Hi. This morning I plugged in my guitar and the amp make a buzz. Like I turned on the gain even though I haven’t. What is even weirder is that it almost works like a compass, the closer the guitar jack to the amp the louder the buzz, also if I face the guitar in same way as the amp or the guitar facing the amp but behind the amp, the buzzing stops. Both the guitar and amp are brand new, only a month of not even playing every day. I checked the cable, cleaned it and I also checked the power cable and seems to be alright as well. Yesterday there was a power outage, but the amp wasn’t plugged in at the time.
Update but i am still looking forward to understand what the hack happened.
I know some amps are supposed to have a characteristic buzzing and mine had from the first day. Noe it’s back to normal, no ideea how. However if i rest fhe guitar on the bad facing up as i usually do the buzzing gets a little louder. Same if a get the guitar to close too the amp (not that i would have any reason to that but just curious ehy it happens)
I think the first thing to try is another guitar in there Ionita, if you can. Need to see if it’s the amp or the guitar causing the issue, also try another cable. Process of elimination.
I don’t have another guitar nor another cable.
What guitar and amp are you playing through Ionita? Are you running any pedals and how are they powered? There could be a lot of potential things but it might help to know as others may have the same combination.
Are you playing with a single coil type of guitar? Is it more of a hum - that could be it. There’s a reason the “humbucking pickups” were invented…
Tod
Hi @Noobix
What you describe sounds a lot like you have a connection that is intermittent. This can happen in a cable if the solder joint breaks. However, it sounds more like you have a weak cable jack somewhere. Moving the guitar around and getting the noise to change makes sense, especially if it is a single coil. Those pickups act like antennas.
Having the noise still present as you move around sounds like the ground side of the cable or jack to me. If you notice it again, wiggle your cable at each jack without moving anything else and see if you can hear the problem go away. That will help troubleshoot a bit. Do this from guitar to amp. As @Notter was thinking, if you are running through any pedals, then you would want to try the wiggle at each cable connection through the whole pedal chain.
Once you can identify WHERE the problem is, the solution often becomes clear.
I wiggled the cable like crazy and nothing seems wrong with it. I’m playing a 3 single coil strat so if you say it’s normal for it to make a small buzz then i guess it’s fine. I usually have my amp further away, but because of some changes in the room it was only now that i noticed the small buzzing.
Now even if i go all amp settings to max the buzzing is decent.
When i wrote in the morning it was way worse. I don’t know how, but as i sad, it is better now.
Thanks for help everyone.
Did you perhaps plug the amp in a different power socket?
I don’t have much to add to what our friends above said if I’m honest.
You could pop that pickguard off and see how the wiring looks. Any loose wire will be easy to spot.
Perhaps you could consider shielding the electronics cavities. It can help.
My epiphone with humbuckers but no shielding buzzes more than my Ibanez with high output humbuckers but shielded cavity and my SSS start is dead silent but that’s shielded and has DM’s virtual vintage pickups so maybe not quite a fair comparison.
A power cable running parallel to a guitar cable will do it too - it will induce a signal in the guitar cable.
Ionita, if you can track down the issue to either the guitar or the amp, as you say they are both only a month old, could you make an enquiry with the vendor? Maybe a warranty issue?
Hi Noobix.
I had same’ish issue with buzzing.
It turned out to be the lead socket in the guitar.
I took off the front of socket (2 screws ) and the “spring” type contact had weakened somewhat. A gentle easing back towards the centre cured it.
Maybe something to check out.
Cheers
Mike
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