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Permalink Reply by Tom T on November 6, 2015 at 3:03am

Hi Wayfinder.

I've been trying to nail down the source of hum/buzz/noise for several weeks. I notice that with no audio cord plugged into my amp I can turn the volume to full with absolutely no noise. Plug in a cheap 10' audio cord and I get all sorts of hum. Try a little better cord and I get less hum. Try a good double shielded cord and the hum goes down even more. It doesn't disappear, but does go down.

This test told me that the AC power was not adding noise (no noise with no cord), but the audio cord was adding noise, regardless of cord quality.

When I plug the audio cord into my guitar, the noise goes down (remember, this is at max amp volume), but I noticed that when I touch the metal jacket on the cord, the hum almost disappears. I'm still trying to figure out what this means. A lot of googling and I have read all sorts of "reasons". One site suggested that you wrap a wire around the jacket then run a lead from there to your toe to "ground" your body.

I will keep trying "rational" things to see if I can nail down the root cause, but you want to try some of the above tests to see if you can narrow the source down a bit.

Please share your findings. They will help us all.

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Permalink Reply by Thumper on November 6, 2015 at 5:26am

I recently posted for the same problem. The fix was to run a wire from the jack to the tailpiece, which grounded it to the strings also....buzz gone, lesson learned.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on November 6, 2015 at 7:33am

Hi Wayfinder.

I think the link is broken. It said "no such page found"

Thanks

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