Amp buzz conundrum

GAD said:

If you've got a floating ground then when you touch the strings you become the ground. If you also happen to be touching something with a proper earth ground then you become the path to earth and that's when things get frightening. That's what happened to my daughter in the above post.

A combination of multiple grounding problems can make everything more difficult to figure out. For example if your LED lights are on the same circuit as your guitar amp and there's a floating ground, then you could be hearing buzz from the lights that isn't EMF if the path to ground decides to have something to do with your amp.

Ground loops can be small (within a guitar) or huge (entire rooms or more) and can be a royal PITA to resolve. If your X500 is the only properly wired guitar then that could explain why it's not picking up EMF, while the others do. You may have EMF *and* ground problems.

AcornHouse is correct in that a bad solder joint could be causing your issue as could 100 other things which is why these problems can be maddening, especially with a bunch of know-it-alls trying to diagnose it over a forum.

Click to expand...

Lol. I do appreciate the theories and will continue to debug. I just want to have nice sound and not die.

Longnose Gar said:

I just want to have nice sound and not die.

Click to expand...

That seems like a good goal.

A tree with leaves is good analogy for electric system. From every leave there is a path to ground - but only one path.

When we go to a gig and I take my sound system with - small about 1200W + monitors - the other about 4kW + monitors. Then is the backline plus lights. The only way to power this setup properly is to have a 3-phase outlet. Over here we have 230 volt system - and the 3-phase outlets are rated 3x16A - 3x35A - 3x63A - bigger outlets in industrial buildings.

Those outlets have 5 pin connectors - ground + zero + 3 phases. I plug imy distro nto that and share the load evenly between three phases. Plus I pull cables to backline - even if there are wall outlets behind every amp - I absolutely forbid anybody to use them. This way we have one common ground point for entire system. Safety is built in - plus we get clean sound system.


Back in 1975 when I was working in recording studio and had subscriptions of Studio Sound and DB-Magazine - there was an article of how to get rid of ground loops. "You start at the door of the room - left or right - your choice - creep along the wall - and whenever there is a groundwire - you cut it. If hum increases - connect it back. If hum decreases - leave it open. Proceed until you get rid of the hum or electrocuted."

Electric wirings must be taken care of - too many have died because of crappy systems.