White Noise and Buzz problem!

[izlemontee]

Hi all, I've just started moving on from acoustic to electric earlier this year, so I'm still pretty new to the technical stuff.
Just for context, my current rig consists of:
-An MIM Fender FSR HH Strat
-Roland Cube 10GX
-Vox 847 wah pedal
-MXR Dyna Comp compressor
-Boss BD-2 Blues Driver
-Tech21 Sansamp GT2 amp sim
-TC Electronics Nova Delay
-Biyang 9V adaptor with daisy chain

1. When I plug it straight to the amp, it seems to be pretty quiet. However, when I have my entire rig up, there seems to be a buzz when everything is off. The buzz is still the same, albeit a little reduced in some cases, even if it's just 1 pedal connected. The compressor and blues driver seem to be giving off the most buzz/hum when switched on.

2. When I turn on the Sansamp GT2 or the Vox wah, it seems to give off a bit off white noise (kind of like TV static). It's rather minor on the wah, but it's actually quite noticeable on the GT2, especially when I'm playing clean. It also crackles when i turn the drive knob.

3. I got the Nova Delay second-hand, and it came with a TC electronics 12V adaptor (yes, even the pedal itself says it uses 12V). When I use the 12V adaptor, there's this crazy buzz coming from it, but it's a lot more quiet when I use 9V, though it did go ape shit *once* when I left it idle for about half an hour.

I highly suspect that it's because of the power supply (can't expect much from a Chinese brand), and I really hope it's not the stompboxes that have a problem. Can anyone help me on the aforementioned problems?

[rankot]

First of all, try to play removing other pedal every time. This will help you nail the problem - if one pedal is causing buzz, you will find that one. If the buzz is present regardless which pedal is not connected, then something else is causing it, so next try to change power supply.

[anotherjim]

Some of those will run off battery. Compare battery versus power supply.

Daisy chain powering is never good in my experience. It allows ground hum.

Power supply might be a cheap switch mode type. If it's lightweight and can take a wide AC supply voltage range (like 100-240v), it is a switcher and they can be very noisy. Daisy chain distribution makes this worse.

[izlemontee]

First of all, try to play removing other pedal every time. This will help you nail the problem - if one pedal is causing buzz, you will find that one. If the buzz is present regardless which pedal is not connected, then something else is causing it, so next try to change power supply.

?

It's present no matter which pedal I take out of the loop. When I plug it straight to the amp, no pedals, the buzz is almost gone, just a very minor hum (which I figured is inherent, please correct me if I'm wrong). But the buzz becomes worse with the 12V adaptor plugged in.

I should also probably mention that the buzzing is reduced by a little when I touch the metallic parts of my pedals or cables (e.g bare foot touching the metal switch on the pedals, fingers touching the metal outer coating of the Planet Waves cable).

I've just tried my rig again, for a minute I thought it was fine until i slightly shifted my pedalboard and the noise came back. At this point I highly suspect it's the daisy chain. Thoughts?

[antonis]

What Jim said... 

[anotherjim]

Should also ask if you are somewhere in the world that doesn't have a 3rd contact for safety ground in the AC wall outlets. You can have difficulty getting a clean system without at least the amp having a real ground connection.

[Alex83tele]

You'll be chasing the buzz forever. Seriously, do what you can, but don't obsess over it.
There's one thing I never see anyone point the finger at, the pickups. Single coil pickups make noise, always, that's a given. Your Strat should be wired such that whenever you're using two pickups at once, the noise they both make cancels out. Try that with no pedals, and the cable you're most confident in. You should hear a (hopefully) faint buzz in the 1,3,5 position, and it should disappear in the 2 & 4. This is where it gets tricky, because if the buzz is there in the 2 & 4, you have to determine if it's the same buzz at lower volume. It will have a frequency and character just like any other sound coming out if your amplifier. It could be that one of your pickups was poorly wound and is out of phase. And if 2 & 4 sound the same, it might be the middle. If it disappears, you can consider your guitar, and that cable good to go. Time to check your pedals one by one. Brace yourself, because one, two, or all of them might be noisy. Only one way to find out.
If you wind up at the high voltage outlet, the only thing you can do is buy a fairly expensive power conditioner, unless you're an electrician. True story, I was set up in a very old building, with very poor wiring, and was getting a fairly nasty buzz, which I just excepted as noise from the ungrounded outlets. Ended up being a cheap light bulb dimmer built into an extension chord plugged into the outlet I was using. I was buzz free for months.


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[izlemontee]

Should also ask if you are somewhere in the world that doesn't have a 3rd contact for safety ground in the AC wall outlets. You can have difficulty getting a clean system without at least the amp having a real ground connection.

My country has 3rd contacts in the electrical outlets. I just got a BBE Supa-Charger, but that only came with a 2-pin adaptor. It actually made the buzzing worse, so that's pretty alarming.

[izlemontee]

You'll be chasing the buzz forever. Seriously, do what you can, but don't obsess over it.
There's one thing I never see anyone point the finger at, the pickups. Single coil pickups make noise, always, that's a given. Your Strat should be wired such that whenever you're using two pickups at once, the noise they both make cancels out. Try that with no pedals, and the cable you're most confident in. You should hear a (hopefully) faint buzz in the 1,3,5 position, and it should disappear in the 2 & 4. This is where it gets tricky, because if the buzz is there in the 2 & 4, you have to determine if it's the same buzz at lower volume. It will have a frequency and character just like any other sound coming out if your amplifier. It could be that one of your pickups was poorly wound and is out of phase. And if 2 & 4 sound the same, it might be the middle. If it disappears, you can consider your guitar, and that cable good to go. Time to check your pedals one by one. Brace yourself, because one, two, or all of them might be noisy. Only one way to find out.
If you wind up at the high voltage outlet, the only thing you can do is buy a fairly expensive power conditioner, unless you're an electrician. True story, I was set up in a very old building, with very poor wiring, and was getting a fairly nasty buzz, which I just excepted as noise from the ungrounded outlets. Ended up being a cheap light bulb dimmer built into an extension chord plugged into the outlet I was using. I was buzz free for months.


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My strat is HH. It still has the noise despite having humbuckers. Also, as I mentioned above, I just got a BBE Supa-Charger but it actually made things worse for some reason.

[Alex83tele]

I only mention the power thing to discourage people from toying with a home electrical system because of a buzzing sound. It's dangerous, and rarely the source.
E
Two of the more common conditions that cause noise in a system are an open ground loop and unshielded equipment. Depending on how you look at it, they could be described as the same issue, but I think there's an important distinction that can be made, and it can help in locating the source. An open ground loop as I use it, is a condition in which a connection that is significantly close to the main signal path has come loose. It is characterized by vary harsh buzzing that that stays somewhat consistent. Shielding problems are much less noisy, and will vary when the unshielded device is physically moved.

Since you've established that the noise is present with only the guitar plugged in, you know that there something going on there. Humbuckers eliminate one type of noise, but they don't filter a signal. You have to start looking for a connection issue in there. The bridge, and all other parts made of conductive material must be connected to the ground side of the signal. At a certain point it becomes necessary to have tools to test with, but you can visually establish that the connections are made.


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[Alex83tele]

Thought I should add, an isolated power supply like the one you got, will be beneficial in the long run. Think of it this way, you're having a problem that's permeating your whole setup. A noise that doesn't originate from a pedal is affecting its performance, and vice-versa. When you daisy-chain effects, one faulty pedal will affect the others. Not only does this make the noise much louder, it also makes it harder to track down (this is what you're experiencing now, which is why I'm thinking the guitar has to be a suspect).
With an isolated power-supply, faulty DC input circuits in one pedal, only affect the one pedal, making it easy to spot. One of many benefits.

[izlemontee]

Thought I should add, an isolated power supply like the one you got, will be beneficial in the long run. Think of it this way, you're having a problem that's permeating your whole setup. A noise that doesn't originate from a pedal is affecting its performance, and vice-versa. When you daisy-chain effects, one faulty pedal will affect the others. Not only does this make the noise much louder, it also makes it harder to track down (this is what you're experiencing now, which is why I'm thinking the guitar has to be a suspect).
With an isolated power-supply, faulty DC input circuits in one pedal, only affect the one pedal, making it easy to spot. One of many benefits.

I tried my entire rig at a friend's place. It worked fine. Well except for the Sansamp GT2, that was really does have a problem.
I figured end of the day my daisy chain was of poor quality and my amp does not have enough headroom to handle that many stompboxes.

Also, the buzzing when plugging straight to my amp is due to a grounding issue. The adaptor for my amp is 2-pin.

Thanks for all your help!