Ground Hum and Noise

Adinfinitum

Experienced
I have Hum Eliminators (rack), 1/4 inch, and XLR. I have Hum--X on outlets, I have humbuster cables, I have Furman rack power adapters with EFI. There is always hum and noise (except when a noise gate is in the preset). The wiring in the house was updated in 2003 and I explained to the electrician regarding star-grounding.

I have hum with all devices (AXE3, AX8, KPA, BIAS, HeadRush, UAD plugins).

I have turned off WiFi, cellphones, computers, monitors and all wireless devices in the room.

The Hum comes through with all guitars (mostly, ironically, humbuckers).

I have hum through the UAD, through monitors, through my CLR, AND HEADPHONES. This is even with guitar to cable to input to headphones.

Moving around the room or playing in different rooms does have a de minimis change in noise. Besides the regular hum, buzz, and white noise, there is also weird almost theremin noises.

Any ideas?

Also, do you create a ground loop plugging the Axe into the top outlet and then the amp into the other (or place other equipment somewhere in the audio chain)?

I try to have all equipment connected electronically in a serial configuration. One multiplug to the next until reaching the outlet.

My father in law who is a retired Electrical Engineer is no help unless you need an F-14 built.
 
Agree with @AdmiralB ... debug one element at time. With just Axe+phones try a few guitars and a few cables. Try a different room. Try a different house. (While traveling/camping I have used my AF3 in my car with an inverter in the cigarette lighter: dead quiet! Doesn't help with your problem tho 😧 )
 
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I did start with a few guitars, high quality cables into a KPA Stage and UAD Apollo - no difference (Axe3 is in my studio which I'm de and then re-constructing because the only way to get my Hammond C3 to oil it was to move everything out of the way.

Main question is this for now - do you create a ground loop plugging the Axe into the top outlet and then the amp into the bottom outlets or place one power strip into the top and another on the bottom? Or should I use a Hum-X on both outlets?. I would assume a single outlet has a single ground.
 
Unplug your guitar cable from your guitar and from whatever else it’s connected to. Drop it to the floor. What happens to the noise?
 
Main question is this for now - do you create a ground loop plugging the Axe into the top outlet and then the amp into the bottom outlets or place one power strip into the top and another on the bottom? Or should I use a Hum-X on both outlets?. I would assume a single outlet has a single ground.
You can minimize ground loops by connecting all your power plugs as close to the same point as possible, whether that’s all into one wall plate or all into one power strip.
 
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Have you tested for hum with the lights off?
What type of lighting are you using? (flourescent?)​
Are you using dimmers on your lighting?​
What about proximity to a computer video monitor?
 
Well then my electrician sucks because when we expanded the house (2003), I built a studio in the back and told them the electric must be properly grounded (star, rod in the ground) which they supposedly did. The whole house was rewired up to code. We even upgraded the breaker box and amperage.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
 
I have Hum Eliminators (rack), 1/4 inch, and XLR. I have Hum--X on outlets, I have humbuster cables, I have Furman rack power adapters with EFI. There is always hum and noise (except when a noise gate is in the preset). The wiring in the house was updated in 2003 and I explained to the electrician regarding star-grounding.

I have hum with all devices (AXE3, AX8, KPA, BIAS, HeadRush, UAD plugins).

I have turned off WiFi, cellphones, computers, monitors and all wireless devices in the room.

The Hum comes through with all guitars (mostly, ironically, humbuckers).

I have hum through the UAD, through monitors, through my CLR, AND HEADPHONES. This is even with guitar to cable to input to headphones.

Moving around the room or playing in different rooms does have a de minimis change in noise. Besides the regular hum, buzz, and white noise, there is also weird almost theremin noises.

Any ideas?

Also, do you create a ground loop plugging the Axe into the top outlet and then the amp into the other (or place other equipment somewhere in the audio chain)?

I try to have all equipment connected electronically in a serial configuration. One multiplug to the next until reaching the outlet.

My father in law who is a retired Electrical Engineer is no help unless you need an F-14 built.

Are there any LED keyboards or mice still on?
I have this issue with my gaming keyboard.
 
I don't think so, just a lot of wifi, cellular, Bluetooth, and EM waves all over the place. Time to build a Faraday cage!
 
Well then my electrician sucks because when we expanded the house (2003), I built a studio in the back and told them the electric must be properly grounded (star, rod in the ground) which they supposedly did. The whole house was rewired up to code. We even upgraded the breaker box and amperage.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
This is just my educated guess but that's what it sounds like. What happens is that the chassis ground potential for your devices is bouncing around because the house ground is not a good "electron sink". Your electron sink is just the house wiring which has resistance.

So, for example, your refrigerator is drawing current on the hot and that current returns on the neutral. Normally the neutral is bonded to the ground at the service entrance and the two are bonded to earth either via a rod or a water pipe. However if the bond to earth is poor then the current returning on the neutral causes the ground potential to vary since there is high resistance to earth.

Now your body is a "ground" (a poor one) and when you touch your guitar strings any potential on the system ground will cause current to flow in the shield of the instrument cable. This will induce a voltage on the instrument input which is amplified. The result: hum (60 Hz and it's harmonics). Ground should always be as close to earth potential as possible.

If you have copper plumbing one quick thing to try is to run a heavy cable between the ground and a cold water pipe.
 
There is still good all 60 cycle hum and weird computer related noise (I suspect the computer is communicating with their AI overlords)/. We have about 50 cellular and other RF devices in the house, wifi net boosters, neighbors who's WiFi networks pop up, cordless telephones, HD monitors, neighbors satellite dishes, and power transformers blowing up (like today - power out for 90 minutes). So many EM SIGNALS I've started to wear a tinfoil hat and underwear ( can never be too careful).

Plus too much equipment all connected together.

Really would love an AXE3 Plugin so that I have a whole studio in a laptop. Must be some way of preventing warez. How about face ID?
 
I just moved into a new house and I have terrible noise when I previously had none. Confirmed house is wired with 14 gauge aluminum wire. Still trouble shooting but I also suspect poor grounding. Sucks.....
 
I just moved into a new house and I have terrible noise when I previously had none. Confirmed house is wired with 14 gauge aluminum wire. Still trouble shooting but I also suspect poor grounding. Sucks.....
Aluminum wire is famous for corrosion, with connections deteriorating over time.
 
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