Do any of you guys use power conditioners?

[errrrrl]

Been experimenting heavily with my Suhr Reactive load and impulses lately. Getting some pretty decent tones but also picking up lots of noise/hiss/high pitched digital sounding noise, definitely noticeable during guitar breaks.

I tried out some demo's for noise reduction plugins such as Waves X-noise and Z-noise and those work ok but before pulling the trigger on plugins i'm starting to think maybe I should see if cleaning the power up first will help.

I'm planning on using an old PowerVar 5.0 line conditioner for my PC/DAW/USB Interface. But for my head amp I've read Furman power conditioners really help with hum/radio interference. On Amazon they have Furman M-8X2 for $60 bucks. Does anyone know if that would work well for my small Friedman PT20?

Also any tips or remedy's on reducing noise for home recordings? Thanks!

 

[Faded Abyss]

I'm interested in how this all works out for you. I have had similar issues in the past. My biggest problem was my interface (focusrite 2i4) has a blend potentiometer between inputs and outputs and the signal would bleed feedback. When I moved to the isolated outputs(3 and 4), problem gone.

Now I'm using my two notes torpedo reload's loadbox output and having some noise issues. Remember, a real amp will have some noise too. Not as much as I'm getting though. I'm thinking about trying to plug the torpedo into some kind of isolation transformer to see if that helps. I know for a fact the noise is coming from the torpedo reload. Also, I can't get a hot signal into my interface which is strange. -12db is the hottest it will get

Rather than using plugins to get rid of the noise, I think most people would just edit the tracks.its hard to tell what's normal and what considered a bad signal

 

[errrrrl]

I'm thinking about trying to plug the torpedo into some kind of isolation transformer to see if that helps.

The PowerVar box i'm going to test out tomorrow is just that, an isolation transformer, you can get used ones sort of cheap on eBAY. I'm bringing an old one home from work tonight, use to use it on our old rack servers. Last I remember they were medical grade isolation transformers used in hospitals and what not, good for filtering out dirty power from computers/electronics.

 

[JemmyPaeg]

I run one. Can't say I've ever noticed a difference. I mainly run it for peace of mind and also to have one button to shutdown my whole rack and studio. That said, I have very good power where I live.

 

[ZL1Hawk]

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

http://www.furmansound.com/

 

[Fuego]

I have a pl plus and doesn't do shit for cleaning up the electricity. It'll take a surge but that's it.

 

[errrrrl]

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

http://www.furmansound.com/

Thanks, I think I'm going to try a Furman to see if that helps.

I hooked up my POwerVar last night to my PC/DAW and did some late night testing but the noise I'm getting is still there. Must be from the amp so hopefully the $60 furman on amazon will help a bit. I have good power in my building but i'm in a high rise in Honolulu and pick up lots of radio/transmissions/etc. Like when my daughter was young I got her a toy walkie talkie and that thing would pick up so many different walkie talkies, radio broadcast, baby monitor noise etc, pretty much everything except the other matching walkie talkie lol... its insane at the amount of interference there is floating around the airwaves where I live.

 

[RockyStar]

Two things my rigs are never without....Clean power and proper gating. I always use a Furman and ISP units.

 

[Markedman]

Yes! I found out the hard way playing at an old VFW hall. The hiss in the PA and amplifiers made the show unbearable.

 

[ZL1Hawk]

I have a pl plus and doesn't do shit for cleaning up the electricity. It'll take a surge but that's it.

That's one of the more expensive ones. That happens everywhere you plug it in to?

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.furmansound.com</span>/

Thanks, I think I'm going to try a Furman to see if that helps.

I hooked up my POwerVar last night to my PC/DAW and did some late night testing but the noise I'm getting is still there. Must be from the amp so hopefully the $60 furman on amazon will help a bit. I have good power in my building but i'm in a high rise in Honolulu and pick up lots of radio/transmissions/etc. Like when my daughter was young I got her a toy walkie talkie and that thing would pick up so many different walkie talkies, radio broadcast, baby monitor noise etc, pretty much everything except the other matching walkie talkie lol... its insane at the amount of interference there is floating around the airwaves where I live.

I won't dare plug my amp in to any socket without a power conditioner. Sometimes guys will do a thread asking why their amp seems to be losing its edge and getting weak. Guys will chime in with tube advice or tell the OP to boost when the problem is he has been plugging his head straight in to a wall socket. People normally think if their amp takes a power spike it'll blow up or smoke but that's the most extreme scenario. Usually it's small little hits that your amp takes over all the time its been used without a PC and the amp slowly fries. That poor soul is now in need of a technician not a tube swap.

Remember though noise/hum from dirty AC is different from the racket you get from an amp or your pickups or pedals. If it's your amp gate it, same for pedals/guitar. I favor ISP in pedal or rack.

 

[Faded Abyss]

I have a pl plus and doesn't do shit for cleaning up the electricity. It'll take a surge but that's it.

That's one of the more expensive ones. That happens everywhere you plug it in to?

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.furmansound.com</span>/

Thanks, I think I'm going to try a Furman to see if that helps.

I hooked up my POwerVar last night to my PC/DAW and did some late night testing but the noise I'm getting is still there. Must be from the amp so hopefully the $60 furman on amazon will help a bit. I have good power in my building but i'm in a high rise in Honolulu and pick up lots of radio/transmissions/etc. Like when my daughter was young I got her a toy walkie talkie and that thing would pick up so many different walkie talkies, radio broadcast, baby monitor noise etc, pretty much everything except the other matching walkie talkie lol... its insane at the amount of interference there is floating around the airwaves where I live.

I won't dare plug my amp in to any socket without a power conditioner. Sometimes guys will do a thread asking why their amp seems to be losing its edge and getting weak. Guys will chime in with tube advice or tell the OP to boost when the problem is he has been plugging his head straight in to a wall socket. People normally think if their amp takes a power spike it'll blow up or smoke but that's the most extreme scenario. Usually it's small little hits that your amp takes over all the time its been used without a PC and the amp slowly fries. That poor soul is now in need of a technician not a tube swap.

Remember though noise/hum from dirty AC is different from the racket you get from an amp or your pickups or pedals. If it's your amp gate it, same for pedals/guitar. I favor ISP in pedal or rack.

This makes me never want to buy a used amp. Do minor spikes really paper cut your amp to death like they would a tv and other electronics? I figured because the circuits are analog and have components that are made to handle you turning it up to 10, some spikes wouldn't hurt anything. Everything goes through transformers which already filters things a little

 

[Fuego]

I have a pl plus and doesn't do shit for cleaning up the electricity. It'll take a surge but that's it.

That's one of the more expensive ones. That happens everywhere you plug it in to?

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.furmansound.com</span>/

Thanks, I think I'm going to try a Furman to see if that helps.

I hooked up my POwerVar last night to my PC/DAW and did some late night testing but the noise I'm getting is still there. Must be from the amp so hopefully the $60 furman on amazon will help a bit. I have good power in my building but i'm in a high rise in Honolulu and pick up lots of radio/transmissions/etc. Like when my daughter was young I got her a toy walkie talkie and that thing would pick up so many different walkie talkies, radio broadcast, baby monitor noise etc, pretty much everything except the other matching walkie talkie lol... its insane at the amount of interference there is floating around the airwaves where I live.

I won't dare plug my amp in to any socket without a power conditioner. Sometimes guys will do a thread asking why their amp seems to be losing its edge and getting weak. Guys will chime in with tube advice or tell the OP to boost when the problem is he has been plugging his head straight in to a wall socket. People normally think if their amp takes a power spike it'll blow up or smoke but that's the most extreme scenario. Usually it's small little hits that your amp takes over all the time its been used without a PC and the amp slowly fries. That poor soul is now in need of a technician not a tube swap.

Remember though noise/hum from dirty AC is different from the racket you get from an amp or your pickups or pedals. If it's your amp gate it, same for pedals/guitar. I favor ISP in pedal or rack.

It doesn't clean up anything. Never used one that did anything for electrical noise. They're just glorified power strips. Unfortunately

 

[ZL1Hawk]

I have a pl plus and doesn't do shit for cleaning up the electricity. It'll take a surge but that's it.

That's one of the more expensive ones. That happens everywhere you plug it in to?

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.furmansound.com</span>/

Thanks, I think I'm going to try a Furman to see if that helps.

I hooked up my POwerVar last night to my PC/DAW and did some late night testing but the noise I'm getting is still there. Must be from the amp so hopefully the $60 furman on amazon will help a bit. I have good power in my building but i'm in a high rise in Honolulu and pick up lots of radio/transmissions/etc. Like when my daughter was young I got her a toy walkie talkie and that thing would pick up so many different walkie talkies, radio broadcast, baby monitor noise etc, pretty much everything except the other matching walkie talkie lol... its insane at the amount of interference there is floating around the airwaves where I live.

I won't dare plug my amp in to any socket without a power conditioner. Sometimes guys will do a thread asking why their amp seems to be losing its edge and getting weak. Guys will chime in with tube advice or tell the OP to boost when the problem is he has been plugging his head straight in to a wall socket. People normally think if their amp takes a power spike it'll blow up or smoke but that's the most extreme scenario. Usually it's small little hits that your amp takes over all the time its been used without a PC and the amp slowly fries. That poor soul is now in need of a technician not a tube swap.

Remember though noise/hum from dirty AC is different from the racket you get from an amp or your pickups or pedals. If it's your amp gate it, same for pedals/guitar. I favor ISP in pedal or rack.

This makes me never want to buy a used amp. Do minor spikes really paper cut your amp to death like they would a tv and other electronics? I figured because the circuits are analog and have components that are made to handle you turning it up to 10, some spikes wouldn't hurt anything. Everything goes through transformers which already filters things a little

It shouldn't. As with anything used find out everything you can from the seller. How they used the amp, was it gigged? Did they use a power conditioner? Get the 411. With any big amp you've spent good money on it should be checked out by a tech anyway every couple of years. That amp is a huge investment so even if you did buy a used amp that has taken power surges and has some damage then the problem will be taken care of anyway.

It's not been people's homes in my experience that have the bad outlets, it's clubs, garages, recording studios that you run in to some real weird shit coming out of your amp. probably Aliens too lol! Years ago I started using Furman's and the wacky signals stopped. That was enough proof for me. Haven't stopped using PC's since.

For any noise related to amps and guitars I use the ISP Decimator.

 

[ZL1Hawk]

It doesn't clean up anything. Never used one that did anything for electrical noise. They're just glorified power strips. Unfortunately

That's why I stay away from the expensive ones and just stick with what I need for my applications. The AC noise they handle are things like radio transmissions and electromagnetic interference, so says the manual anyway, I can't say for sure how good they are at reducing such problems but I have yet to experience any such electrical noise since I started using PC's. I do feel they work pretty good so I do recommend them but guitar players spend enough money as it is on gear so I tell everyone to keep the price down.

 

[Fuego]

I have a pl plus and doesn't do shit for cleaning up the electricity. It'll take a surge but that's it.

That's one of the more expensive ones. That happens everywhere you plug it in to?

Oh yes absolutely I use Furman. Currently I have 3 worked in for each of my big amps. The nice thing about Furman is it cleans up dirty AC power, I can't say if that is what your issue is but I would certainly recommend getting one. They're cheap too. Some are also designed for noise filtration.

<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">http://www.furmansound.com</span>/

Thanks, I think I'm going to try a Furman to see if that helps.

I hooked up my POwerVar last night to my PC/DAW and did some late night testing but the noise I'm getting is still there. Must be from the amp so hopefully the $60 furman on amazon will help a bit. I have good power in my building but i'm in a high rise in Honolulu and pick up lots of radio/transmissions/etc. Like when my daughter was young I got her a toy walkie talkie and that thing would pick up so many different walkie talkies, radio broadcast, baby monitor noise etc, pretty much everything except the other matching walkie talkie lol... its insane at the amount of interference there is floating around the airwaves where I live.

I won't dare plug my amp in to any socket without a power conditioner. Sometimes guys will do a thread asking why their amp seems to be losing its edge and getting weak. Guys will chime in with tube advice or tell the OP to boost when the problem is he has been plugging his head straight in to a wall socket. People normally think if their amp takes a power spike it'll blow up or smoke but that's the most extreme scenario. Usually it's small little hits that your amp takes over all the time its been used without a PC and the amp slowly fries. That poor soul is now in need of a technician not a tube swap.

Remember though noise/hum from dirty AC is different from the racket you get from an amp or your pickups or pedals. If it's your amp gate it, same for pedals/guitar. I favor ISP in pedal or rack.

This makes me never want to buy a used amp. Do minor spikes really paper cut your amp to death like they would a tv and other electronics? I figured because the circuits are analog and have components that are made to handle you turning it up to 10, some spikes wouldn't hurt anything. Everything goes through transformers which already filters things a little

It shouldn't. As with anything used find out everything you can from the seller. How they used the amp, was it gigged? Did they use a power conditioner? Get the 411. With any big amp you've spent good money on it should be checked out by a tech anyway every couple of years. That amp is a huge investment so even if you did buy a used amp that has taken power surges and has some damage then the problem will be taken care of anyway.

It's not been people's homes in my experience that have the bad outlets, it's clubs, garages, recording studios that you run in to some real weird shit coming out of your amp. probably Aliens too lol! Years ago I started using Furman's and the wacky signals stopped. That was enough proof for me. Haven't stopped using PC's since.

For any noise related to amps and guitars I use the ISP Decimator.

Which Furman do u use? At gigs that have weird electricity, my furman pl-plus does nothing to correct the issue.

 

[1meanplexi]

Two things my rigs are never without....Clean power and proper gating. I always use a Furman and ISP units.

Yup^^^^.

 

[ZL1Hawk]

Which Furman do u use? At gigs that have weird electricity, my furman pl-plus does nothing to correct the issue.

I have 3 one for each of my heads all are Furman. I have a M-8L, M-8X2, and a PL-Plus C (I splurged on one) which might be the same one you have. The M-8L I think is discontinued.

Do you have anything you can use temporarily just see if a different PC makes a difference?

Is the noise like Rice Krispies? Snap, crackle, pop?

 

[ReloadZZ]

Furman P-1800 PF-R

 

[Chester Nimitz]

Furman PF-Pro & Furman PL-Plus.

Having gigged with & without i would never play without them now.

Also uses an Ebtech Hum Ex.