Muff's Modules & More

[MrBiggs]

One of the most frustrating things about my guitar stuff is this annoying buzz that I get, quite loud, through my amp. It's not ground loop, it's not 60-cycle single coil hum. In fact, sometimes switching to one pickup from two on my Tele or Jazzmaster actually helps. When I touch a jack, either the one plugged into my guitar, the one plugged into the amp, or any of the metal ones in between (like plugged into pedals), I get what is almost perfect dead silence. When I let go, buzzzzzz. I get this when it's just my guitar to my amp, and i get it when I have pedals in between.

Yesterday I noticed that if I have the jack plugged into the acoustic guitar, it's, again, dead silent. Perfecto even.

I've googled around but not found anything likely. Anyone experienced such a thing as this?

EDIT: My cables are not the cheapy ones but neither are they super expensive. Are they shielded? I don't know. Are regular guitar cables shielded?

[Just me]

Sounds like at least one bad cable. I have one that exhibits the same symptoms. Some day I'll fix it.

[MrBiggs]

Nah. Not the cable. All four of my cables have exactly the same results.

One little part of the room is far worse than others. And I think it's exactly above a large light fixture on the ceiling of the dining room below it. Could that cause any of this?

I'm wondering if I need to pull the guitars apart and line the cavities with copper. The one guitar I have with a shielded interior still hums but not as bad, and grabbing the metal jack doesn't stop the buzz as it does with the two un-coppered guitars. Touching the strings of that guitar helps, however.

(It's a whole nother issue, but my amp is pretty noisy on its own. It's got this low level hollow rrrrrrrr sound that is audible even with nothing plugged in. I just think of it as an excuse to get a Swart next year.)

[Just me]

If the fixture below is fluoresent, the ballast could be causing it. If you line the cavities, make sure to solder the foil to the grounds.

[sduck]

Sounds like your lighting and/or a CRT monitor.

[dkcg]

Single coils and a fluorescent lamp nearby?

That's one thing I really like about the pickups in my Strat, the Gold Lace Sensors. Quiet as a humbucker. The only time I hear hum is near a fluorescent lamp, near a CRT screen, my cel phone rings, or I have a ridiculous amount of pedals in the signal chain (I heard radio a la spinal tap doing this).

Single coils are generally noisy in comparison to humbuckers and piezos. You might just get in the habit of turning the volume knob down (or a volume pedal) when not touching strings or playing. Guitars need VCAs too.

The acoustic is probably a piezo, which is why it didn't hum.

If you're using any pedals, that compounds the noise problem. Try w/o any pedals straight in and that will be the quietest you can get.

[MrBiggs]

This isn't a single coil issue. But the acoustic is a piezo so that is something I learned. The noise is a buzz. Not a hum, and it stops when I touch the metal jack of the cable.

The light fixture in question is not florescent, but it certainly is the source of this issue. I had Fiancée turn it on and off last night while I had the guitar plugged into the amp directly -- no pedals -- and buzz on, buzz off, buzz on, buzz off. So that's fucked up. It's not as bad with my G&L ASAT or the other Jazzmaster, so something is amiss with the grounding inside the blue sparkly Jazzmaster. I think it's time to order some copper shielding, solve the ground problem, and go ahead and do some of the upgrades I wanted to do while I've pulled it apart.

Regarding the low hollow hum/hiss that the amp makes with nothing plugged in, anyone know if that could be the sound of a crappy, or crapped-out, tube?

[Just me]

Bad capacitor, bad bias, microphonic tube, dying or unbalanced tubes, bad design, or, or... would need to have it on a bench to determine the cause.

[MrBiggs]