Hum in headphones

[AdB2001]

Hi, I just bought the Firehawk FX second hand.

I will play mostly via my headphones. Unfortunately there is a lot of hum via the headphones. Especially when using a lot of gain (presets like sweet child of mine, etc.)

When i bought it, i tested the firehawk via an amp. When testing via normal speakers there also was a hum, the seller said it was the guitar and clicked the amp button and the hum/noise was gone.

 

My question for seasoned Firehawk users: when using headphones with a high gain preset, do you hear a noticable hum?

Or is there hardly any noise when not playing?

[Kilrahi]

Anytime you describe a sound it can be problematic because the question becomes if I am thinking of the same sound you are. 

 

Especially the term "hum," as I don't usually use that term unless there's a problem (like from a ground loop). 

 

Nevertheless, high gain presets will have a lot of noise when you're not playing. That's part of what high gain is all about. There is always sound happening around your electric guitar so even when you aren't strumming, electrical noise is happening and is being sent to the Firehawk. High gain amps heavily ramp up everything they receive with . . . well . . . with gain. 

 

So even when you're not really playing anything, yes, there's gonna be a bunch of noise. One thing you can do to see if we're thinking of the same thing is use the Firehawk's noise gate, or place a noise gate at the start of the chain on purpose. If the noise you're hearing subsides a bit (not disappears, but drops in intensity), then yes, we're thinking of the same thing, and it's perfectly normal.