OT: New house with basement = crummy noise/buzz problem

[Triffid]

I recently bit the bullet and bought a new house (new to me) with a basement.  Before i moved my setup worked great, nice and quite.  I was all excited about playing in my basement until i hooked everything up and got a crazy buzz.  The buzz goes away when i put my fingers on the strings.  I looked around and noticed the floresant lights and figured that was the problem... so i turned them all off... nope, same exact buzz is still there.  At this point i figured i had a bad ground connection in one of my effects so i took them all off... guitar straight to amp... problem still there .. or depending on how you look at it...   I got an ac outlet tester at wally world and tested the polarity and what not of the wall outlets.  The one that it is plugged into is fine... but the dumb a** who hooked up some of the other outlets reversed the neutral and positive connections.  I am just staying away from those ones for now.  I have tried a few different good outlets in the basement with no luck on any of them.

So... any ideas what could be causing my buzz? Could there be some bad grounding in the electrical work in the basement?  

Thanks in advance for the help

[niftydog]

when you get the electrician in to fix those bodgey power points, ask him to check out the ground connections in the points and the main ground connection outside.

However, it could be any number of other things. Ground loops, other equipment interference etc etc. Maybe trace each of the circuits through the house, you might find that someone's using a hair dryer in the bathroom upstairs, but it's on the same circuit as your gear in the basement!

When you know what circuit each of the points is connected to, ensure that ALL of your music gear is connected to a single circuit - preferably one with nothing else connected to it.

[Triffid]

Thanks for the help and good idea.  I checked my breaker box to see which curcuit i  was on... turns out i had only tried one curcuit... so i tried 2 others... no luck though.  I used a super long extension coord and tried one upstairs and still no luck.  I will have the electrician check the main ground connection for sure. I did make sure to try a curcuit with just my amp and guitar... nothing else, still no luck.   I also tried my ss practice amp and had the same effect.

I am pretty bumbed about this and i fear that when i call an electrician i'll get laughed at when i tell him my amps are buzzing  :oops:

I'll keep trying i guess... thanks again

[niftydog]

i fear that when i call an electrician i'll get laughed at when i tell him my amps are buzzing

well, I would just remind him that there's no shortage of other electricians who would be happy to be paid to carry out such work...

Perhaps come at it from a safety angle first. Tell him that the toaster gave you a shock, or that your hair stands on end when you use the vacuum cleaner... THEN mention that your amps hum!

[KORGULL]

1)Does your amp buzz without the guitar or anything plugged into the input jack? It's a long shot but maybe your guitar's ground got disconnected.
2)Turn off any dimmer switches in the house.
3)Try plugging into a power strip or rack unit like Furman makes with good RFI/EMI filtering and see if that helps for a temporary fix.
4)Try physically relocating your amp to the top floor.
5)Make sure you're not using a speaker cable between the guitar and amp by mistake.

[Triffid]

Thanks again for the help guys...

KORGULL... you made realize that i have only tried my single coil strat... so i tried my dual humbucker epiphone and guess what... no buzz, except for the normal barely audible buzz if i crank the amp.  I'll take a look at my strat later for disconnected wires.

I do have dimmer switches at this house that i didn't have before... i'll check those too

I do know i am using speaker cable... though it is a lot longer then needed... i only need like 3 feet and it is probaly 12.

Thanks again

oh... and yes i was trying all pickup positions on my strat

[KORGULL]

Korgull wrote:

5)Make sure you're not using a speaker cable between the guitar and amp by mistake.

Triffid wrote:

I do know i am using speaker cable... though it is a lot longer then needed... i only need like 3 feet and it is probaly 12.

Probably just a mis-communication but just in case...be sure not to use that speaker cable as your guitar to amp hookup. That will cause hum because speaker cables are not shielded like instrument cables.
I'm guessing you are using the right cables and just mis-read what I wrote, but I thought I'd make sure since that could be the whole cause of your problem.
Glad you got things mostly under control  I know how frustrating loud hums/buzzes can be, especially when you are about to play in public :oops:  :x

[Triffid]

Yes, speaker cable for amp--> speader, instrument cable for guitar --> amp.

The hum came back again even with my humbuckers.... my guess is there is some light fixture or appliance that causes it when on.  I'll just have to do some more debugging.

Whats funny is that ussually if i turn ON one of my effects the buzz will go away... i've tested that with my ff and my wah.... i have no clue why