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scottyo78> what is "ground lift plug" maybe i could use that on line 6... whatever it is... your laptop has 2 prong power brick or 3 prong power brick ??? not that it gets rid of all the hum but 3 prong power brick will most likely have less hum than 2 prong brick used by Apple... battery powered notebook for me righ now is HOLY GRAIL of guitar amp simulation... DarkEdge> my house is a 10 years old development project with 5 flats... basically a new house (10 years) with very high standards in everything in a nice residential area... i dont say that the electricity may not cause the problems but right now all this is very very very confusing... surge protectors are in my opinion useless in this scenario not that i dont have them on my other recording equipment and i tried them way back with POD 500 when i started chaising the hum and they didnt change anything... afterall they are what they are - SURGE protection... thats not ground/buzz protection... iam not having SURGES here... thats like a super fast but super strong spike in electricity caused by lightning etc. thats absolutelly not my situation... spaceatl> i agree that surge protection is useless here and power conditioning most likely too... power conditioning should be more about the quality of the POSITIVE/NEGATIVE charge being perfectly constant rather than grounding... power "isolation" sounds promising... the paper looks like great read for a physics profesor or a nerd... i dont understand this stuff... could you post some examples of the units i could buy ? unfortunatelly iam in Europe 240V 50Hz... isolation transformer... hmm we are getting bit spacey but i remember reading somewhere a while back that transformers are used to get rid of hum/buzz when interconnecting unbalanced with balanced studio equipment... like say old synthesizers with mixing desks... i dont know exactly... but "transformers = no buzz" rings a bell... stuff like this: http://www.ebtechaudio.com/hedes.html but this is used on audio cables not on power cables... i guess what you suggest is something like the EBTECH Hum Eliminator but instead of TRS audio connectors it would have power supply connectors... right ? iam lost here... any link to actual power isolation transformer for sale ?

ok some more info: so previously we sucesfully got rid of 80% of hum caused by POD HD500 total lack of grounding in sans-amp setup (GUITAR --> CABLE --> POD --> HEADPHONES) you eliminiate it just by passively pluging POD XLR outputs into a grounded device with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET in my case it was a plain HIFI STEREO AMPLIFIER i use for my CD player but i guess anything will work as long as its connected to a wall socket with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET... no from this post onwards... iam trying to hunt down and eliminate remaining 20% hum that i still have in the audio... since i dont know what causes it exactly and it only dissapears when i touch something metalic on my rig (GUITAR, POD, HIFI STEREO AMP) iam not going to judge now if its a GROUNDING issue or SHIELDING issue... i also cant rule out any cause so far, including POD... i just dont know what causes it... today i found another piece in the puzzle but i cant say that it cleared things up, quite opposite, now iam not sure i understand anything about grounding... i connected the guitar into my notebook and used Overloud TH2 software on very high gain (similar to PodFarm, Amplitube, GuitarRig, GTR) GUITAR --> CABLE --> APOGEE DUET AUDIO INTERFACE --> MACBOOK AIR (OVERLOUD TH2) --> HEADPHONES when i run the notebook on battery (therefore iam not connected to the power grid) i get ABSOLUTELLY 0% HUM - CLEANEST SOUND I EVER HAD. PERIOD. it doesnt matter if i touch the guitar or not, or if iam touching anything metal or not... whether i hold the guitar or place it in a stand the sound is always same and with 0% hum... its like playing in heaven... but when i plug my notebook to an AC adapter (which has 2 prongs - damn you Apple) i get 50% increase in HUM which is constant even when the guitar is in a stand and when i hold the guitar and place it on my lap, belly or i hover my hand in front of the pickups the hum even increase to 70-80% NOW GO FIGURE... pluging my notebook to an AC wall socket introduces 2 different kinds of HUM 1) 50% constant hum (probably comes from grid) 2) 20% additional hum when you place the guitar near your body or when you hover your palm in front of pickups MIND YOU that when you run the notebook ON BATTERY the audio has 0% HUM... CLEANEST SOUND EVER... this for me rules out guitar pickups as a "common cause" of most hum... that old "yeah pickups work like giant antennas and they amplify all sorts of garbage in the room"... nope... not my pickups... by running on notebook battery i know my pickups can deliver totally clean sound with SUPER HIGH GAIN when the rig is not connected to power grid (aka wall socket)... i read this article the other day You're just a big ole' Bucket O' Noise and it says that body generates a lot of noise and generally works like a big antenna and all this garbage and static in your body is transfered to guitar pickups when you hold a guitar near your body... well how come none of that garbage and static that your body is supposed to contain and accumulate is NOT TRANSFERED TO GUITAR PICKUPS when you run through a notebook with a battery power... the article's main premise just dont verify in this setup (battery powered notebook)... if the article was true in all that it says (it also talks about grounding your body to earth via guitar strings and amp) than running on a notebook battery - not attached to grid - not grounded to grid - not grounded to anything at all - your audio should be swirling with noise, hum, buzz, magnetic fields, radio static... everything at once... your BODY should work like a giant ungrounded antenna, your PICKUPS should work like giant ungrounded antennas... your CABLES should also pickup garbage... your whole rig including your body should be 1 GIANT RADIO STATION AND EMI/RFI AMPLIFIER... but actually the opposite is true... without connection to power grid... running on a battery... with no grounding to anything... you get the CLEANEST SOUND EVER FROM YOUR GUITAR... NOW GO FIGURE...

i agree with Charlie_Watt there are general cases when a device is better ungrounded itself as it takes its "ground refrence" from other devices down the chain... but on a universal device such as POD there should A CHOICE if you want it to operate in grounded mode (POD solo with its own grounding) or ungrounded mode (POD in a chain without its own grounding)... but grounding mismatch can be solved various way... for example i have ALL my studio recording gear connected to a single wall socket - that way all the devices share same "ground plane" from that single wall socket... i never experienced any grounding-related hum ever this way (not that there are not other causes of hum in a audio system)... POD used solo was my first time i had to deal with horrible hum caused by ungrounded device...

ok to be fair with Line 6 i think that connecting to a grounded device with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET reduces ALL the hum caused by the GROUNDING all the remaining hum that is left after connecting to a grounded device is unrelated to GROUNDING that remaining 20% hum that appears only when i press the guitar to my lap/belly is most likely not caused by GROUNDING at all and there is nothing Line 6 or POD can do with it - BUT I MAY BE WRONG AGAIN IMHO it may be the case that the last 20% hum in my rig is most likely insufficient pickup SHIELDING because the hum comes in and out when i put my guitar in a stand and just hover my palm near the pickups - my body magnetic field is amplified by the pickups - even without holding the guitar - only hovering my palm around the pickups introduces that 20% hum... STILL touching a metal components on the rig makes everything silent... so its hard to say what is the cause of the last 20% hum in my rig... my guitar and rig may be properly GROUNDED now but the pickup still pickup hum from my body magnetic field due to insufficient SHIELDING until i figure out ill use the "aluminium foil carpet" trick or run a wire from the bridge to my pants (just tug the loose end under your belt touching your waist bare skin) ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS HOW TO GET RID OF THAT REMAINING BODY GENERATED STATIC

iam sure POD was designed for both amp and sans-amp usage... world is full of people using it sans-amp... it doesnt say "AMP REQUIRED" anywhere... the fact that this topic is no. 67 out of 3650 threads on POD HD forum is a proof that Line 6 should do something about the grounding (hardware switch or grounding lug) or at least explain sufficiently how to ground a sans-amp setup using external grounded devices... both amp and sans-amp users should have an easy way to achieve clean sound and not to resort to googling around and spend days figuring out on their own... i believe many just use it with that horrible hum and think its how its supposed to sound ("its a cab sim buzz")... i was troubleshooting the POD with several members of guitar centre staff - all skilled guitarists - and no-one suggested the correct solution... i had to figure out on my own... given how many false solutions was suggested in this thread alone, shows that many users are wandering in darkness and try random solutions and suggestions from google - while all it takes is connecting to a grounded device with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET even if you dont use that device for anything (passive interconnection only to drain the hum)...

OK day 3 trying to get rid of the hum other than the OPs early suggestion having to run a ground wire to my toe Some new discoveries and semi-solutions found while fiddling with the rig 1) connecting my ungrounded rig (GUITAR --> POD --> HEADPHONES) into any device that has grounded 3 PIN POWER SOCKET reduces the hum by about 70-80%... in my case i connected POD's BALANCED XLR OUTPUTS into my HIFI STEREO AMPLIFIER - i left the headphones in the POD... just passively interconnecting my rig with the grounded HIFI STEREO AMPLIFIER was sufficient to drain 70-80% of the hum "out of the POD and out of the rig"... thats a proof that POD itself is totally ungrounded and thus useless on its own (with headphones only)... you need an external device with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET to interconnect with POD and thus provide a drainage of the hum... this only reduces hum by 70-80% but its sufficient reason that POD SHOULD HAVE A 3 PIN POWER SOCKET BY DEFAULT !!! but even grounding the original rig (GUITAR --> POD --> HEADPHONES) to a grounded device with a 3 PIN POWER SOCKET left about 15-20% of hum yet to be removed... to remove the last 10-20% of hum that is still left after grounding the rig you still need to TOUCH ANY METALIC PART ON THE RIG - only touching with your bare hand/foot you get 0% hum... complete hum cancelation... at that time i realised one thing by testing and touching various surfaces around me... 1) when the guitar is connected to grounded rig (via any device with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET) the buzz is reduced down to 10-20% 2) when the guitar is connected to grounded rig but its standing on its own in a stand the buzz is down to 0% - no buzz 3) when the guitar is connected to grounded rig and i pickup the guitar and place it on my lap, touching my belly the buzz is back up to 10-20% so after grounding the rig and eliminating 80% of the hum the remaining 20% hum IS STATIC GENERATED BY MY LIVING BODY and it only leaks into the signal path when i touch my guitar against my lap and belly... the only way to eliminate this 20% BODY STATIC is the old trick - touching anything metalic on the rig - closing the loop cancels out the remaining 20% of hum... and the rig is DEAD SILENT... so what does that leave us with ? to get rid of 80% of hum, ground the POD via any device with 3 PIN POWER SOCKET - interconnect via UNBALANCED 1/4" or the BALANCED XLR to get rid of 20% of hum remaining (static generated by your body when holding the guitar) touch anything metalic on the grounded rig now if you are fine with 80% reduction the solution is easy but once you taste the "sweet silence" you never settle down with second best... I KNOW MY RIG CAN BE DEAD SILENT and i invested honest money to buy only the best equipment so why should i accept 20% hum... the solution i came up with for now is not ideal but better than living with a constant ghost hum in your music: 1) buy 2 meters of wire in home depot (you can use any cheap wire (1$ per meter) - i used basic solid copper wire) 2) attach one end to any metalic part of the grounded rig - i used the metalic bar/rail under the POD's LCD display / 1,2,3,4 knobs 3) either step on the other loose end of the wire with your foot but if you are used to tap your feet in the rhythm or fidget with your feet you may use following alternatives 4) unwrap a square sheet of aluminium cooking foil (30x30cm) lay it under your feet like a carpet and attach/wrap the wire's loose end into the corner of the foil - stand on the foil sheet while playing 5) sit on a metalic chair or stool and attach the loose end to the metalic frame of your stool/chair - your bare body must touch the stool - no cushions or thick clothes, thats why this solution is not ideal - the aluminium cooking foil "carpet" is better QUEST FOR PROFESSIONAL SOLUTION CONTINUES... i dont want to stand on a cooking foil for the rest of my life :))

btw there is 3650 threads in Forum Line 6 / POD HD and this thread How To Remove Hum From Hd500 is 67th most viewed topic (3501 views) yet only 19 replies and no working solution so far (since August 2013)... i guess this issue may be more common than expected...

you are lucky :) i tried 3 different quitars with 3 different pickup types with 2 different cables on 2 different HD500X in about 5 different wall sockets in 2 different venues (all around home and in the guitar centre - 1st floor with a sales person, basement with a technician)... buzzes every single time... its sadly logical... the whole rig (GUITAR --> HD500X --> HEADPHONES) has nowhere to drain the buzz or ground itself since the only attachment to the outside world is via power supply brick adaptor with 2 pins (without ground pin)... i believe that connecting to amp might drain the buzz (ground the whole rig) via the amp power socket which iam guessing is ussually 3 pin... but the point of HD500X is that you shouldnt need and amp (hence the simulations and headphone/line outputs)...

how exactly do you ground an FX pedal board without an amp ? thats sums the question of this entire thread (including the OP) :) tomorrow ill open the unit and locate that wire you talk about to check if it is loose... but the probability of 3 different units (mine, the test unit i tried in the shop, the other customer who had the same problem) all having loose wire is pretty low... i dont know how frequent this is... but in my post i tried 3 different quitars with 3 different pickup types with 2 different cables on 2 different HD500X in about 5 different wall sockets in 2 different venues (all around home and in the guitar centre - 1st floor with a sales person, basement with a technician) - you do the math :) it buzzed every single time... right now i came up with a quasi-solution which is pretty silly... iam just posting it so someone may figure out whats the problem and how to solve it PROFFESIONALLY 1) connect an XLR --> 1/4 TRS cable into MIC IN of the HD500X and just stand with your bare foot on the naked TRS ending of the cable... that way you dont have to touch any metal parts on guitar or pedalboard with your hands yet your body is grounding the rig via your foot on the cable - the only benefit of this is that you have free hands and your foot is the grounding lead of the rig (your foot is connected via the XLR --> TRS cable into MIC IN of the HD500X)... eliminates the buzz entirelly just like touching with your hand... 2) DISCLAIMER - WARNING !!! DONT TRY THIS AT HOME YOU ARE RISKING ELECTROCUTION - THIS IS NOT SAFE WAY TO HANDLE ELECTRIC DEVICES. THIS METHOD MAY NOT APPLY TO YOUR SETUP RIG OR YOUR COUNTRY ELECTRICAL WIRING. Instead of steping on the TRS ending with my foot i pressed the TRS connector carefully against the NULL/GROUNDING/EARTH pin in the wall socket (iam in europe we have Type E sockets with massive protruding EARTH pin). This will "drain" the buzz into the earth. Unfortunatelly and to my suprise this method removes only 85% of the buzz while still leaving an audiable 15% buzz that can only be further decreased to 0% by again touching any metal part of your guitar or HD500X pedal board. so right now i am using method 1) my foot touching the loose TRS end of the XLR --> TRS cable attached to MIC IN of the HD500X and the buzz is gone and i can play the guitar as long as i step on the loose end of the cable... its pretty silly... to quote the OP (posted back in Aug 2013):

BUMP HD500X has definitelly serious grounding issue when its not plugged into amp (using headphones only) - the amp ussually does the grounding duty in the rig i guess (i dont know i dont have any amp)... I actually have the same problem as OP... i ran GUITAR -> HD500X -> HEADPHONES (no amp cause i have simulations in HD500X, duhh): 1) brand new HD500X from local guitar centre 2) plugged in a guitar and get constant anoying buzz in my headphones 3) when i touch with my finger any metalic surface on my guitar (knobs, cord connector, high strings, bridge) OR HD500X UNIT (the stomp buttons, the metalic rail below LCD display) the buzz dissapears immediatelly... grounding issue for sure but where exactly is the buzz coming from... prior to taking my entire setup to local guitar centre i tried all wall power outlets in my flat, pluging directly to wall socket with no other equipment, also tried some anti-surge multi-socket adaptors i use in my home recording studio... no improvement... took my whole setup (guitar, cable, fx, headphones) to local guitar centre service we tried everything - shop's spare HD500X with a spare power supply - different guitar cables - 2 different guitars - quite expensive models (1500$) with good grounding (Gibson Les Paul and some expensive Gretsch) - guitar technician/repair man measured my guitars grounding and its correctly shielded !!! = so 3 guitars with correct grounding all generated same buzz and it always dissapeared when i touched anything metalic on guitar or on the HD500X unit... between the 3 guitars tested it was a mix of single-coils, humbuckers, noiseless single-coils... everything buzzed the same... the technician even remembered another customer who had the same buzz problem with his HD500X = so thats total 3 HD500X units that do it (mine, the spare test unit in the shop, this other reported customer's unit) HD500X comes with a standard 2 pin power plug adaptor (without null/grounding pin) such as you find on your cheap notebook or ipod/ipad charger... i hope someone from Line 6 found out a hack how to ground the HD500X unit... this is definitelly a HD500X grounding issue... the HD500X has no ground connection when its not connected to amp... between GUITAR -> HD500X -> HEADPHONES there is no grounding at all in such a rig without amp (because the HD500X only has 2 pin power adaptor)... so any suggestions ? its a major design ommision on the Line 6 product - it should have been grounded via 3-pin power plug or some separate grounding of the chassis via a grounding lug... iam sorry to say but HD500X is pretty much unusable with only headphones (without amp)... and i did the best to locate and eliminate the problem (see above)... its HD500X without any doubt... sorry Line 6... but give us solution or this is a major deal-breaker...