AminorZmajor
Experienced
Yes, not happy to hear that was the case. I am going to make some more inquiries into the complete story of what is used etc....
If you need to angle your guitar to minimize the noise, then the problem isn’t your power lines, it’s electromagnetic radiation getting picked up by your guitar. There probably some electrical gadget in your house that’s the culprit. Frequent offenders are light dimmers and Wi-Fi routers.@Adinfinitum I am in a similar situation. Old house built in the late 60's. The hum is terrible throughout. I need to angle myself in a specific position just to minimize it. I don't know much about electrical but was hoping there was something I could get (power conditioner?) to eliminate the problem. I did by that Hum eliminator plug and it didn't help one bit. Aside from moving are there any practical solutions to this? We do have copper pipes FWIW
It's also famously prone to localized thinning and even snapping if flexed a few times. The localized thinning causes that small spot on the wire to heat up if any appreciable current is pulled through the wire, like, say, a hair dryer in your bathroom, which is normally on a 15A circuit, which uses the thinnest wire in your 120/240V electrical system to begin with. A localized thin spot or actual break can happen at any point in the wire, including somewhere up in the wall, if it got flexed too many times or too tightly, or a staple was holding it too tightly or at a tight angle or the guy installing it missed the staple and whacked the wire with his hammer. Worse, it might take years to actually do anything big enough to cause you to go hunting for the issue. My old house in SoPho was built in 1968. Luckily only the 15A branches were wired with the junk.Aluminum wire is famous for corrosion, with connections deteriorating over time.
While they didn't cause hum, every wireless mouse I've tried caused weird little "electronic" sounding noises to get picked up by my guitar.Frequent offenders are light dimmers and Wi-Fi routers.
If you need to angle your guitar to minimize the noise, then the problem isn’t your power lines, it’s electromagnetic radiation getting picked up by your guitar. There probably some electrical gadget in your house that’s the culprit. Frequent offenders are light dimmers and Wi-Fi routers.
No, if the house isn't wired correctly the wiring can create loops which, because they are loops, create EMI.If you need to angle your guitar to minimize the noise, then the problem isn’t your power lines, it’s electromagnetic radiation getting picked up by your guitar. There probably some electrical gadget in your house that’s the culprit. Frequent offenders are light dimmers and Wi-Fi routers.
If the current doesn’t return on the adjacent neutral, what path could it take?No, if the house isn't wired correctly the wiring can create loops which, because they are loops, create EMI.
For example, using the refrigerator analogy again, if the current goes into the fridge on the hot but all of it doesn't return on the ADJACENT neutral then this is current loop. Current flowing in a loop creates a magnetic field.
If you’ve eliminated all sources on your end, and you still have the issue, you could shield your guitar, switch to humbuckers if you haven’t, or become friends with your immediate neighbors so they’ll let you hunt down possible sources in their living spaces.@Rex if after I address everything possible on my end (I’m in a townhouse) and still have this issue, what are my options in trying to eliminate/minimize this? Thanks in advance
If the current doesn’t return on the adjacent neutral, what path could it take?
They're Seymour Duncan P90s. I can try shielding for sure. Much appreciated.If you’ve eliminated all sources on your end, and you still have the issue, you could shield your guitar, switch to humbuckers if you haven’t, or become friends with your immediate neighbors so they’ll let you hunt down possible sources in their living spaces.
P90s are nice, but they're single-coil pickups. So if you can get by with humbuckers, the situation will improve dramatically.They're Seymour Duncan P90s. I can try shielding for sure. Much appreciated.
They're Seymour Duncan P90s. I can try shielding for sure. Much appreciated.
Shielding a guitar that's not shielded will definitely improve the situation. Shielding doesn't block magnetic fields. And you wouldn't put shielding between the pickups and your strings, anyway.Shielding probably won't do much. Since the 'M' in EMI is "Magnetic", effective shielding against it would also block the string signal.
I love P90s, but they're unfortunately one of the 'noisiest' pickups since the coil has so much surface area. If I had a situation where I needed to somehow 'quiet' P90s, I think an Ilitch coil is about the only option that won't mess with the basic tone. But in most P90 guitars it'd be pretty invasive.
Note to future readers searching for solution.Double checked the cables and had a couple bad ones. Yes, I seem to be good. Thanks.