Noise from pickup or room?

[joelf]

Every time I play an amplified acoustic (always w/single coil pickup) in this one room (Time Cafe, in Philly) I get a loud buzz. This doesn't happen at home w/same amp. The club also has a Fender amp, and my Godin 5th Ave. Kingpin with a P-90 also has an audible hum through it.

The room? The combo of the room's wiring and a loud, single-coil pickup?

[TedBPhx]

Fluorescent lighting? Maybe one of those isolation transformer gizmos is called for.

[citizenk74]

Fluorescent lighting? Maybe one of those isolation transformer gizmos is called for.

Spot on! Single coils are antennas, and pick up all sorts of weird stuff. Sometimes changing position helps, but if it's the lighting (probably) some kind of mitigation is in order. Good luck!

[neatomic]

yeah afraid thats the nature of single coil pickups...combined with some clubs wonky electrical system just makes things worse..a properly grounded outlet is essential

also p90's (sure sound great) but because of their larger sized bobbin/coil are particularly prone to noise....especially in less than stellar wired environments

cheers

[pauln]

Light dimmers, those new LED lights and strings, the chloroflourowhatever long life light bulbs, unterminated internet/CATV cable...

Light dimmers and LED lights are a big nuisance. Easy to fix; turn off the dimmers and swap LED for incandecsent bulbs.

The flouroclourowhatever long life lights have a huge range (anywhere in the same house, same apartment block) so finding them is more difficult, may need to buy some incandescent bulbs for your neighbors.

Being in proximity to an unterminated coax cable will be very loud and awful sounding, but it only has a range of about 8-10 feet. Unfortunately some venues put screens up around the stage area and where there are screens their may be unused (unterminated) cable service outlets...
Unterminated means it's live but nothing is connected to it (talking about the wall socket connection). It will be quiet if it is connected to a router or TV or other box. To quiet unused live service connections you have to find the spliter in the attic (typical at home) or entry point and disconnect the unused lines (you can test which are which by disconnecting each one).

Some venues are clueless about this and will employ light dimmers (or overhead fan speed controllers, same thing), or string LED lights and TV screens all over the stage, etc. If you play there regularly you might take a partnering attitude and approach them, informing the venue of how these things are noisy, easy to fix.

[wintermoon]

I played my humbucker L-5 in a club recently and it was the worst hum I've ever heard, there was of course a huge neon sign on the back wall of the stage.
not just limited to single coils, though they're the worst offender

[citizenk74]

I played my humbucker L-5 in a club recently and it was the worst hum I've ever heard, there was of course a huge neon sign on the back wall of the stage.
not just limited to single coils, though they're the worst offender

Been there, done that. Those blinking neons can harsh your mellow pretty quickly!

[neatomic]

that's why they call them hum"buckers"...not hum"eliminators"...they use a fairly basic frequency phase cancellation to buck hum..not entirely always successful...especially if there are problems with the electrical wiring further down the path...which there often times are...

some guys like to use a polarity electrical outlet tester to assess what they are facing...but if the clubs wiring is at fault..then the end results will be the same nevertheless..buzzy

cheers

[joelf]

Light dimmers, those new LED lights and strings, the chloroflourowhatever long life light bulbs, unterminated internet/CATV cable...

Light dimmers and LED lights are a big nuisance. Easy to fix; turn off the dimmers and swap LED for incandecsent bulbs.

The flouroclourowhatever long life lights have a huge range (anywhere in the same house, same apartment block) so finding them is more difficult, may need to buy some incandescent bulbs for your neighbors.

Being in proximity to an unterminated coax cable will be very loud and awful sounding, but it only has a range of about 8-10 feet. Unfortunately some venues put screens up around the stage area and where there are screens their may be unused (unterminated) cable service outlets...
Unterminated means it's live but nothing is connected to it (talking about the wall socket connection). It will be quiet if it is connected to a router or TV or other box. To quiet unused live service connections you have to find the spliter in the attic (typical at home) or entry point and disconnect the unused lines (you can test which are which by disconnecting each one).

Some venues are clueless about this and will employ light dimmers (or overhead fan speed controllers, same thing), or string LED lights and TV screens all over the stage, etc. If you play there regularly you might take a partnering attitude and approach them, informing the venue of how these things are noisy, easy to fix.

All that's on the club, and I was a mere sitter-in. If it even was my gig I'm sure they'd look at me like I was nuts and keep things status quo...

[wintermoon]

The sound guy knew it was the neon sign, but he didn't offer to turn it off.
Wound up being one of those gigs where I had to palm the strings all night.

[sgosnell]

Another thing that's becoming a problem is wifi. It's far higher in frequency than anyone could ever hear, but it does introduce noise. Computers cause even more. There are a myriad of possibilities, and you may just be SOL there.

[John A.]

Like the others said, some combination wiring, dimmmers, fluorescent or neon lights, and HVAC equipment. The best remedy I've come across is a Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger pedal.

John

[bleakanddivine]

Another possibility is a hearing loop if one is installed and switched on there.

[joelf]

Like the others said, some combination wiring, dimmmers, fluorescent or neon lights, and HVAC equipment. The best remedy I've come across is a Electro Harmonix Hum Debugger pedal.

John

I'll definitely look into that!Thanks!