Since I'm new to rack gear...

I noticed this for the first time yesterday when my upstairs neighbours turned off their laundry machine, the background noise in my Axe-FX changed slightly. Not enough to really matter, just a slightly different timbre to the regular amp hiss..
Mine is annoying to the point that I will usually stop playing. Sometimes I think my wife turns it in purposely :(
 
While I do advocate surge and brown out protection, a lot of noise isn’t necessarily in the 120/60hz line. It’s your guitar’s Pups.

Do your noise hunting smartly.
Noise in a guitar rig is typically from multiple sources. Yes, the pickups are are major source of such noise but so are ground loops, power, bad components, noisy components, fans, motors, dimmers, fluorescent light bulbs. The motor for your refrigerators compressor or your washing machine motor can add transients to your power line that manifest as noise in your rig. For that matter, your neighbors refrigerator can add noise to your rig. Each noise source has different remedial solutions. Each electrical system is unique because the noise in your studio is a cumulative result of the wiring installation, system ground, the components attached to the system (both in your home and your neighbors homes), power quality, and EMI/Radio waves present in the environment.

120v does in fact carry noise into a system. Balanced power can help significantly, but it is expensive to implement. Isolation transformers can help too, they are heavy, expensive and get hot. There is a reason that reputable studios, tv stations, radio stations, etc run on isolated; balanced power... because 120v lines can conduct noise.

Is placing a high quality noise filter or isolation transformer in your rack suddenly going to make your rig dead silent? Probably not. It will lower the noise floor though.

That is what addressing noise in a guitar rig is all about: identify a problem, find a solution. Continue the process until the noise floor is acceptable to you. It is an iterative process. The noise is a symptom of a problem, you have to get to root cause(s).
 
Back
Top Bottom