Noise issue

    One of my guitars has an onboard pre-amp/buffer (Waldo TCP-1 unity gain) and I am getting a fair amount of digital noise to the point of having to crank the noise gate almost all the way up to ten. Is this normal or is there another setting I can tweak to bring this in line?

    I actually just got the unit this weekend and have been doing some exploratory 'get familiar' jamming so I haven't tried my other guitars yet - it was just something I noticed with my headphones last night so figured I would ask. I will try troubleshooting with one of my other guitars that does not have the buffer and see if I can figure out what is going on, thanks.

    OK, so I think I may or may not have multiple issues but here is what I found out with testing tonight.


    I have two main guitars, one with a pre-amp, one without. Both are getting ambient noise typical of unshielded electronics - my house is pretty noisy in this regard. Its odd though in that I really went to great lengths to shield (copper paint) the cavities of my guitar with the preamp.


    Also, with headphones, there is a distinct noise/buzz that comes in on almost all profiles I have tried unless the strings are muted. Its not predominant, but its there, especially noticeable with headphones. Any thoughts?

    I originally posted this in the 'Profiler - Questions and Answers' forum above - I assume that was the wrong place and am condensing it and reposting here in hopes I can get some help.


    Here is the condensed version of what I know so far:


    I am getting a fair amount of noise from two guitars - one with and one without an onboard pre-amp. It is most noticeable while using headphones but still discernible with monitor. It occurs in both Browse and Performance modes on multiple different rigs and is mostly noticeable on clean rigs. Using the noise gate properly, I can get rid of it when not playing by rolling the NG up to around 6 +/-. However, if I play the guitar after adjusting the NG, it is still audible on top of the notes and does not stop until the note decays completely or I damp the string.


    At this point I assume it is either ambient or line electronic noise as described under "Harsh Buzz" (heh, he said 'Harsh Buzz'...) coming through the guitar to the unit that is too strong for the Noise Gate to eliminate without affecting the notes:


    http://www.guitarnuts.com/tech…/trouble/genericnoise.php


    Would a power conditioner be the answer?

    I would try another guitar cable and the Ground Lift Buttons on the back of the Kemper first. Also try different positions in your playing room to make sure the noise doesn't come from other electrical devices.

    I could have farted and it would have sounded good! (Brian Johnson)

    If touching the strings eases the noise, your guitar doesn't get properly grounded. Since the traditional guitar cables are all shielded, I'd try another cable and check the wall socket\flat grounding.


    HTH :)

    Thanks. I suspect a wiring/solder issue. Last year when I put in the pre-amp and new pickups, I painted the pickup cavities with copper shielding paint. The back wiring cavity was already shielded very well, but I did add some copper foil around the perimeter so I tend to agree that its not a shielding issue. Amazing how the noise does not come out on a clean tube amp (mostly play through various fenders including the Twin I traded for the Kemper) - I guess tube amps are more forgiving.


    Looks like a visit to my guitar tech to clean up my mess is in order... ||

    Well, a clean rig is less amplified, so any sound component is lesser. Try and clean a distorted rig and (all volume parameters being the same) you should get the same amount of unwanted noise :)

    So as a follow up I did determine that one of my ground wires had come loose and re-soldering it appears to have fixed the overall issue in terms of the guitar itself. I am still a little concerned about how much noise passes through and so will have to figure that out later I guess.