Buzz, Hum, Noise and Pedalboards

[BoogieMKIIA]

There are several aspects to this question on reducing noise. Looking for anyone’s successful experience in reducing noise in my live rig. There seems to be variability gig to gig but was annoying last night.Of course, most audible with distortion/overdrive engaged. I believe it is 60/120 Hz but need to check at home. Here is my setup as a starting point.

• Player Tele with stock single coils. Mesa MKIIA 60W combo, only using the clean channel
• Pedal board is a Dingbat Medium with Pedal Power 3 supply. I made all cables. Square Plugs with Mogami cable, custom length. I made the output and input cables using various Switchcraft and Neutrik plugs, have used store bought cables. The output cable is quite long, maybe 20 feet.
• Signal chain - Polytune 3 with buffer enabled ->Xotic compressor (medium setting) -> wah -> Zendrive ->Paisley drive -> black Tchula (always on) -> three time Fx -> TC Spark Boost -> amp.

Last night, the pedalboard and amp were plugged into the same AC circuit, a long cord with multiple receptacles along its length use for stage power. When I can’t do this, I run a separate 3 wire extension from the back of the amp to the pedalboard. We have modern LED stage lighting, which is supposed to be quiet. At least one set was on the same AC circuit as my rig last night. I’ll look tonight to see what bar lights, neon signs are around.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Tchula due to the large treble boost and adjust the amount of presence and treble control lower to compensate. The Zendrive into the Tchula gives a great distortion sound with easy pinch harmonics, and just the Tchula adds pleasant grit for clean. However, I have to adjust the outputs of both the Zendrive and Paisley drive low to maintain equal volume without them engaged - about 9 o’clock versus around noon if no Tchula engaged. I can eliminate the Tchula and rework amp tone controls, gain along with pedal settings, to get a good sound.

Because this setup has performed with relatively low noise before, I’m looking at things like cable integrity and pedal jack condition. If the environment is the culprit I may need to rethink my signal chain. Almost anything is up for consideration - add, delete, change pedals; where to turn on and off buffers; noise gate. Less keen on changing pickups as there are lots of single coil guitars out there. I will check with a humbucker guitar, which my provide insight if it is not much different.

 

[Dave Scepter]

Do you have a means to power all your pedals with 9-12V DC?.. "Battery pack" or equivalent 

Edited November 8, 2025 by Dave Scepter

[BoogieMKIIA]

You mean separately from the Pedal Power 3? Maybe do something like isolate power to one pedal at a time and see if there is a difference? I have a OneSpot but I think you are saying a battery, something not on the AC line.

After writing all this out, one option could be go into the Tchula first, before the other dirt pedals. That way, the Tchula isn’t boosting the noise from those pedals. I tried this when putting the signal chain together and chose the current setup because the Zendrive into the Tchula sounded great. What a rabbit hole, one reason I avoided pedals for a long time.

[Jimbilly]

I get several hours out of one like this, super handy to have around

https://www.amazon.com/JOYO-4400mAh-Rechargeable-Battery-Outputs/dp/B0871RLGH3/ref=sr_1_5?adgrpid=183284765941&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Itu-2HEDVtVjXm52hTOk0Va-dDzsKcPxoNZkfsoEs0gvO5OcLdksa-BgMQPLVSjSjBCWIvBkVYNCS_SdROwGm6VroOzH8T-gCam3Tp8j0f79hUsMFw-H64B1EpFwksOGgrU0YF4vibXk5mLM9nYb8WOEZRtnCfYw4GXr6x9EOYazdndkesDNRCGFjJr1ByIcDyAXEgRlpkLNH5LVEWkBSsN9ARL0BJCDmSbslamsTI8zMV8urUS9qPoq6WEc6yumIyPOZriTGpKVlNvwUGjRk6Si67DEDAFDCzWLqgA4cDM.xplUFoDTkpnEEpapyFtyRonzZvOCIZM51ZZPsfosHRE&dib_tag=se&hvadid=779606185117&hvdev=c&hvexpln=0&hvlocphy=9033482&hvnetw=g&hvocijid=5407482773586929371--&hvqmt=e&hvrand=5407482773586929371&hvtargid=kwd-374387947139&hydadcr=29648_14958190_21474&keywords=joyo%2Bpedal%2Bpower%2Bsupply&mcid=66aea9f6531331899aabbca0b3826d85&qid=1762643765&sr=8-5&th=1

[HSB0531]

3 hours ago, BoogieMKIIA said:

There are several aspects to this question on reducing noise. Looking for anyone’s successful experience in reducing noise in my live rig. There seems to be variability gig to gig but was annoying last night.Of course, most audible with distortion/overdrive engaged. I believe it is 60/120 Hz but need to check at home. Here is my setup as a starting point.

• Player Tele with stock single coils. Mesa MKIIA 60W combo, only using the clean channel
• Pedal board is a Dingbat Medium with Pedal Power 3 supply. I made all cables. Square Plugs with Mogami cable, custom length. I made the output and input cables using various Switchcraft and Neutrik plugs, have used store bought cables. The output cable is quite long, maybe 20 feet.
• Signal chain - Polytune 3 with buffer enabled ->Xotic compressor (medium setting) -> wah -> Zendrive ->Paisley drive -> black Tchula (always on) -> three time Fx -> TC Spark Boost -> amp.

Last night, the pedalboard and amp were plugged into the same AC circuit, a long cord with multiple receptacles along its length use for stage power. When I can’t do this, I run a separate 3 wire extension from the back of the amp to the pedalboard. We have modern LED stage lighting, which is supposed to be quiet. At least one set was on the same AC circuit as my rig last night. I’ll look tonight to see what bar lights, neon signs are around.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Tchula due to the large treble boost and adjust the amount of presence and treble control lower to compensate. The Zendrive into the Tchula gives a great distortion sound with easy pinch harmonics, and just the Tchula adds pleasant grit for clean. However, I have to adjust the outputs of both the Zendrive and Paisley drive low to maintain equal volume without them engaged - about 9 o’clock versus around noon if no Tchula engaged. I can eliminate the Tchula and rework amp tone controls, gain along with pedal settings, to get a good sound.

Because this setup has performed with relatively low noise before, I’m looking at things like cable integrity and pedal jack condition. If the environment is the culprit I may need to rethink my signal chain. Almost anything is up for consideration - add, delete, change pedals; where to turn on and off buffers; noise gate. Less keen on changing pickups as there are lots of single coil guitars out there. I will check with a humbucker guitar, which my provide insight if it is not much different.

 

Any design we did for an install that involved audio only, or lighting and audio we specified that all the audio circuits were on the same ground, isolated from all other grounds in the building. They had to be dedicated circuits ( nothing other than audio gear on them ) The audio system also had to be on its own electrical phase.

Any lighting or equipment that operated with motors or compressors like Air conditioning, refrigerators, motors, pumps etc., had to be on separate circuits with different grounds and electrical phase.

 

[BoogieMKIIA]

I have no idea how the building is wired, it's an old, historic building in Lexington. Now called The Jockey, it was Cheapside for years.

I'm here now, we tried a separate outlet, no lights or other equipment on, still have the buzz. Tried three guitar cables and wireless, all the same. Walked as far from the stage as possible, still the same. Turned off the Tchula, still get buzz with the Paisley and Zen. No guitar plugged in, all modes are quiet. Should have brought a humbucker guitar to try. Must be in the middle of a huge electromagnetic field. 

Still will check all the cables once I get it home, including in the guitar. I heard Kinman were good noiseless Tele PUs, any others OK?

 

[Hackubus]

Noises, proximity to my amps at my recording station, and owning several P90 guitars drove me to start incorporating Noise Gates into my pedal board.   My system is in the corner of the bedroom, and then my rack of amps is to my right a couple of feet away.  Everything picks up everything. It's a constant battle with EMI and the guitar pickups and amps.  I live in a Hold Your Tongue Just Right in order to play existance. 

I've tried those goofy HumX plug in adapters, putting one the amp power cable and another on the pedalboard power, but I kinda think they're snake oil.  If they made a difference, 'twas minimal.  

The thing I ran into with my noise gates was a whole 'nuther kinda rabbit hole:  Ground Loops. 

Rig:  Marshall style amps + Fryette Powerstation X 4cm / Noise Gate, power from MXR Iso brick.
I've tried three gates.  Two EHX Silencers (first one completely died one day) and the hot shit crowd favorite ISP G String II gate.

When I added the noise gate, an awful electrical high pitch almost beep boop sound happened. (Gawd, it is hard to describe) I remove the gate, noise stopped.  Rinse, repeat.  Eventually I read I had a ground loop and the cure was an isolation transformer.   So I bought a $29 Pyle 2channel iso transformer from Amazon to try.  Plumbing that into my 4cm was a bitch to figure out, but it did stop the racket.   

Circling back to the fact I've had two EHXs, I swear upon my forefathers that I was able to wire in the first EHX and make it work without using an Iso Loop, but then it died.  I don't know why, I still can't understand how that happened, and I mourn the damned thing to this day like I lost a family pet.
The replacement gate, the ISP was worse about the ground loop.  Ordered another EHX. Not as bad as the ISP.  That said, I have to keep using the Pyle iso tranny to make any kind of gate work.

UNTIL YESTERDAY...
I have an old DBX 266XL Expander/Gate/Compressor sitting on top of my studio monitor and I had an 'Ah ha' moment.  I put it into the fx loop of the PS-100 and it was dead quiet.  And the gate works like it's supposed to, no ground loops, nothing but good ol rock 'n roll.  

Personal thoughts:
I'm not gonna say that P90s are noisy, but they sure will expose any electrical flaws in a building or amp rig. 
The Power Station 100 sure is handy and amazing, but damn it doesn't play nice with some things. 
The times I have played live with the PS100/Marshall/Gate and physically spaced them apart from each other, made no difference regarding the ground loop, still had to use an Iso Transformer if the noise gate was present.  
Why do I insist upon using a Noise Gate?  I can not STAND any kind of hiss or white noise in my old age.  

 

 

Edited November 9, 2025 by Hackubus

[BoogieMKIIA]

I have a Radial power conditioner in a rack preamp/amp setup I'm not using. Can try that though I don't really want to lug it around. If it works it will be worth it.

Another possibility is something in the guitar wiring since it was quiet without a guitar plugged in. Or something in the pedal board wiring that will take a deeper dive than I could try pre-show.

I will see this week if I can hear the loud buzz at home to help troubleshooting. 

[geoff_hartwell]

Some quick tricks you might already know:

1-if using a gate, put it first in the fx loop, not after-pedals-before-preamp. Dimebag used to use a Rocktron Guitar Silencer this way and was how I came across the idea. Try your gate pedal this way.

2-the EHX Hum De-Bugger pedal is freakin magic for killing mystery hum in a lot of weird scenarios, in my experience. If you use single coils for anything and tube amps live just get one and take it to all gigs. At Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago the stage is built right over a major neighborhood transformer and they tried everything under the sun to tame it. Eventually they found the EHX HDB pedal right before the input to the house backline tube amps was the magic fix. I didn’t believe it myself until the sound guy smirked and said click it off and back on… EEEEEEHHH … dead quiet.
Whale Oil Beef Hooked 🤷🏼‍♂️

[BoogieMKIIA]

9 hours ago, geoff_hartwell said:

Some quick tricks you might already know:

1-if using a gate, put it first in the fx loop, not after-pedals-before-preamp. Dimebag used to use a Rocktron Guitar Silencer this way and was how I came across the idea. Try your gate pedal this way.

2-the EHX Hum De-Bugger pedal is freakin magic for killing mystery hum in a lot of weird scenarios, in my experience. If you use single coils for anything and tube amps live just get one and take it to all gigs. At Buddy Guy’s Legends in Chicago the stage is built right over a major neighborhood transformer and they tried everything under the sun to tame it. Eventually they found the EHX HDB pedal right before the input to the house backline tube amps was the magic fix. I didn’t believe it myself until the sound guy smirked and said click it off and back on… EEEEEEHHH … dead quiet.
Whale Oil Beef Hooked 🤷🏼‍♂️

With the Boogie MarkIIA, there really isn’t an FX loop. Would need to see if a noise would work in the higher signal preamp out/power amp in path. Or, put it after dirt, before time Fx in the pedal board.

For the EHX device, was it placed between the pedal board and amp input? This seems applicable to what I experienced, perhaps there is a transformer or neon lighting out of sight from the inside. Downside is the 7VAC power to the device. Don’t think 9VDC can be used. Seems better than a noise gate.

I will still dig into the pedal board wiring and pedal jacks. I got some noise wiggling and replugging before the show. I also had the guitar fading out a couple of months ago during practice. Replaced a patch cable or two and checked the Tele output jack wiring, that specific problem hasn’t returned. I also removed a TC Choka pedal. The barrel of the patch plug was scratched and there was white residue. No battery left inside, perhaps I left one in a few years ago that started something.

 

[scottcald]

I’ve read some people suggest if you’re having real big problems to do a couple of gates, but each one just on a little bit in different places in your signal chain. Never needed to do that or try that so don’t know if it works or not. 
back in the day, I would use the Ebtech hum eliminator and it seemed to work pretty good but that was more for line level PA stuff

[BoogieMKIIA]

I have been busy this week, finally got to dig into my pedalboard today.  My house is not very noisy but I was hearing some buzz and hum.  Here is what I found so far, have a gig tonight so will see if there was an improvement. In theory, these should help.  Perhaps prior inconsitency has been due to this and the gig environment.

1. Discovered that the Voodoo Labs splitter cables I have been using don't have a ground on one of the two splits. This is to prevent ground loops.  However, you need to have the two pedals conneted directly together to guarantee ground and no loops.  By the time I figured it out, I can't recall if I had them run as recommended, but think not.  I was looking for power and continuity on pedals individually, the pedal on the Y leg without the ground wouldn't turn on! Thought I had two bad Y cables until I looked it up. Anyway, every pedal has power from an individual Pedal Power 3 output jack.
2. The mini wah was powered from the Polytune 3 daisy chain power out.  The SP Compressor is right after the Polytune 3, then the wah. Now each pedal has a separate power line. This could possibly have been a ground loop.
3. To be able to use individual power jacks, I plugged my Paisley drive to a 12V output (for XLINK).  The SP Compressor was already plugged to a selectable 12 volt output but changed to the second XLINK jack). Hoping there is nothing funny with using XLINK outputs on these two pedals.  Now that I understand how the splitter cables work, I will rewire using physically adjacent pedals if this setup doesn't work. Two of the isolated outputs can be individually selected for 9V or 12V.  I chose to run my compressor on 12V, the Paisley drive is running at 12 since that is the only other pedal that is capable.

Once reconnected as described, I test drove it in my living room.  Everything is working, no loud buzzing, seems a little quieter. There is some noise with the Tchula and overdrives, as expected. The compressor adds noise, I may need to change to light compression from medium when I get to the gig.  The SP Compressor is funny, where there is some odd lower frequency noise when the compressor level know is very low. I don't run it that way, so the noise I get is likely normal.

Also taking a guitar with humbuckers in case I get a loud buzz with the Tele again. 

If I have problems tonight with both single coils and humbuckers, I will ditch the XLINK 12V outputs and correctly use the splitters to power adjacent pedals. Once I know the power and signal routing is correct, I can consider using the line conditioner, EHX NDB or noise gates.  Or noiseless Tele PUz.

[BoogieMKIIA]

Late update - digging into the Pedalpower 3 manual, the XLINK outputs are not isolated or filtered. They are there to drive an expander. I was able to use the two splitters as intended without rerouting cables. The  compressor is on a single 12V jack; the Zen and Paisley are on one 9V output with a splitter and they are adjacent physically and by signal path; reverb and chorus are on one jack with a splitter and are adjacent  physically and by signal path.

A final living room check shows all is quiet, even my daughter and her boyfriend agree. Trial by fire tonight. Will be in the noisy venue next month.

 

[hamerhead]

C'mon! Don't leave us hanging!

[BoogieMKIIA]

The loud buzz was not there Saturday night. Some noise but nothing like last week and no one said a word. I’ll hold off buying any devices for now. We play at The Jockey, where the buzz was so bad, on December 13. I’ll take a humbucker guitar in case it returns with the Tele, to see if that would improve things.  We have just a few gigs the rest of the year so I will have some time to work things over if needed.

Can anyone comment if modelers induce high gain noise when using distortion from amp or pedal models? If the processing simply adds gain, will not be different from an analog signal path. If the DSP can shape the signal waveform without adding gain, could be an improvement. Not for analog purists but a digital distortion pedal would be interesting.

[BoogieMKIIA]

Update from a gig at the Jockey on Saturday, where the buzz was so bad before. I had some buzz but way lower than before the pedalboard rewiring, not a problem.

Another source of noise is the Xotic SL compressor. I use the mid position on the toggle switch and dial in the compressed blend knob to taste, around 10-11 o’clock. A small turn can make a big difference. The high toggle position is too noisey for me. May try the low position and see how things work for tone and noise. Is there such a thing as a quiet compressor?

Here is a list of checks from my experience and looking at other recent threads on noise/buzz. Feel free to add or comment.

1. AC power. Need special tools to check directly. Power cords, power conditioners, the EHX device. 

2. Pedalboard power supply quality. Pedalboard power routing.

3. Cables. Check that your AC cable has proper ground (safety and noise); pedalboard cables, guitar cables, all signal cables.

4. Guitar wiring. Grounding, signal path connections, jacks, pots, switches.

5. With single coils in particular, your orientation to a room and other equipment.

 

[velorush]

With respect to compressors, it's not that they're particularly noisy, but in limiting dynamics they by design make low-level sounds louder and high-level sounds softer. Noise introduced previously in the chain is amplified by the circuit. If you've got noisy pickups and/or gain stages (i.e., dirt pedals) in front of the compressor, any noise from the guitar on down will be amplified by the gain stage and then amplified again by the compressor. 

[BoogieMKIIA]

2 hours ago, velorush said:

With respect to compressors, it's not that they're particularly noisy, but in limiting dynamics they by design make low-level sounds louder and high-level sounds softer. Noise introduced previously in the chain is amplified by the circuit. If you've got noisy pickups and/or gain stages (i.e., dirt pedals) in front of the compressor, any noise from the guitar on down will be amplified by the gain stage and then amplified again by the compressor. 

My compressor is just past my tuner, before all the distortion pedals. Of course, the distortion pedals boost the previous noise with single coil pickups being noisier than humbuckers.

[velorush]

I (naively, at home) set up for a particular song one Sunday. I ran my distortion into a compressor then into the amp with the idea I could use the volume knob to ramp up the gain during the chorus and back to clean arpeggios for the verse, all the while my overall volume would be more or less the same. Worked fantastically!

Got to church the next morning (the building constructed in the 50's with multiple subsequent additions and a spider web of electrical "improvements." The building we have since torn down...), plugged in my Strat with 57/62 pickups (yep, I was asking for it) and ran through the song. The noise was absolutely unbearable! With no time to figure something else out I just sat out of that one.  😐

[BoogieMKIIA]

1 hour ago, velorush said:

I (naively, at home) set up for a particular song one Sunday. I ran my distortion into a compressor then into the amp with the idea I could use the volume knob to ramp up the gain during the chorus and back to clean arpeggios for the verse, all the while my overall volume would be more or less the same. Worked fantastically!

Got to church the next morning (the building constructed in the 50's with multiple subsequent additions and a spider web of electrical "improvements." The building we have since torn down...), plugged in my Strat with 57/62 pickups (yep, I was asking for it) and ran through the song. The noise was absolutely unbearable! With no time to figure something else out I just sat out of that one.  😐

I played for a song at church Sunday and used my Studio Custom because the Tele had some buzz at rehearsal on Wednesday. It wasn’t terrible but not great, depending on my orientation. Guitar straight into the amp, no pedals. There was a faint buzz with humbuckers that was minimized by using the middle position. Maybe the dimmers were the cause. Not sure regarding which AC circuit feed what outlets. The PA is clean.

Might try the EHX device, or try my Radial line conditioner. If the noise is radiated (by it being positional), they may not improve things.

[geoff_hartwell]

This might be really stupid, but also make sure you’re phone isn’t sitting on or near your amp, or where it can cause noise. Just an afterthought 

[BoogieMKIIA]

1 hour ago, geoff_hartwell said:

This might be really stupid, but also make sure you’re phone isn’t sitting on or near your amp, or where it can cause noise. Just an afterthought 

Always check phone location. It is a specific noise, unlike the typical buzz