Noise and clicking sound from axe 2

[lqdsnddist]

I guess back in the day my old 4 track had such poor recording quality that I couldn't notice all these hums and hisses etc in the typical home wiring for all the hum and hiss (and crappy) playing on my demo tapes.

In some ways that might of been a bit of a happier time back then.

Grab guitar, create music for a few hours

Now it seems to be grab guitar....spend 45 minutes searching for noise sources in home, then tweak Axe for 2 hours, then find no more time to play music left in day, put down guitar...head off to work

 

[Schwiz]

I wanted to update this thread as I did a ton of research last night. After searching this forum and finding a bunch of Rex's responses, I plugged everything in, turned everything on, and walked my guitar over to a number of electrical components; waving it at the components to see what kind of noise it would make. Sure enough, the dimmer switch in my studio was emitting a massive amount of static. It was only when the dimmer was on, or slightly dimmed that the static got really bad. When it was off, the static went away. My PC was also causing a lot of noise; specifically the cooling fans that were running. I rigged up a box out of an old end table, to enclose the PC, but still allow it enough airflow which should help eliminate the noise from the fans. Lastly, I used the process of elimination and shut down each breaker in my house one by one. As I shut off each breaker, the standing static was less and less apparent. When the electricity to just my studio was on, my tone was so crisp and tight that I wanted to just keep the power off in the house all night and play. One weird thing I found was that a microphone that I had unplugged was causing a BUNCH of noise. I'm not even kidding. It was hooked up to a stand, unplugged and my guitar went haywire when it got close to it. I put it back in its packaging.

Plan of action: I bought some shielding tape, so I'm going to shield the dimmer switch cover and see if that helps. If it doesn't, the dimmer is going bye bye. I am also going to shield all of my guitars. My old Washburn G10V was THE WORST, and my Schecter C7 with Seymour actives was the best in the room with the noise. Additionally if that doesn't help the issue, I am going to have my electrician run a dedicated line to my studio.

Thank you Rex for your insightful posts. Figuring this out is really a huge process of elimination, but using your guitar as a catalyst to finding the electrical disturbances is the easiest way to pinpoint them.

Yeah, finding these issues does take away from playing, but "back then" people didn't demand the quality of tone as they do now. Especially us snobby metal heads.

Edit: I almost forgot. I also turned down the input volume on my Axe-FX. This also helped considerably.

 

[Rex]

Success! Good on you. Not everyone is willing to put in the work to discover the problem, but it pays off. I'm glad I could help.

 

[Tommy Tempest]

@Schwiz glad you figured it out. It is amazing what the magnetic energy from electricity can do to a signal.
I was working with my brother, testing electrical loads and transformer tolerances on big box stores. I had to use a magnet to go into the meter's diagnostics. I was standing on a large power cable, connected to a running load bank, with a magnet in my top pocket. All of a sudden I was getting a huge vibration where the power emitting from the cable was grabbing the magnet or vise versa. So imagine how bad it would be in a building. We essentially have several magnets around us, in our gear, such as pickups, transformers, speaker magnets, etc..
Shielding the dimmer may not help. The only thing that usually helps that, is wiring in grounded conduit. CFL bulbs will cause noise. I removed all my CFL bulbs. I also shielded a guitar once because of noise and it didn't help. A good power conditioner on the circuit you are using to power your gear will help, but not with guitar interference. And it won't help with some of the items you mentioned. You will have to remove or change them. If you have an electrician, have him check for ground loops where the ground wire is crossed over to a neutral. This happens a lot. You may find that one, when you turn off each breaker one at a time. The noisiest one may be the culprit.