Help diagnose rig issue

  • Thread starter Thread starter mniel8195
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mniel8195

mniel8195

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I have taken the my pedal board out of the equation for this issue. My signal chain is as follows. Suhr modern running into Friedman small box. I have the 8 ohm tap going into a suhr reactive load ir and i am monitoring through headphones.

I have the amp cranked and I am getting a ton of hum. The hum goes away when i touch anything metal on my guitar or on the reactive load. I never had this issue before. I noticed it when I plugged my eqd erupter in and it made a crazy hum sound when I turned it on. It stopped once i touched the instrument cable jack. I have gone through my guitar and done continuity tests with a multi meter. The only thing that gives me a different reading from all the other test points is the 5 way switch. Some of the readings look like the pickups resistance. Parts of the switch give me a different reading all together instead of all 0's. I have also done continuity checks on all of my cables and have even swapped power cables and instruments cables when checking for issues. I have also tapped all of my tubes to see if anything is micro-phonic. No issues with the tubes that I am aware of.

I also plugged my guitar into my boss katana and I did not get any of the humming or the grounding issues with the guitar. I did not have it hooked up to my reactive load IR either. I also plugged my guitar into my smallbox and went through my speaker cab. The amp seems to make more idle noise than I remember when I have the volume all the way up on my guitar when I am not playing. But it could also be the room itself. I honestly can't remember. I have also switch power outlets in my house. Everything is using 3 prong outlets so i would assume everything is grounded. Like i said I did not have the issue before.

Not sure where to go from here. Part of me feels like my 5 way switch has come underground but I am not sure how to check. My amp sounds fine so I am worried that something has become underground in the suhr reactive load IR.
 
The only thing I have not switched out to my knowledge is the speaker cable running from my amp to the suhr reactive load IR.
 
Not a tech here but it def seems like you have a grounding issue and I'm leaning toward the amp. The Reactive Load is just 'amplifying' the problem for lack of a better way of saying it. Could be a simple fix. Could be something more detailed. Unless you are super comfortable messing around inside of an amp, whether it is turned on or not, I would get it to a tech to have it checked out. Amps can carry lethal amounts of voltages even after amp is turned off.

Good luck dude.
 
mniel8195":tradw9oe said:
The only thing I have not switched out to my knowledge is the speaker cable running from my amp to the suhr reactive load IR.

Switch this cable and if the hum doesn't go away I would have the IR looked at. If your guitar isn't doing it through your other amp I would say its not the guitar.
I never used a reactive load but if I understand its function correctly its the load for your amp and if something goes wrong you could burn your output tranny in your head.
I did this once with a tom scholz power soak back in the 80's. Its not fun to see smoke pouring from the back of a plexi.
 
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