Humbuster Cables in a Chain

[BeZo]

Okay. Help me think through this.

I'm running a Fractal FX8 in stereo through two rigs on either side of the stage. Originally, it came on it's own board with an expression pedal hooked up already, so I just plugged straight into the unit. I needed humbuster cables to keep from creating ground loops between the two amps, and I got that all setup right.

Now I'm redoing my pedalboard to incorporate pedals in the chain. The new board is going to have a breakout panel on top, and all the jacks are isolated there. For the pedals, I need to make a humbuster patch cable into the first pedal, and normal from there. If I make the cable from the unit to the jacks on the breakout panel humbuster cables, I won't need the humbuster cables between the board and the amp. Both of my snakes to the amps have humbuster cables right now, so I can just run regular cables to the amps.

Is that right?

 

[BeZo]

I guess the question is between the connecting cable(s) on the board and the cable(s) in the snake(s). Is it better to do the humbuster section in the connecting cables or keep the humbuster cable in the snakes? Should I wire TRS at the unit to TS in a humbuster configuration at the jack and use a normal cable to the amp, or keep the humbuster cable in the snake and wire TRS to TRS?

 

[GOHOINC]

If your jacks are truly isolated, why do you need humbuster cables?


When I was building my multi amp rig, the choice was a splitter with a ground lift, the old "ground lift" at power source trick, humbusters (which is essentially a ground lifted cable?), or palmer isolation "jacks".

 

[BeZo]

If your jacks are truly isolated, why do you need humbuster cables?


When I was building my multi amp rig, the choice was a splitter with a ground lift, the old "ground lift" at power source trick, humbusters (which is essentially a ground lifted cable?), or palmer isolation "jacks".

They're still going to connect to a common source, the FX8. The isolation at the jacks is only to each other in the panel. If I lift the grounds on the patch cables to the jacks in the humbuster configuration, there should be nowhere for a ground loop, right?

 

[Bash_Man]

I built my own hum buster cables, and I had a professional cable builder look at my cables and said everything was good.. and I was still getting Ground loop noise when the FX8 is connected via 4-cable method.

The only thing that fixed it is using an older ebtech hum eliminator that connected between the amp's effects loop send/return and the jacks from the FX8 going to the amp's send/return.

I've heard other people with similar issue where hum buster cables really dont fix the ground loop issue created with 4CM.

Sorry, my point is I am not sure if the hum buster cables do what they're supposed to. Using them with pedals won't affect your signal. I've done so and they work no issue.

Good luck