DDR Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 Yeah... So I'm improvising 50 minutes of music on bass with all my pedals for a theatre show in Athens. Rehearsals (or rather test runs) went well but then on the first show night the buzz coming out the PA was pretty awfull. Sound engineer was trying to blame my grar but I've played with that set up in many places before without a problem... I'm assuming the venue's electricity is not grounded or something? Quite common in Athens apparently. I'm doing the show there again in two weeks, any tips that don't involve fixing the venue electrics? Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miles'tone Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 Top tip is don't play there ever again unless you want to die! The electricity may very well find it's way to ground through you 💀 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 From a safety perspective, treat yourself to a cheap wireless setup. 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted April 15 Author Share Posted April 15 6 hours ago, NancyJohnson said: From a safety perspective, treat yourself to a cheap wireless setup. Right but I need 8 pedals... What's that gonna be? I've seen those thomann 2 pedal portable battery things.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeEvans Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 It would be wireless from your guitar to the pedal chain. The pedals will still be running off mains. So no help with the buzz but might stop you from getting electrocuted! Personally I would look at an RCD socket adapter instead, to deal with any safety risk. For the hum, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can step in but I believe there are filtered four-ways available to protect IT gear against dodgy mains that might be worth a look. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NancyJohnson Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 1 hour ago, DDR said: Right but I need 8 pedals... What's that gonna be? I've seen those thomann 2 pedal portable battery things.... Buy a Lekato unit. Unit can charge both sender and receiver beforehand and just jack the receiver into the front of your signal chain. Battery life is five to six hours. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07TWQL2JS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Edge Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 There are a number of pedal supply options that run off a portable usb power brick. That along with a wireless guitar link will isolate you from the mains but you can’t avoid the link from the pedals to a mains powered amp or mixing desk. Unless that is where you put the wireless link. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 Presumably this was using a DI - did you try using the ground lift on the DI? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMV001 Posted April 15 Share Posted April 15 A first step would be to try to clarify the terminology. Are you sure you mean buzz and not hum? Many people use these two words interchangeably but they are not the same thing. Hum would be indicative of an earthing problem and the causes of it (and the solutions to solve it) are many and varied. Buzz, however, is usually inducted noise from another source and must be dealt with differently. So firstly, was the noise a constant tone that didn't change with the position of your gear or your orientation i.e which direction you faced? Did the noise go away if you touched your strings or another part of your gear (amp chassis, jack plug casing etc) When you moved around or changed direction did the volume or tone of the noise change? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 19 hours ago, JoeEvans said: It would be wireless from your guitar to the pedal chain. The pedals will still be running off mains. So no help with the buzz but might stop you from getting electrocuted! Personally I would look at an RCD socket adapter instead, to deal with any safety risk. For the hum, hopefully someone more knowledgeable can step in but I believe there are filtered four-ways available to protect IT gear against dodgy mains that might be worth a look. good sense of priorities!! thanks for the reminder! me first Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 8 hours ago, tauzero said: Presumably this was using a DI - did you try using the ground lift on the DI? i used my Sansamp (it doesn't have one) but to reach their 80's yamaha console from the stage we were going though a berhinger DI they had,,, ground lift didn't make a difference 7 hours ago, AMV001 said: A first step would be to try to clarify the terminology. Are you sure you mean buzz and not hum? Many people use these two words interchangeably but they are not the same thing. Hum would be indicative of an earthing problem and the causes of it (and the solutions to solve it) are many and varied. Buzz, however, is usually inducted noise from another source and must be dealt with differently. So firstly, was the noise a constant tone that didn't change with the position of your gear or your orientation i.e which direction you faced? Did the noise go away if you touched your strings or another part of your gear (amp chassis, jack plug casing etc) When you moved around or changed direction did the volume or tone of the noise change? yes hum is more appropriate i think... no difference when i moved or touched the strings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 Are all your pedals 9V and fairly low current? You could use a USB-C power bank that will output various voltages and a dongle to tell it to output 9V - https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/314790280799 if you don't like soldering (will need a polarity reverser from centre positive to centre negative) or https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295636499200 if you're up to soldering (you need to desolder and move a tiny little jumper). That removes your effects from the mains. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMV001 Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 5 hours ago, DDR said: yes hum is more appropriate i think... no difference when i moved or touched the strings OK. Give us your exact signal chain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted April 16 Author Share Posted April 16 1 hour ago, AMV001 said: OK. Give us your exact signal chain. Reverrend Decision P, Octabvre, FC accountant, FC Randy's Revenge, FC Shallow Water, The Raster II, Wah Wah, Empress Reverb, Blooper Looper, Sans Amp - to their DI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMV001 Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 (edited) I think I see your problem there- that daisy chain power cable. You should be running all these pedals off a dedicated power supply with fully isolated outputs. Also- what is that PSU rated at? Edited April 16 by AMV001 Added PSU question 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMV001 Posted April 16 Share Posted April 16 I'm also not a fan of these metal framed pedal boards. Its easy to set up earth loops via the pedal chassis and frame. I'd recommend covering the whole of the front of the frame with velcro in order to isolate the pedals from the frame i.e so none of the outside of the pedals (or the jack plugs) are touching the bare metal of the board. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 16 hours ago, AMV001 said: I think I see your problem there- that daisy chain power cable. You should be running all these pedals off a dedicated power supply with fully isolated outputs. Also- what is that PSU rated at? that would be a bit much wouldn't it? I have 8 going to the MXR Brick and the 9th on it's own powersupply... would have to buy 8 ps and 2 4x4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDR Posted April 17 Author Share Posted April 17 15 hours ago, AMV001 said: I'm also not a fan of these metal framed pedal boards. Its easy to set up earth loops via the pedal chassis and frame. I'd recommend covering the whole of the front of the frame with velcro in order to isolate the pedals from the frame i.e so none of the outside of the pedals (or the jack plugs) are touching the bare metal of the board. fair shout that yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMV001 Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 (edited) 6 hours ago, DDR said: that would be a bit much wouldn't it? I have 8 going to the MXR Brick and the 9th on it's own powersupply... would have to buy 8 ps and 2 4x4 I think you misunderstand the meaning of isolated. Many multi power supplies, like the MXR Brick, have multiple outlets but they are not isolated from each other. This can cause noise problems in certain circumstances. MXR makes the Iso Brick, a better version of the Brick, to avoid this potential problem and many other manufacturers have products which do the same i.e Voodoo Lab, Coiks etc. Many of these are available with more than 9 outputs. It is also worth adding up the current consumption of all those pedals and checking that you are not exceeding the rating of the PSU. That can cause noise. Edited April 17 by AMV001 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 As the setup has worked without noise elsewhere, the lack of an isolated power supply wouldn't seem to be the problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilebodgers Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 On 16/04/2024 at 07:38, DDR said: i used my Sansamp (it doesn't have one) but to reach their 80's yamaha console from the stage we were going though a berhinger DI they had,,, ground lift didn't make a difference yes hum is more appropriate i think... no difference when i moved or touched the strings Sounds like a ground loop. Was the behringer di the one that is a cheap copy of the bss ar133? (Di100 I think) That is the only one with a proper ground lift and an audio isolating transformer. I’d suspect their DI if a ground lift didn’t fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMV001 Posted April 17 Share Posted April 17 1 hour ago, tauzero said: As the setup has worked without noise elsewhere, the lack of an isolated power supply wouldn't seem to be the problem. Possibly not. But then also possibly. Its a misconception that just because any given piece of gear will usually work flawlessly from day to day, that its not going malfunction if the circumstances conspire. I've been touring internationally for 30+ years and have seen (and heard) a lot of weird stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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