Bit of a strange one...

[lemmywinks]

My next door neighbour (in the adjoining house, we live in a semi) keeps complaining that he can hear my bass through his radio, even his battery powered one. He says even when i am not playing but the amp is still on he can hear interference. It has happened with my Hartke A70 and also my Superfly

Tbh it's quite annoying, he was round twice today asking me to turn it off. Who listens to the radio ffs? It's 2010!

Any ideas what might be causing it and how to get rid of it?




Ta!
Steve

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='714970' date='Jan 16 2010, 04:20 PM']My next door neighbour (in the adjoining house, we live in a semi) keeps complaining that he can hear my bass through his radio, even his battery powered one. He says even when i am not playing but the amp is still on he can hear interference. It has happened with my Hartke A70 and also my Superfly

Tbh it's quite annoying, he was round twice today asking me to turn it off. Who listens to the radio ffs? It's 2010!

Any ideas what might be causing it and how to get rid of it?




Ta!
Steve[/quote]
is it analog or digi ? don't know if this makes any difference, but there could be a solution/explanation there..

also, can you experiment with moving your amp ?

Edited January 16, 2010 by phil.i.stein

[phil.i.stein]

also - any earthing problems or issues in yours/his supply ?

[Protium]

I've had this problem before, you need to shoot your neighbour.

[lemmywinks]

I'll ask him next time i see him if it's analog of digital.

The amps are both in my room which is on the furthest side from there house, it happens on both his radios too, even the battery powered one in his kitchen

We do have some suspect electrics in the house, it cuts out maybe 10 times a year and a row of plug sockets in the kitchen cause the lights to cut out. It's a rented house and we don't see the landlord much. He's a pilot and last time i rang him it cost me a fortune to leave an answerphone message as he was in America



The neighbour has just been round again because i was playing for 5 minutes and he wants to listen to football on the radio, so now i can't play bass because he still thinks it's 1974

[phil.i.stein]

i'm no electrician, so i can't really go any further with suggesting any explanations.
i have observed a strange problem in our practise room though, it is a metal trailer-type affair, with slightly suspect wiring, and whenever a mobile phone goes off inside, it interferes through my amp and also the P.A., so i suspect it is something similar.
any "sparkies" out there who can clarify ?
are these thing related ?

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Active bass? My washburn status ,kept picking up bbc radio,and local taxi stations
at band practice a few times. It's now passive

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE' post='715042' date='Jan 16 2010, 05:56 PM']Active bass? My washburn status ,kept picking up bbc radio,and local taxi stations
at band practice a few times. It's now passive[/quote]
correctamundo !!
good suggestion for me, dunno about lemmy, i will try unplugging the bass and then make a phone call...
nice lateral thinking...ta

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='Protium' post='715020' date='Jan 16 2010, 05:30 PM']I've had this problem before, you need to shoot your neighbour.[/quote]

didn't see that before..

[lemmywinks]

Before he complained when i was playing my EUB which has a piezo and preamp, then when i was playing an active Warwick and later my passive Aria.


We used to play a pub with dodgy electrics (that'll be all pubs then) and one time we could hear the bass coming through the PA during soundcheck even though it wasn't DI'd and no mics were on. We stopped using lights at that pub because they caused the amps to make popping noises when we switched them on/off

As it does it on different basses with different amps and affects his battery powered radio i'm stumped.

I think Protium has the right idea..... God forbid i should prevent him from listening to footy scores on the radio ALL F******G DAY!

[phil.i.stein]

c'mon, there must be someone out there in bc world who knows someone who knows something about this type of thing ??

let's BUMP it for a few days...

Edited January 16, 2010 by phil.i.stein

[Grand Wazoo]

murder is definately the only way out,

sting said... murder by numbers 1, 2, 3 it's as easy to learn as your a, b, c.

[V4lve]

You sure you aren't just playing too loud? How about you get someone else to play your bass and go round and listen to see what is actually happening.

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='V4lve' post='715092' date='Jan 16 2010, 06:42 PM']You sure you aren't just playing too loud? How about you get someone else to play your bass and go round and listen to see what is actually happening.[/quote]
lemmywinks has the problem when he's not even playing.

that is...unless his neighbour is lying (the other possibility !)

Edited January 16, 2010 by phil.i.stein

[karlthebassist]

This sounds strange. At first I thought maybe it was an earthing problem - and that the bass your neighbour could hear was likely to be more like string noise etc, as that's the sort of thing that can work its way back through earth/electrics for example. But when you say he car hear it through his wireless radio! That's crazy. Its almost like your amp would have to be transmitting a signal... which I suppose could again point to earthing. By any chance, was the house originaly one house that has been turned into two? Could explain some dodgy earth sharing. Your electrics don't sound too clever tbh if you've got sockets cutting lights out - lighting and ringmains should be entirely seperate, except for returning to a common ground.

I might suggest, as V4lve has said, you have someone play your bass, go round his and listen to what he claims to be hearing before you go any further. He might just be being a c**k.

You could try going down the audiophile route and trying some mains conditioning. I use mains filters on my HiFi setup to kill earth noises and give me a generally cleaner power supply, which improves the overall clarity and lowers the noise floor. There is no reason that I can see that one of these devies couldn;t prevent noise being injected into the mains from your amp... there are some mentally expensive products out there for doing this, but the cheapest and most highly rated mains conditioner out there is the TACIMA CS929 6-WAY MAINS CONDITIONER. Google that and expect to pay around £35 quid for it. Its a 6-way socket, so pretty handy for messy mains when gigging too I expect. I'm going to buy one for my Markbass LMII as I find they are very suseptiable to mains noise.

I hope this helps. Would certainly be cheaper than having your house re-wired...

[Protium]

[quote name='lemmywinks' post='715065' date='Jan 16 2010, 06:14 PM']I think Protium has the right idea..... God forbid i should prevent him from listening to footy scores on the radio ALL F******G DAY![/quote]

Surely football on the radio went obsolete when they invented Soccer Saturday...

[lemmywinks]

Cheers guys!

I found a mains conditioner for £25 here:
[url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tacima-CS929-6-Way-Mains-Conditioner-RFI-Filter-Surge_W0QQitemZ120518685942QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_3?hash=item1c0f7934f6"]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Tacima-CS929-6-Way-M...=item1c0f7934f6[/url]

That's the cheapest i could find.

I usually play really quietly at home as my room is above the front room, my housemate's missus usually whinges if she can't hear Big Brother, X Factor or whatever useess cr@p she happens to be watching. When complained this morning i was just playing along to Nina Simone songs on the EUB. He described it as inteference when i wasn't playing but left the amp on

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='karlthebassist' post='715122' date='Jan 16 2010, 07:24 PM']I hope this helps...[/quote]
it certainly might help me too, thanks for the advice !!

Edited January 16, 2010 by phil.i.stein

[karlthebassist]

Gald too help. Let me know if it cures the problem. If it doesn't work your only alternitive will be to nick his radio.

[Bloodaxe]

Can't help with a solution, but can add into the "symptoms"...

I use a Superfly & it totally blitzes my Freeview box - I'm guessing that it's some kind of digital interference. Is the numpty neighbour using DAB radios?

Pete.

[lemmywinks]

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='715254' date='Jan 16 2010, 10:32 PM']Can't help with a solution, but can add into the "symptoms"...

I use a Superfly & it totally blitzes my Freeview box - I'm guessing that it's some kind of digital interference. Is the numpty neighbour using DAB radios?

Pete.[/quote]


Most likely not DAB, he's quite an old guy who hasn't even discovered that he can watch footy scores on telly yet!

It also happened with the Hartke A70 i have so i don't think it's strictly to do with the Superfly. Usually the Superfly would be the first suspect as i've had loads of problems with it. However since removing all the extra casing it's been brilliant, i'm actually in danger of liking it now! I fitted rubber feet to it and ground down the sharp corners and it's a great, if underpowered little head

[Musky]

I might have thought it was the switching power supplies on the superfly and Markbass (I'm assuming they're switching supplies) that were the problem, but I'm guessing the Hartke doesn't have a switching supply.

Are you turning on anything else when you use your bass? Effects, computer, even dimmer switches? I think I'd get myself over to his house when your amp isn't switched on and phone someone in your house to switch on the amp (and only the amp - no lights or anything else) while you listen, then have it turned off again. If it's the amp you should hear the problem for yourself.

Could be it's nothing to do with the amp, or even your household.

[lemmywinks]

I'll try that, sounds like a good plan

My computer is usually on and there's a dimmer switch in the room although it's not on during the day for obvious reasons. Might have a word with the landlord next time he's here as there's definitely something up with the electrics in the house, even if that isn't the cause of this particular problem

[4 Strings]

If it affects his radios then it must be something to do with radio waves rather than conducted signal.

Starting at the source I wonder if a better guitar lead may help. This may be acting as a weak transmitter if the screening is poor. Also, the lead that takes the amplified signal to the speaker will be handling a greater signal and may not be screened, perhaps surrounding this in foil (I know, you'll need to take the lid off your amp) may help.

Would he bring his radio into your house while you give him a nice cuppa and experiment (or take your amp into his)? You may here exactly what it is and find its just a buzzing or something which may be down to the house wiring. If your house has different circuits try plugging the amp into a different circuit (the kitchen for example), a link to his house may be effective.

Does it happen on your radio?

Lastly (as someone who enjoys the radio!), although your playing may be disturbing his radio listening, his radio listening is also disturbing your bass playing. He should be able to accept a compromise (certain times etc).

[lemmywinks]

All my leads are good quality stuff, my instrument leads are a mix of obbm and my home made ones, all Van Damme cable and Neutrik connectors

I think the guy thinks that it's entirely my fault, before i moved in 2 years ago he could listen to his radio without fault so i'm obviously it must be down to me, despite all my gear being high quality and up until recently being used to play weddings etc.