Noise Gate & Recording...who uses one?

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 29 Sep 2005 3:46 pm

Joe.

If you are using a clip on volume pedal, try folding a sheet of Aluminum foil several sheets thick and slide it under the volume pedal covering the entire length and width of the pedal. That should do the trick.

Paul

Joe Alterio · Post by **Joe Alterio** » 29 Sep 2005 5:24 pm

Thanks for all these great tips, guys!

Here is what I have determined. It is the pickup and/or the pickup jack. I have taken the signal direct from the pickup into various amps, a mixer and a preamp, and the hum comes straight from the pickup in every case. It is not the connecting cable, and not my accessories/volume pedal as I eliminated them in my testing.

I've noticed my Stratocaster on it's humbucker settings is much quieter than this Lawrence 710. As I mentioned before, I had the same issue with my Carter and it's George-L.

There are only two wires coming out of the pickup, and they are soldered right into the input jack. Is it a grounding issue, perhaps? I do not see any kind of "ground wire" on my steel. I have no idea what the ohm reading on this pickup is.....could that be a factor?

I am pretty sure that based on my Strat, this pickup could/should be quieter. Placing my hand on the steel/strings does not dampen the noise at all. Neither does moving the steel.

Thanks!

Joe

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 30 Sep 2005 2:03 am

Are the two wires coming from the pickup twisted together? - which will help eliminate hum.

Also, what amps are you using that you get the hum?

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 30 Sep 2005 2:48 am

Yes, I get a little hum (and I'm going to try Jack's wire-twisting tip). But like Bob H., it doesn't interfere with the track and I snip it out of the track before the intro. The sound of the steel is always better than the the sound of a gate turning on and off.

Placing my hand on the steel/strings does not dampen the noise at all.

It still sounds like an internal ground problem to me.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 30 Sep 2005 3:22 am

The lead wires from the pickup twisted together, by itself won't eliminate any hum. But if there is anything close that could cause hum, twisting the wires will help minimize that, as the ground wire tends to somewhat act like the braided shield on audio cable.

John Daugherty · Post by **John Daugherty** » 30 Sep 2005 4:31 am

Joe, this is a long shot. You said you tried it with no lights. Do you have light dimmers in that room? They could still be a source of noise, with the lights off.
Lifting the ground on your amp may tell you something. I have a location in my house that induces hum in my pickup and effects rack. I can eliminate it by moving my equipment around.
Also, even though everything is the room is turned off, the wiring in the wall could be radiating noise from an appliance at another location in the house. Turn off any suspected noise maker,especially light dimmers..
Check your house wiring to see if the White(neutral) wire and black wire are connected to the proper terminals on the receptacles. One way to remember the proper wiring is, with the ground terminal at the top,"white is right".
Another thought... Don't just turn off appliances, computers,etc. Remove the power plug from the receptacle. Some appliances are still using electricity while they are plugged in.

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www.phelpscountychoppers.com/steelguitar

[This message was edited by John Daugherty on 30 September 2005 at 05:34 AM.]

Joe Alterio · Post by **Joe Alterio** » 7 Oct 2005 5:03 pm

Just a quick update...

I have tried foil under the volume pedal and under the pickup to no avail. I spoke at length with Ricky Davis (thanks Ricky!) and he suggested running a new ground wire connecting the ground on the input jack to the changer. I have done this, but there is not any noticeable difference. Bruce Zumsteg noted the steel should be fully grounded with the exception of the neck....but that this has never caused a problem. I did run a ground wire from the jack plate to the neck but again, no alleviation of the problem.

I sent the pickup to Bill Lawrence and he indicated it is working AOK.

I am beginning to believe that to have a humbucker make absolutely no noise would be unrealistic. In other words, if you hold a humbucker in your hand and wire it directly to a connecting cord running into your amp with the amp volume at half-blast or higher, would you expect there to be no noise at all? Certainly you will get SOME hum or buzz? A few have noted to me in e-mail and on this thread that you will always experience SOME hum at loud volumes from the pickup. If so, then I am just being overly critical. Really!

In my case, it was just a bit more hum than I would have expected, but perhaps it is just a factor of my surroundings. I do live less than a mile from a small regional airport....that could have something to do with it. Unfortunately, I know little about house electricity to venture whether the wiring is correct (though my electrician friend says that since my house was built in the early '90s it shouldn't be a factor).

Mr. Franklin....perhaps you could offer your thoughts on the pickup in your guitar? In other words, do you experience *some* background pickup noise when in a situation requiring the volume pedal to put out much more volume than usual? Certainly I am aware that some session players will also turn up the amp and lower the volume pedal....but then you have the amp's inherent "hiss" entering the mix. Do you feel your steel and pickup are, in essence, completely "noise-free"?

Thanks,

Joe

Hook Moore · Post by **Hook Moore** » 7 Oct 2005 6:04 pm

Joe I have Bill Lawrence humbuckers in both of my guitars. With the pedal fully on they ARE completely quiet.
Hook

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www.HookMoore.com

Dave Grafe · Post by **Dave Grafe** » 7 Oct 2005 8:08 pm

Joe,

You are not alone, ALL pickups respond to spurious magnetic interference and pedal steel pickups do it particularly well because they are so honkin' big.

A noise gate will not discriminate between frequencies at all unless you set up an equalized external key to control it - a gate (or expander) simply turns the signal off (or down) when it reaches a certain minimum threshold and turns it back on when the signal rises above that level. This makes for nasty, choppy sounds on the steel but won't do a thing for hum.

So-called "hum eliminators" won't help you either as your hum is coming from external magnetic interference which your pickup WILL find it as soon as you turn it on. A humbucking pickup has two coils wound out-of-phase so as to cancel any magnetic impulse which crosses both coils equally, the same principle that is behind balanced wiring, but even then some noise will be detectable.

Your only dependable recourse is to increase the signal-to-noise ratio as much as possible by setting your pickup as close to the strings as you reasonably can. And use your volume pedal to keep it quiet when you're not playing anything.

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<img align=right src="http://www.pdxaudio.com/dgsept03.jpg" width="114 height="114">Dave Grafe - email: dg@pdxaudio.com
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Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 7 Oct 2005 8:37 pm

Only once was I in a place where there was too much noise even for the Bill Lawrence 712 pickup. I changed to the George L E-66 pickup, and the hum was gone. So you might want to try that.

(After I left, I put the 712 back on the guitar.)