Guitar amp plays friggin radio...

[InChiefsHeaven]

Don't know if anyone else has this problem or if there's anything that can be done about it. My basement seems to be a great place to receive AM radio signals. My last amp would pick up AM radio sometimes, faintly. But the new Line6 Spider IV has it blaring, to the point where I can't really even play sometimes. I have what I thought was a decent cable, but maybe that's the problem. It just never did it this badly with my last amp. Anyway, when I turn on to jam it's like a total Spinal Tap Air Force Gig moment...drives me nuts!! Any ideas, or do I need to just buy another house...?

[Lzen]

Have you tried sticking a fork in the outlet?

[Jawshco]

Originally Posted by Radar Chief

In my old house we had a neighbor that was a HAM guy, had a big, for a residential area, tower for short wave and I’d pick up his transmissions on my stereo. Not loud though and it was a one sided conversation since I couldn’t hear who he was talking too.

Ha! When I was teen I used to practice in small church in Joplin with my Alternative band, and there was a HAM radio dude who would say crap to us through my old school tube Sun bass rig. It kind of scared us the first time we heard the mystery voice. By the time we figured it out he would say things like "Yer, gittin' kinna' loud there boys." So we'd yell crap back to him and play louder. Stupid stuff.

I've never had an issues with my Line 6 guitar amp, nor my Fender Bassman, but when I power down my Ampeg solid state bass head, it will loudly blast a Mexican Radio signal through our sound system for about 3-4 seconds if our soundguy doesn't quickly mute my channel.

[God of Thunder]

Pansy Amps!..........let me show you my "real" amp.....

My 1978 Marshall 100w JMP.










But seriously though, I have no issues, it must be your location. Do you have a big tower nearby or anything?

[Munson]

Turn on the amp, and pour a bucket of water on top of it. Problem solved! No more radio signals.

[Marcellus]

When tracking some guitar tracks in the studio we had a fuzz pedal that started picking up a religious radio station. We recorded a bunch of it and punched a little of it into the song we were recording at the begin and end with some reverb and delay on it. Sounds pretty cool, just some random fire and brimstone stuff. Kind of fit the song so we used it.

[qabbaan]

I've had this happen. You just need to switch out every component one by one until its found.

I had this happen recently and it was related to pedals. I have a Fulltone Fulldrive pedal which has a boost feature. When I turned the boost on I could hear FM radio clearly. But when I ran the pedal alone with everything else unplugged, no radio. Eventually what I think I discovered that the pedal next to it (an old one from the closet) was putting out the interference because when that pedal was gone everything was quiet on the Fulldrive again. It wasn't just the Fulldrive picking it up, I have a Keeley compressor that it was causing problems with too. You could hold the two together and move them apart and hear radio go in and out.

This is a long way to say, move your pedals farther apart and see if it helps.

Heard some guys say they needed to shield the inside of their guitar or buy better cables too.

Maybe a power conditioner, for your outlets?

[Ace Gunner]

Originally Posted by God of Thunder

Pansy Amps!..........let me show you my "real" amp.....

My 1978 Marshall 100w JMP.

Now that is an amp

[cmh6476]

maybe check the ground

[InChiefsHeaven]

Thanks fellas! I'm thinking it may be a ground issue...

First I tried hooking up my wireless, and the problem was the same. Then I went out to the garage, same issue wireless or wired. Then I took it to a local music store and plugged in...no noise whatsoever with the wired or wireless connection. I guess my whole friggin' house is probably grounded shitty or something.

...so since we've all established the probability of a ground problem, is it just a matter of replacing outlets or is there some other shit I gotta do?

I don't know jack about electricity. I can do all kinds of other shit, but I never really mess with ol' sparky...

[Ace Gunner]

Go to a hardware store and get a grounding rod and a sledge hammer. Get the clamps that fit the rod too, you'll use those to run separate wires. Get 100ft of 14 ga green wire and an auger bit to fish the wire through your walls. get some wall patch to close those holes. If you want to be fancy and go code, use conduit to fish you wires in. You'll need to identify exact spots you need to ground, exact outlets. You'll need to pull your outlets from the boxes, so, you may need some new outlets to replace the old ones. Use the same whit/black connections but cut off the green wires and use a wire nut to insulate them from ever touching anything again. Make sure you get that rod at least 3 feet into the ground and make sure you shut off the breaker to each circuit you are working. You get the idea?

[Bugeater]

I'd call an electrician.

[Ace Gunner]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

I'd call an electrician.

or, if you can afford it, ya, find a guy that will do it for a reasonable fee and doesn't want to redo your whole house. the thing is, there are a lot of people out of work calling themselves repairmen, that will **** you up. This isn't a big job really.

[InChiefsHeaven]

Originally Posted by chiefsfootballfan

Go to a hardware store and get a grounding rod and a sledge hammer. Get the clamps that fit the rod too, you'll use those to run separate wires. Get 100ft of 14 ga green wire and an auger bit to fish the wire through your walls. get some wall patch to close those holes. If you want to be fancy and go code, use conduit to fish you wires in. You'll need to identify exact spots you need to ground, exact outlets. You'll need to pull your outlets from the boxes, so, you may need some new outlets to replace the old ones. Use the same whit/black connections but cut off the green wires and use a wire nut to insulate them from ever touching anything again. Make sure you get that rod at least 3 feet into the ground and make sure you shut off the breaker to each circuit you are working. You get the idea?

I'm cowering in a corner right now. Heh.

[Bugeater]

How old is your house?

[Ace Gunner]

Originally Posted by InChiefsHell

I'm cowering in a corner right now. Heh.

You can do it. There are youtube vids and I'd be happy to talk you through it. But you need to get your head wrapped around the task before you start.