Lots of noise all of a sudden *****

M

malenko

Member
Hello,

Got my Jackson back from the luthiers after a fret redress and setup and plugged it in excitedly to give it a blast only to be greeted by a ton of amp noise and yet nothing had changed in my little studio setup. After opening Axe edit and having it automatically update it told me I now have to update to FW19 which I thought ok, perhaps it will sort the noise problem out. But no, very gutted as I was thinking perhaps the luthier had disturbed something in my Jackson so I got the hump and turned everything off.
That was two weeks ago as I have been very busy but thankfully got some time last night. Still lots of noise!! I could get rid of it by turning up the gate but it has to go so far up it sounded terrible. Then I realised that the noise was extremely bad when I sit with the pups facing exactly 90 degrees to the face of the Axe. When facing the pups directly/parallel to the Axe the noise goes. This led me to wonder as the Jackson has passive Duncan's, so I tried a Schecter with passive Duncan's and the same problem! Then I tried a couple of Ibanez's with stock passive pups and voila, no noise!! Very strange. So then I tried a guitar loaded with active EMG's and there was a little bit of noise but this time the noise would disappear at 90 degrees to the Axe.
I just cannot understand it as NOTHING has changed and before this it was perfect with every guitar with hardly any noise on any preset and for now nearly a year, then this.
I know it could be an almost endless possible cause, but has anyone got any idea as to what to maybe try or what has mysteriously changed to save my sanity :-|

Cheers
 
Are you using drive pedals? Some of the pedals have a ton more "juice" since being G3'ed, which would also increase the amount of background noise being amplified.
 
Paperjace said:
Bad guitar cable? Something not grounded properly?
Click to expand...

I be tempted to agree and look for mechanical causes first as quoted above. Replace each cable in turn starting with your input lead, then the next question is whether you are running through headphones or axe to poweramp to cab/speakers? Does it happen on both signal paths?

If using XLR out from Axe FX then does it do the same on 1/4?

Continue changing cables until all of them have been replaced - oh, and don't just use any of your existing cables or merely move them around in the chain.

Following on from that, does it make a difference whether you use the front input or the rear input on the axe?
 
If no electrical work or transformers were added in your area, and NO patches were changed and no noise was there beforehand, and then you had your guitar worked on and now there is noise, It pretty much has to be the guitar (or guitar cable) doesn't it? Plug in another guitar. Do you have the same noise ? If you do, then change outlets (plug in the Axe FX) on the other side of the house. Did the noise decrease?
 
FW 19 uses more CPU. Some of my patches that were in the high 80s, low 90s, now crackle and I have to remove blocks.

Try a simple amp/cab only preset and see if that cures what ails you.
 
If you using some sort of rack.. try pulling the axe out set it by itself .. isolate it. I had a bad noise issue.. ended up being ground loop between wireless unit and axe due to the rack mount. Isolated the wireless unit now no noise. just need to eliminate things one at a time. Maybe try setting the Axe on the table and use a set of headphones.. so your not hooking the axe up to anything else electrical. Are you near a computer? or Screen? That will cause all sorts of havok with a hi gain electric guitar patch.. try moving someplace else .. Might not be your axe at all but something near it or you when your playing.
 
Just re-read the OP... less noise when using certain guitars, so assuming that ALL cables used were the same then it's an external factor but you still need to do the step by step elimination process only this time I'd advise you to widen the scope as advised by others above.

I think a better explanation of what type of 'amp noise' you are getting would be helpful.
 
Is the Motor Drive turned up in your Cab Block? That would definitely add some noise compared to the 18.xx algorithm. Try zeroing that out and see if your noise is back to a normal level.
 
Could it be that the ground lift switch on the back of the Axe-Fx got flipped accidentally (don't even know if that could cause the level of noise described)?
 
Thanks guys for all the responses, really appreciate it.

As I feared it probably will have to be a process of elimination which is just a pain in the backside because when I first got the Axe I had some nasty interference noise which lastest a couple of weeks. Tore my hair out for it to just strangely disappear and has never come back since so the whole process fills me with despair

Could be the cable but I have no others to try as of yet. Ground loop is possible, I may have disturbed something unknowingly perhaps?
Not using any drive pedals, just straight into the Axe.
Could be other cables but again as of yet I don't have any other cables to try. I've not tried the rear input yet but this is why I'm annoyed because I get very little time to play so obviously don't want to spend that time fiddling around.
As I said, I did at first think it was the guitar after it came back from a luthier but after trying others, particularly one with Duncan passive pups, just the same problem.
I shall be trying a preset form scratch but is it really possible for them all to change on their own?
Unfortunately I do sit right in front of the computer monitors but I need to have my DAW mixer within arms length and my eye sight ain't great and I do know this causes no end of noise problems but it has been fine up until now.
I shall try playing with the motor drive cause TBH I dont even know where that is.
Ground lift switch, possibly from when I got something from behind the rack but it's a long shot.

Well hopefully I may be able to steal some time tonight and investigate but here's hoping it just disappears like what happened before...

Cheers evrybody
 
G'day malenko,
Mate, go to the shop and buy another lead - you must have a spare lead otherwise you can bet your left nut that your existing one will fail the moment you press record on a very important project. So,..you'll solve two problems -1 you'll have a spare cable, 2- you'll be able to see if it's the cable that's causing your problem.

Pauly


malenko said:
Thanks guys for all the responses, really appreciate it.

As I feared it probably will have to be a process of elimination which is just a pain in the backside because when I first got the Axe I had some nasty interference noise which lastest a couple of weeks. Tore my hair out for it to just strangely disappear and has never come back since so the whole process fills me with despair

Could be the cable but I have no others to try as of yet. Ground loop is possible, I may have disturbed something unknowingly perhaps?
Not using any drive pedals, just straight into the Axe.
Could be other cables but again as of yet I don't have any other cables to try. I've not tried the rear input yet but this is why I'm annoyed because I get very little time to play so obviously don't want to spend that time fiddling around.
As I said, I did at first think it was the guitar after it came back from a luthier but after trying others, particularly one with Duncan passive pups, just the same problem.
I shall be trying a preset form scratch but is it really possible for them all to change on their own?
Unfortunately I do sit right in front of the computer monitors but I need to have my DAW mixer within arms length and my eye sight ain't great and I do know this causes no end of noise problems but it has been fine up until now.
I shall try playing with the motor drive cause TBH I dont even know where that is.
Ground lift switch, possibly from when I got something from behind the rack but it's a long shot.

Well hopefully I may be able to steal some time tonight and investigate but here's hoping it just disappears like what happened before...

Cheers evrybody
Click to expand...
 
If it's coming and going as you turn different angles as you said, it's most likely EMI noise. The new G3'd drive blocks have more output as was mentioned which could cause it, but sounds like it was happening before updating to FW19.
 
OP said.. "he had noise after getting guitar fixed".. THEN tried going to FW 19 and that did not fix it.. So if noise was there before updating.. nothing he did during the update process is related. SO move on to grounding or bad cable. You can try the rear input vs the Front.. that is quick and easy. But probably wont matter if it is some ground or bad cable.
ALSO i can speak from experience the bad ground / cable or ground loop can make EMI related noise way worse. The fact that you turn and it gets worse 100 % says that your noise is EMI generated, BUT that may not really be the root of the problem. There is always EMI around us. Unless something like your monitor or computer lost a ground and is putting out much higher then normal EMI. I have some guitars that are way more susceptible to EMI. Specifically single coil ( That's why they came up with Humbuckers) Once i fixed my grounding issue, the EMI issue was greatly reduced as i suspect yours will be.

Steps I would take. as mentioned above and before.
1) Try a new cable. if still not good,
2) Try rear connector vs Front. If still no good,
3) take Axe to different room and use a set of Head phones so it is not hooked to any thing else electrical that could cause ground loop problem. If STILL not good.. then idk might be issue with axe or noise is normal.. ( some noise is normal with Hi gain amps)

Good luck !!
 
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PS.. changing amps are starting with new patches may seem to solve the issue, but in reality your just masking it cause now you have a lower gain amp or patch and the noise is not that bad. Same with the Noise gate. Leave it off for now until you solve it.
 
Thanks shepo1, those are going to be my first steps providing I can aquire the time which is proving difficult lately :-x
I did also think that about trying a new preset cause my favourite home made preset which is very high gain, was extremely quite to the point of NO noise when not playing but now it is unusable depending on which way I face to the Axe of course.

Cheers
 
Just another thing to check on. You mentioned Axe Edit at the time the noise was generating. Was was the computer/laptop and could it be a possible interaction between computer and Axe Fx (if sat on top) or indeed guitar and computer. I know my noise level increases somewhat when directly facing my recording desktop. May be something to consider and move things around and see if that helps.

Edit: See it way mentioned a couple of posts up in passing.
 
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