Noisy amps in garage? How do I fix this?

[azrael]

Hey, I recently moved into a new house, and my guitar amp is pretty noisy in my garage. Lots of hum when I use the OD channel. I have shielded my guitar, and it also uses humbucker style pickups, and my rig isn't as noisy in other locations, so I'm sure it's the amp or garage.
I am going to be modding to amp to be a bit lower noise, but I don't think it will cure all of it.

Is the wiring in my garage just naturally noisy? Is it properly grounded?
Will a power conditioner help? I don't want to spend 70-100 dollars only to find that it doesn't.
Any other solutions?

[Enzo]

Find out what is humming first. Turn the volume control on the guitar to zero. Does the hum go away? If it does, then the guitar is picking up the noise, not the amp.

Either way, with the guitar up and the hum happening, turn side to side. In other words, while you wear the guitar, face each direction with it. Does it make a difference which way you face? If aiming the guitar changes the hum, then the guitar is picking it up.


Does the hum happen with NO guitar plugged in? Then it would be the amp or the house wiring.

Go to the hardware store or even Harbor Freight and get one of those cheap outlet testers, the kind wit the three lights on it. Plug it in the outlet you are using. If the proper pattern of lights doesn't come on, there is the problem.

[azrael]

Ahh man. When the guitar isnt plugged in, and there's no cable in the amp, it's silent.
When the guitar cable is plugged in, but guitar volume is zero, there's still humming, but greatly reduced.

Changing the angle of the guitar definitely changes hum. Tilting it about 30-45 degrees up reduces noise aha.

[Enzo]

Then it would seem something in that environment is radiating hum. COuld be wires in the wall, could be the lighting, flourescents are notorious.

And don;t forget the outlet tester, a poorly grounded outlet can let things bother your amp that wouldn't otherwise.

[babysgottheblues]

I agree that if you have a florescent lamp in there leave it off & see if you still have the problem. You may also have your central air unit installed in there & it has a lot of wiring & mabey even an electric hot water heater. All this wiring drawing amps can be a problem when you're playing amps in close proximity to them. If they are installed in a little closet area out there, try lining the back of their access doors with aluminum foil and this may offer some shielding. Hope this helps!

[babysgottheblues]

Something else just popped into my mind. My garage attic is a maze of cables from my internet provider. I don't use the tv cables anymore, only use one for my cable modem, but these cables running all over your ceiling could be causing you problems. I use satellite dish for my tv, and they are up there too. This is generally where they all connect and you could even have a cable amplifier your provider installed, up there causing you problems.

[km6xz]

Is it hum or buzz. If it is not the lights, check the bell transformer, when they start going bad they are strong sources of RF noise. Several times moving into a neighborhood I have found strong noise levels on my shortwave receivers. Using loops, twice traced the source as overheated doorbell transformers. Another time it was an electric fence charger with dirty insulators. A high gain guitar amp that has dirct grid input would be a pretty good receiver for the broadband noise. Once it enters the amp, bypassing does not help much because beat products are already being created that are in the normal bandpass of the amp. Like picking up radio signals, once it is detected to extract baseband audio, it IS audio, not RF, that is getting through. A faulty bell transformer would cause audible noise the same way.