present on all hi-gain presets. First two notes in the sample are with noise gate - so it's axefx is completely quiet when I'm not playing anything, but as soon as I play something that's louder than gate's threshold - it's there, especially annoying on palm muted stuff and fast staccato.
Chord progression at the end of the clip is using patch with gate turned off, you can hear it every time I pause between chords.


I tried just about everything I could - plugging into power strip, or straight into the wall, Ebtech hum-x did absolutely nothing, lifting ground, different guitars (active and passive pickups) , playing through interface or straight into monitors or headphones.
This issue is driving me nuts, and none of the solutions I found on google worked, if anyone could suggest anything, I'd really appreciate it.
Thanks.


Click to expand...
 
Sounds like your average noise picked up by the guitar to me. I assume you have the noise gate set up for your level of gain, right?
 
It's a new apartment i moved into, and as soon as I did, I bought axe, so i assumed it's probably somethin with outlets/buildin in general.

My rig is very simple - guitar to axe fx to scarlett 8i6 interace to monitors. Pickups are humbuckers. My monitor is lcd, although I do have a fuse box next room. Moving axe doesnt change anything

My guitars are fairly new customs and i havent played them through anything but pod prior to this, so I wasnt sure if it's a guitar issue. Tricky part is that they dont have tone knobs, volume only. I borrowed a guitar with EMGs and full controls, and seems like rolling tone knob back helps get rid of noise.

Gate is set to -45db with high ratio, fast attack and release. At -45 it kills hum i get when guitar is not played, but even scratchin the string breaks the silence and creates signal above -45db and i hear massive hum.

I checked electronics cavities, soldering seems to be solid, touchin any of the connectors doesnt affect anything.
Turning guitar volume knob down creates complete silence as expected.

Im not sure what to try next, take out all electronics, shield cavity with copper tape and resolder all joints?
 
I've had a bit of a noise problem with mine too, but yours sounds a lot worse.

I'm mainly a single coil player - not all that much gain. I do have a couple of built in Suhr SSC's which are extremely quiet with distortion into a regualr amp.

Had a florescent fixture in the basement room below me - made an EMG based rig hum like a swarm of bees. Noise gates sound a little un-natural to me, but the one in the Axe was pretty usable.

I'm not 100% sure, but setting ground lift on the Axe (switch on back) to lowest noise position, then turn off any bright switches on amp sims if you can or try to keep treble as low as possible. Could try using a brighter speaker sim so you can reduce treble on the amp sim.

It might not work for you, but its something to try.
 
You said you tried switching the ground lift switch on the back? Does the noise stop when you touch any metal part on the guitar or does it get worse? Sounds like a ground loop issue, but could be some noisy power - monitors, fluorescent lights, LED lights, dimmers etc.
 
I've Noticed that sometimes the Input Knob gets weird..... Try lowering it all the way down, then all the way up, and then to your normal position.
 
lreese said:
I've had a bit of a noise problem with mine too, but yours sounds a lot worse.

I'm mainly a single coil player - not all that much gain. I do have a couple of built in Suhr SSC's which are extremely quiet with distortion into a regualr amp.

Had a florescent fixture in the basement room below me - made an EMG based rig hum like a swarm of bees. Noise gates sound a little un-natural to me, but the one in the Axe was pretty usable.

I'm not 100% sure, but setting ground lift on the Axe (switch on back) to lowest noise position, then turn off any bright switches on amp sims if you can or try to keep treble as low as possible. Could try using a brighter speaker sim so you can reduce treble on the amp sim.

It might not work for you, but its something to try.
Click to expand...

The point is to fix a problem, and not to look for a work around by jeopardizing tone and doing all kinds of trickery. This happens on any distorted patch (anything where signal is amplified and boosted to great extremes, and that hum is just a in a certain frequency range. Don't have any flourescent fixtures in my apartment, but I will try to get electrician to replace the contents of fuse box to something higher-quality. But then again - it's an apartment building so for all I know person next door might have something that affects entire block of apartments (if apts are wired up in phases) .

And again, noise gate only helps when I am NOT playing anything, it just gets rid of that hum based on threshold, but keep in mind, they hum is ALWAYS there and it cuts into my tone. I need to record it again and analyze it with some EQ plugin to exactly which frequency it's on.


jon said:
You said you tried switching the ground lift switch on the back? Does the noise stop when you touch any metal part on the guitar or does it get worse? Sounds like a ground loop issue, but could be some noisy power - monitors, fluorescent lights, LED lights, dimmers etc.
Click to expand...


Looks like it's Not a pickup ground issue, I've had that before and I know the behavior - you touch strings or bridge and it stops, or the opposite - all quiet until you accidentally touch pickup ring etc. This hum is persistent with all my gear - custom 7 string with CrunchLab and Liquifire pickups, dimarzio Petrucci switch (3 way, middle -coil split) and only one knob for volume. My bass and my 6 string LTD with EMG has produces the same hum, but what's interesting is that turning down tone knob helps a little, but again - that's not a solution and it only happens because tone is affecting certain frequencies - probably the ones where this hum is sitting.



Velle said:
I've Noticed that sometimes the Input Knob gets weird..... Try lowering it all the way down, then all the way up, and then to your normal position.
Click to expand...

I've tried playing around with input/output knobs, and that's not it. Altho I do know the "scratch" you get sometimes.
 
Hi!

I know, that this thread is a little bit old.

I'm writing cause I have EXACTLY the same problem with my Ultra - same hum :(

Any news about how to get rid of it?


Regards
Andy
 
Hi all!

I have solve that problem with Behringer DI20 Stereo DI Box and later on i buy a Proel DB2A DB Series. Any of them work great.
I talk to a guy a G66 and he advise to buy Ebtech hum-x. I didn´t, it´s to expensive and before try to buy anything, a use Behringer DI20 Stereo DI Box (20€) Later I change for a Proel DB2A DB Series, its cost me 65€ and is rack montable. try then and let me know.
 
Velle said:
I've Noticed that sometimes the Input Knob gets weird..... Try lowering it all the way down, then all the way up, and then to your normal position.
Click to expand...

That did the trick for me! Thank you so much! I have been having this trouble for weeks and now its gone.
 
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