[KGrob]

Should amps be totally quiet.

I have a Fender Hotrod Deluxe and a Vox ad50vt and both buzz quite a bit...mostly when I get my guitar really close...but it seems like it's impossible to eliminate the buzz completely even if I'm on the other side of the room.

Is it normal for an amp to buzz a little, a lot, only occasionally, all the time...or should I expect them to be absolutely silent???

I've always played by myself in my own house so I don't really have much experience with other people's equipment.

[Andy S]

From your description, I'm guessing you have the guitar plugged in when it buzzes?

If so, what kind of guitar? A strat type guitar, that is, single pole pickups, will buzz a bit. Humbuckers, like those found on Les Paul type guitars, will have little or no buzz...thus the name "humbucker"

Like JayJay said, unplug the cable and see if the hum drops.

Again, the amount of buzz or hum can be dependent on the type of guitar and the condition of the cables. Also, is the AC plug your plugging into grounded properly?

[chammon]

Another thing that can cause your amp to buzz or hum is if you are using an extension cord to the electrical outlet.

[felixdcat]

Well, yeah, some guitars because of the waves do buzz. Mostly single coils.

[fly135]

Computer in the room? Fluorescent lights? Both can cause hum.

[P-90]

My equipment always has some hum, but my amps have never been the culprit. My guitar and pedals are quite often, and even a cable which has no guitar plugged into it will almost always produce some hum. Like yours, my guitar always hums when within a foot or so of my amp, since I have long cables and a single-coil pickup, and my amp's power supply puts out an electromagnetic field which is rich in hum. The test is, as people have said, to try it when nothing's plugged in, not even a cable. Under those circumstances, my amp, at full volume and no gain, is about as quiet as my computer's fan. With gain increased it makes audible white noise ("hiss"), this is the sound of quantum noise in the resistors, diodes and transistors of the input stage, and some of that is inevitable. But 60/120 hz hum is still inaudible. Audible hum at a bothersome volume level would (in a solid state amp) indicate a design flaw, an implementation flaw, a worn out part, or some combination of the above.

Tube amps tend to have a bit of hum, because tubes need something which transistors don't: they only function well when hot, so partially smoothed-out AC is sent through tube "heater filaments" to keep them at a high enough temperature. It shouldn't be loud, though. If it were loud, a technician could greatly reduce it by adding a small transformer, a rectifier, and some filter capacitors, so that your tubes' heater filaments would be getting a diet of DC rather than AC (or rectified AC). But I'm guessing that this isn't the problem, since guitar, cable and pedal noise are so much more common.

[Noodler]

Originally Posted by chammon

Another thing that can cause your amp to buzz or hum is if you are using an extension cord to the electrical outlet.

I wish I had known that last week. I put an amp in to get looked at for noise, and that could have been the problem.

What if you get noise in a solid state amp that is present in the clean chanel, but much worse on the second channel? It gets worse with gain, but is soothed by touching anything metal on the guitar. The guitar is a brand new Tele. I Tried a guitar with humbuckers, but no improvement.

I am guessing it is an Earthing thing since touching metal on the guitar eases it???

[Noodler]

Oh yes, and it gets really bad when I unplug the guitar but leave the cable plugged in.