What in the world is causing this nasty sound?

T

TheVede

Member
There's some electro-magnetic-y weirdness going on in or around my apartment. It's making a lot of noise through my rig, but only intermittently. And it's driving me bonkers.

Normal Buzz: Most times when I'm playing my Axe-FX in my home office and I'm playing a high-gain patch with little to no noise gate and I mute the strings with my hand, I've got what I would describe as a normal amount of noise/electrical buzz coming through my speakers via my guitar pickups. It's very tolerable and it's low enough that I can block it out with the noise gate when I need to.

Evil Buzz: In the last few weeks, I've started noticing another, intermittent noise/electrical buzz that rips through my rig for a few minutes at a time every five to ten minutes and although I can get rid of it with the noise gate, it's so loud that when I start hitting notes and the gate opens, I can hear it doing its evil-ness in the background and it's very distracting.

Here's a recording of the Normal Buzz: http://db.tt/0J0dQlp

Here's a recording of the Evil Buzz: http://db.tt/mFCHu1y

What in the THE world is causing the Evil Buzz? When it starts up, I can hear it through my rig with all of my guitars but it's loudest when I'm playing my one EMG-equipped guitar. It's so loud I can even hear it faintly on 100% clean patches. The sound gets a little quieter depending on which way I'm facing with my guitar in the room.

My rig setup:

Guitar > Axe > power amp > 2x12 cab
Guitar > Axe > powered PC speakers

What I've tried:

  • - Moving to a different power outlet
    - Changing guitar cables
    - Going direct into my powered PC speakers instead of my power amp and cab (and with different cables)
    - Unplugging every piece of electronics in my room except for my rig
    - Turning off all lights and TVs in the house
    - Turning off all cell phones in the house
    - The kitchen refrigerator is plugged in but not running when the Evil Buzz kicks in

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
 
LMO said:
Try turning off your cell phone and see if that affects the evil buzz.
Click to expand...
Thanks LMO. That was one of the first things I tried -- turned off (fully powered down) both cell phones in the house. Didn't make a difference. :(

Take a look at the bottom of my first post to see the other things I've tried. So far, nothing has worked.
 
Do you have any new neighbors? Anything else you can identify as a change in your immediate area?

- John
 
JKos said:
Do you have any new neighbors? Anything else you can identify as a change in your immediate area?

- John
Click to expand...
No new neighbors in my immediate vicinity but it's possible that one of my existing neighbors bought a new gadget or appliance. Not sure. I'm hoping that the characteristics of the noise are recognizable and point to something specific that someone on the board can identify. If I have to, I'll hire an electrician to come out and take a listen and check the wiring in my place.

The first time I heard it was when I got a new guitar with EMG pickups; active pickups seem to amplify that particular interference more than my passive-equipped guitars, so it's possible it's been there in the background for a while, popping in and out every five or ten minutes, and I simply didn't notice it. Now that I HAVE noticed it, it's all I hear whenever it kicks in.
 
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