Dodgy electricity/wiring noise issues - what to do?

professorben

Tbh, I would suggest it's more likely you have an appliance interfering in your property, you might want to try again, but have any dimmers switched off, the same goes for fridges and freezers, any strip lighting is also a possible culprit.

those socket testers (we call em martindales, but lots of companies make em, mines a fluke for example) will show you any cross polarity issues ( live and neutral mixed up) or a missing earth, it's entirely possible that if one socket had dropped an earth connection, that every following socket will be affected too, but without seeing your house it's just speculation.
id offer more advice.....but

1) I'm rushed off me feet and can't possibly get there till the first week of Pentecost
2) I ain't got the parts on the vaaaaan
3) it's prob gonna need a complete Rewire 
4) I'm knocking off early today

imalrightjack

Haha, cheers, @professorben - I'll try switching off the fridge freezer, etc. and see if I can identify anything.

Barney

imalrightjack said:

Haha, cheers, @professorben - I'll try switching off the fridge freezer, etc. and see if I can identify anything.

I would even go as far as turning everything off at the consumer unit and leave just the cooker point on ...iff you have one with a socket on...and try the amp through the cooker socket with the cooker switched of.....iff that clears it ..turn each circuit on one at a time until it re..appears and that will narrow it down a bit to the circuit that is causing the problem and what it feeds.....thats iff it is an appliance that is the problem 

imalrightjack

@Barney sadly it's a gas oven which was out of necessity, as there's no cooker point

Barney

imalrightjack said:

@Barney sadly it's a gas oven which was out of necessity, as there's no cooker point

Ahhh....ok...well even iff the sockets are on 2 or 3 different circuits you could always knock them all off and leave one on and narrow it down that way  

imalrightjack

I just flicked a bunch of things off at the circuit board and found that the switch labelled 'shed power' switched off the sockets in my music room!  I need to try again with the amp downstairs with that off and see what happens.  I tried everything off but that one and still had the same problem.

Barney

imalrightjack said:

I just flicked a bunch of things off at the circuit board and found that the switch labelled 'shed power' switched off the sockets in my music room!  I need to try again with the amp downstairs with that off and see what happens.  I tried everything off but that one and still had the same problem.

Make sure you switch lighting circuits off as well...basically any circuit that you are not plugged into 

imalrightjack

@Barney I did that but need to try a different circuit.  I'll report back!

imalrightjack

imalrightjack said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01D2SGG90/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_cKKAyb4EGM0P5

So, this tells me that everything is normal at the sockets.  Does that help narrow it down to being a general mains issue or anything helpful?

professorben

If the shed is spurred off the ring main in your music room, it's possible that the is an issue there, do you have a freezer in the shed? There 'should' bet a little fuse board in the shed that you can switch off.


try the reverse, switch off the 'shed' and try another socket circuit.

i know it might be a daft question.......but, have you tried your amps somewhere else? A mates house for example.

imalrightjack

professorben said:

If the shed is spurred off the ring main in your music room, it's possible that the is an issue there, do you have a freezer in the shed? There 'should' bet a little fuse board in the shed that you can switch off.

No freezer in there.  In fact, nothing plugged in at all.  I've just switched the mini fuse board off.  No difference.

Perhaps might tell you something (lord knows what): I just touched the metal frame of my powered but not connected T-Rex pedal board and there was a massive increase in noise.  Much worse with my hand palm-muting the strings on my Ibanez - the reverse with my Les Paul (both humbuckers).  Does that mean the Ibanez's earthing is iffy?  It's not an answer to the bigger question but obviously worth fettling!

spark240

Have you tried this...?

i know it might be a daft question.......but, have you tried your amps somewhere else? A mates house for example.

spark240

Have you tried a DI box with ground lift ?

imalrightjack

spark240 said:

Have you tried this...?

i know it might be a daft question.......but, have you tried your amps somewhere else? A mates house for example.

Not recently...I will, I promise

The Mesa has built-in Cab Clone, which also proves to be noisy.

BigMonka

professorben said:

imalrightjack said:

No paperwork that I'm aware of. What's TNCS, @Barney? ;;

It's where the protective 'sheath' ( steel wires around the cable) on the incoming cable, is used as the means of earthing the installation.
T= Earth or Terre 
N= Neutral
C= combined 
S= Sheath or Shared

so it's an earthing system where the neutral and earth are combined utilising the sheath.

Apologies for the pedantry but actually the S is for "separate" as the point of a TNCS is that it's TNC up to the cutout, then TNS beyond the PME link.
Doesn't help with the noise issue though! Trying the same gear at someone else's house is a good shout from Ben.

Barney

imalrightjack said:

imalrightjack said:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01D2SGG90/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_cKKAyb4EGM0P5

So, this tells me that everything is normal at the sockets.  Does that help narrow it down to being a general mains issue or anything helpful?

It tells you have a earth but it still could be a high reading ...the only way to check that out is proper tester and electrician..

Iff you have checked different circuits with all appliances knocked off and anything unplugged on the circuit you are trying ...it seems either the amp or the mains intake ..


You should maybe try your amp in another house as said above .....iff all is ok ...and iff your neighbours are ok ...try it in there house and see iff it does it there...its just really a matter of norrowing things down

This maybe worth reading as well
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_hum

ICBM

imalrightjack said:

Perhaps might tell you something (lord knows what): I just touched the metal frame of my powered but not connected T-Rex pedal board and there was a massive increase in noise.

Does the noise happen if you do the same with the pedalboard not powered?

imalrightjack said:
Much worse with my hand palm-muting the strings on my Ibanez - the reverse with my Les Paul (both humbuckers).  Does that mean the Ibanez's earthing is iffy?

Yes, very likely.

imalrightjack

ICBM said:

imalrightjack said:

Perhaps might tell you something (lord knows what): I just touched the metal frame of my powered but not connected T-Rex pedal board and there was a massive increase in noise.

Does the noise happen if you do the same with the pedalboard not powered?

Just checked, @ICBM. It doesn't do it when it's not powered.

ICBM

imalrightjack said:

Just checked, @ICBM. It doesn't do it when it's not powered.

Sounds like the pedalboard power supply is the culprit.

imalrightjack

ICBM said:

imalrightjack said:

Just checked, @ICBM. It doesn't do it when it's not powered.

Sounds like the pedalboard power supply is the culprit.

Unfortunately, that's just one part of the bigger problem - as it is all still noisy with it disconnected entirely