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How To Remove Hum From Hd500


jalam71
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DarkEdge> It is possible that you have a bad ground for your main electrical panel, the ground rod may not be deep enough or thick enough

 

well i guess everything is possible now... maybe i could move to a different house :) just kidding but you may be right... this buzz seems like really hard to pinpoint... could be anything...

 

DarkEdge> I'm doubting that it is the POD (but anythings possible at this point)

 

i already ruled out POD... but not completely :)

 

DarkEdge> I'm leaning more towards your equipment, be that a cold joint in your guitars electrical circuit, cord issue, wiring issue (again guitar).

 

next week ill have my guitar checked by a local guitar builder... i got contact only yesterday

 

yeah getting hold of another guitar or get out of house seems like a good idea... and i tried both yesterday... i went to a guitar centre in a different part of town and i tested several other guitars...

 

but as you may read in my previous post where i went to guitar centre it may also prove nothing... i made this trip to guitar centre i refered to above but it was disaster their room was so noisy with RMI / RFI that any testing was useless...

 

FURTHERMORE i discovered that its futile to compare one guitar buzz to another guitar... because all guitars had their own specific buzz issues so there was nothing to compare... every guitar was buzzing albeit in a different way and different circumstances... in fact my guitar was the most silent of them all...

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My worst guitars for noise are my more expensive Les Paul and American Strat.

 

Yeah thats what i discovered yesterday in the guitar centre... $3500 humbucker custom Gibson Les Paul and David Gilmour strats were buzzing more than my cheap guitar... there was no point of comparing nuances between my cheap guitar and this high end guitar because the high end had 3x more buzz to begin with and their buzz was ever-present no matter what i did... a cheaper FENDER Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster model (Dimarzio YJM pickups) - $2400 was much quitere than the most expensive $3500 models... there was simply nothing to compare... no common ground... the price of the guitar didnt mean anything in the buzz... every guitar buzzed in its unique way...

 

thats why iam hesitant to try other guitars or invite firends to my house because in buzz, no 2 guitars behave the same... its like comparing apples and oranges... in the end you are not much more clever than before you started...

 

btw the cheapest squier $120 was behaving much like my guitar (slightly more buzz when my hand was near pickups) while the most expensive guitars $3500 had 3x more buzz than my guitar ALL THE TIME, so as a benchmark they were "useless" because they buzzed more than my cheap guitar...

 

so this kind of testing is pretty useless... it may uncover something but it most likely only brings in new kinds of buzz unique to those other guitars (and price doesnt matter here)...

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jandrio> i really dont know what Variax would prove... if i plug it and its dead silent what does it say to my problem ? it doesnt really prove anyhting because its a totally different technology than my guitar so the two are uncomparable... its like comparing diesel motor with electric... of course electric will be more silent... i know variax will be silent but that doesnt yield any suggestion as to what my problem is...

 

also as i said i have absolutely no way to get my hands on variax in my city or country... these models are not "ON DISPLAY" in local shops they are only "ON ORDER"... there is NOT SINGLE VARIAX in my country to test in a shop...

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but,  if u plug it and its dead silent, this IS THE SOLUTION 2 ur "HUMMMM+BUZZZZZ" problem, isn't it?

 

as Charlie_Watt said, "It is much quieter than any mag pickup guitar out there when you use the piezo pickups and the modeling".

so, if u wanna try one, just order, try, + return/refund  back if u do not like.... :)

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Learn to live with some amount of noise.  It is hard to avoid.  (Unless you have a JTV!)  That is one of the things that I like about my Variax.  I have had a Variax since the original 500 came out and they are the quietest guitars out there. (when you don't use the Mag pickups)

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guys iam glad you like your variaxes...

 

but i like my guitar's tone and feel... i dont think everybody who is trying to eliminate buzz from their rig should be forwarded to buy Variax... period...

 

its a solution, maybe... but its not for everyone...

 

ill see what the guitar builder guy has to say next week when i bring him my guitar and than i will decide whats next...

 

right now i enjoy playing without Line 6 POD on a battery powered macbook with a Overloud TH2 software amp simulator...

 

the guitar is absolutelly silent and the tone is like a bell of Notre Dame... if only i could translate this experience into a wall-powered Line 6 POD HD...

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guys iam glad you like your variaxes...

 

but i like my guitar's tone and feel... i dont think everybody who is trying to eliminate buzz from their rig should be forwarded to buy Variax... period...

 

its a solution, maybe... but its not for everyone...

 

ill see what the guitar builder guy has to say next week when i bring him my guitar and than i will decide whats next...

 

right now i enjoy playing without Line 6 POD on a battery powered macbook with a Overloud TH2 software amp simulator...

 

the guitar is absolutelly silent and the tone is like a bell of Notre Dame... if only i could translate this experience into a wall-powered Line 6 POD HD...

 

So I've kind of lost track of all the different iterations you've went through here, but if you used the HD500X with the USB plugged into your laptop (with the laptop plugged in) while listening through headphones, do you still find this exceptionally noisy? Is that more or less noisy than just the HD500X itself with headphones? I've recorded quite a lot with my laptop with the HD500, and I don't really notice any additional noise (using a regular guitar, not my Variax). The way I see it, the noise while using headphones alone (not connected a computer or anything else) may be annoying, but it doesn't really affect anything. You're the only one who would hear it. But if you get noise while recording or hooking up to a PA, that can be a problem. Also, I do think that in a high gain situation, some amount of noise is simply unavoidable. High gain tones inherently raise the noise floor.

 

I actually wonder if the noise floor you experience might be simply because you're running everything at a higher mains voltage. I've never really looked into whether that could make a difference or not.

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phil_m> so I've kind of lost track of all the different iterations you've went through here

 

i dont blame you :) i really tried a lot of stuff...

 

lets return to basics...

 

this buzz is present also on this rig:

 

(GUITAR --> GUITAR CABLE --> POD HD500X --> HEADPHONES) <<< NO NOTEBOOK USED IN THIS SETUP, BUZZ IS THE SAME

 

headphones were ruled out previously...

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Electric guitars played through amps virtual or otherwise are inherently noisy.EMGs and some variants a little more so but my EMGs( I dont use anymore) would still hum/ buzz like heck in certain venues. Go see Eric Johnson or Robin Trower and the first thing you here is a 60 cycle buzz.Until they start playing at volume.Then all you hear is Marshall gloriousness.Understanding the noise floor and getting the guitar to exceed it is how these guys operate. Playing in a studio/ through headphones etc... is somewhat unnatural for electric guitar.With all the technology we have now we spend our time scrutinizing noises chirps blurps etc...trying to sanitize what made us want to play the damn things in the first place.Crank your noisy guitar up through a real good tube amp and you wont hear any of this noize.You will hear what an electric guitar is supposed to sound like.

 

I am a big advocate of all things HD/ Variax/ guitar synthesizer etc... but realize that the noises are a part of passive pickup- tube amp technology.

 

Its funny we spend a gazillion dollars removing all the distortion etc...from our guitars and amps and processors.Then we turn around and spend a bazillion dollars more and thousands of hours of time putting it all back in.Its ridiculous.Guitars are noisy and I love that noise.

 

"The Fenders are for the music.The Marshalls are for the noise."- Robin Trower

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Plugging an old Madeira EG-51 into an HD500 bought used yielded symptoms similar to those originally described

and were mostly resolved by cleaning phone plug/jack connections.  I bought DeoxIT D100L for that purpose.

The next improvement was eliminating hum when hands approached plastic bodies of connectors molded to guitar cable

by lopping those off and soldering metal bodied plugs.

 

The next improvement was swapping a made-in Korea Hamer Hammer Series for the Madiera.

In addition to better tone, the Hamer exhibits nearly no electrostatic hum and only modest magnetic hum.

Magnetic hum changes when the guitar is moved, and there is usually an orientation that nearly eliminates it.

Electrostatic hum changes when you touch or come close to unshielded or poorly shielded signal conductors.

Nearly all electrostatic hum was eliminated from the Madeira by disassembling, replacing aluminum foil

on the pick guard with copper, painting cavities with HSF54 conductive acrylic paint, then applying copper foil

to cavity surfaces so that, except for pickup openings in pick guard, cavities are completely surrounded by copper foil.

Magnetic hum was reduced by replacing bridge and neck pickups with rail humbuckers.

Unfortunately, those cheap pickups lack means for grounding those pickup rails,

making them vulnerable to electrostatic hum when touched.  Other than that, the Madeira is now as quiet as the Hamer

(but not as quiet as my Variac 300). 

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  • 3 months later...

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)...

Try to wax your pick ups YouTube the method todo that. 

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  • 2 years later...

Hey all, just wanted to share that I went into the "amp" setting and changed the "bias" to all the way left wih the noise gate off and the amount of rf sounding high freq buzz went WAY down, just a little tiny buzz  that's barely there... also sitting in one part of my room pretty much cuts that out and with the noise gate on minimal settings it's soooo much better now, Hope this helps someone out there!

 

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  • 4 months later...

Had the same problem and tried plugging into my computer that uses a three prong, plugged into a speaker, tried different outlets, different guitars, different cables, surge protectors, etc. with varying results, none of which helped in a huge way. I finally got the hum mostly under control, though! I forgot I had an old Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus laying around. Plugged the board into the outlet on there and it seems to have kicked the hum. There's still a little noise that I wouldn't call a hum, but more like room noise I'd expect on a microphone. It's not a nuisance and I can clean it up pretty easy in recordings without squashing the guitar track with Waves x-noise or z-noise. I might only notice it because I'm more keenly listening for a hum, too. Anyway, this helps like 2 people since most people won't have a Pedal Power lying around, but it's worth noting that is a way to fix it for anyone that has one/wants to buy one.

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NECRO THREAD

7 years and multiple firmwares later... 

most of the problems have been fixed. 

 

but if you are needing to plug your gear into different outlets from each other to get the hum to go away... that is not something that L6 can fix 

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