[Yarr]

Hi, so I don't know if I should even be posting this thread in a guitar forum, but maybe some of you have an idea of how to help.

So basically, the room i'm in now is haunted..for lack of a better word. I bought my first pedal yesterday, (a wah-wah pedal), and when I turn it on, I hear the radio through my amp. When I rock the wah back, the radio sounds all bass'y, and when I rock it forward, it sounds treble'y (much like the actual sounds a guitar would make when pedal is rocked forwards/backwards). If I plug my guitar gear in any other room than the one i'm in now, there's no interference, but this room itself is messed up.

I remember that we used to have a phone with a cord in here, and we could faintly hear the radio on it, now we have a cordless phone in this room and there is no radio interference. Also, if I turn the volume on my speakers up loud, I can actually hear the sound the computer makes when I use the scroll mouse. If my amp is on, sometimes I can hear the computer [scrolling] through it. Also, sometimes if my amp is on, and I turn my computers speakers on, the amp pops (and vice versa).

So in conclusion, this room is haunted and i'll get an electrician in here in awhile, but I was just wondering if anyone has any idea what the hell is going on. I know that there was a time before where this room didn't have any sort-of electrical interference. It would really suck to have to move everything in this room into my room and everything in my room into this room just to use a pedal.

I guess the only reason i'm posting this problem in a guitar forum is because of the significance of the pedal. When the pedal isnt on, there is no interference, but somehow it causes interference when it's on.

[allthumbs]

The pedal its self might not be well shielded. It is very common to have to move your rig around to find a quiet spot in your house. Large appliances can do it as well as wiring in the wall. It is probably cheaper to move your stuff than have an electrician in to try to shield everything. UGB will be able to give you some practical tips. My amp used to pick up a Russian radio station till I moved it to the other side of the room.

[chuckswood2001]

before u go to far with anything, check out the ground on ur outlet first, they make a little tester that will tell u if ur ground is hooked up or hooked up wrong, just by pluging it in, thats the only thing i can think might cause the prob other than shielding like allthumbs says

chuck

[Ultimate Garage Band]

sounds like a shielding problem somewhere. You never mentioned if your guitar is actually plugged into the chain when all these events happen. If it is, that's where I'd start. Assemble your chain and listen for the noises then start removing things from the chain one at a time starting with the guitar, then the cable, then the pedal, then the other cable. If you get down to just the amp then there's your culprit, UNLESS the outlet you're plugging it into has issues. The way to check that out is to grab another amp and try it w/the same outlet.

[Yarr]

UGB, when my guitar isn't plugged in, and its just pedal -> amp.. I hear nothing. So it's not the amp or my guitar, it has to be the pedal.

Ok so, I plugged my guitar and the pedal into ANOTHER amp in ANOTHER room [but close by the room my main amp and computer are in] and it did the same thing [but to a lesser extent]. When I plugged my main amp in downstairs with my guitar and pedal, there was no interference. I'm thinking maybe my computer causes the interference since I seem to recall reading that I should put my computer's amp far away from the tower (or maybe I just made that up lol).

...

Ok I just plugged in my old amp into the same outlet in this room and it still did the radio thing.

[Cedric01]

What you may need is a power conditioner from Monster Cable. It's called "Monster PurePower." It rejects noise, hum , buzz etc. It suppose to give you a more pure balanced power supply. www.monstercable.com

[USGold]

You might also want to purchase some sheilded cables for your system--unsheilded cables can act as a radio antennae.

[Yarr]

Alright, I will look into the monster purepower and shielded cables if the electrician [who should becoming sometime this week] doesn't know how to fix it.

Thanks!

[Noodler]

Originally Posted by Cedric01

What you may need is a power conditioner from Monster Cable. It's called "Monster PurePower." It rejects noise, hum , buzz etc. It suppose to give you a more pure balanced power supply. Welcome to Monster®

I bought a powerboard tonight before I read this that has "interference protection" built in. ie it has RFI and EMI protection. Will this do the same job as the MonsterCable thing? I haven't tried it yet because it is still in one of those enclosed plastic boxes you have to cut to open.

My problem is that it sounds like I can hear next door vacuming and the builder down the road using his drill through my amp.

Amp becomes very noisy when guitar is unplugged but cable left hanging out of amp, but has just been serviced. Our house does the whole switch on the light and the TV flickers for a sec thing too!

[Noodler]

As a follow-up, the better quality power board with RFI and EMI protection (A$50) has fixed my issue it seems, so far. It might be worth trying before investing in a proper Power Conditioner which are pretty expensive. Apparently the middle of the range ones aren't really true power conditioners, but are still mainly surge protectors and UPS's. For a true power conditioner, you're looking at $1000's.

How did your electrician go, Yarr?

[P-90]

Originally Posted by Noodler

As a follow-up, the better quality power board with RFI and EMI protection (A$50) has fixed my issue it seems, so far. It might be worth trying before investing in a proper Power Conditioner which are pretty expensive. Apparently the middle of the range ones aren't really true power conditioners, but are still mainly surge protectors and UPS's. For a true power conditioner, you're looking at $1000's.

Yeah, you don't want an *actual* power conditioner. I have a couple, for other purposes; their key components are 2000 watt isolation transformers, which weigh about 25 kg each, and wouldn't be a cost-effective solution to amp/stompbox noise. A little, lightweight one, like is often built into a surge protector, uses a couple of capacitors to shunt off noise from the power lines to ground, and should be sufficient in most cases.

You can also get various forms of inductors, such as beads and other doodads made of ferrite, which can help with RF noise on power lines.

Either capacitors or inductors can also be incorporated into the signal path, to do the same for noisy signal connections (like equipment that amplifies RF).