Will a power conditioner get rid of my hum?

[zeegler]

I've suffered with this long enough. There is something going on with the electrical in my house that causes a pretty bad noise to come through my amps. It doesn't matter what amp or guitar I am using, it's always the same, and it's driving me insane. Will a power conditioner get rid of this?

[jtr]

Probably not it soundslike a ground loop.

[StukaJU87]

You'd probably have to address the grounding issue in your home to get rid of that hum.

[Inazone]

You could try an Ebtech Hum Eliminator. Otherwise, you'd be looking at a fairly high-end conditioner to even attempt to cure the hum, and even that might not do it if it's indeed something in your house.

I've actually considered using a UPS (battery backup) as a "clean" power supply for my rig, but none in my price range are rated to handle the power requirements of a guitar amp and a few effects.

[rjohnstone]

Are you running all your gear off different outlets?
If you are, run them all off the same outlet. (Don't overload the circuit!!!)
If the hum disappears, you have a ground loop.

A ground loop occurs when components in the same system are receiving its power from a different ground than other components, or the ground potential between two pieces of equipment is not identical.

If it doesn't change, make sure the electrical panel still has it's ground wire attached.
If you look at the side of your breaker/fuse panel, you'll see a thick piece of bare copper wire bolted to the panel "going somewhere". This is the earth ground connection connecting your breaker panel to earth ground. Make sure it's still connected and intact.
The wire should be attached to a metal rod that goes about 4 feet into the ground.
Sometimes the wire is attached to the main water line coming into your house.
Large houses will actually use both methods at the same time.

There is no such thing as an absolute quiet ground. There is a certain amount of resistance to electrical current between all grounding points. This resistance can change with humidity, temperature, connected equipment and many other variables.
But you should be able to get it to tolerable levels.

[zeegler]

The gear is all plugged into the same circuit. I'll check the ground.

[rjohnstone]

I would have a pro electrician check your wiring.
The reason I bring this up is I had a similar issue, only it turned into me needing a new panel.
The old panel arced the B phase to ground when one of the mains coming from the utility finally corroded through. It's an old house with a 30 year old panel.
Water was leaking in behind the panel on the outside wall and well, the rest was just a matter of time.
The hum I was getting got louder when it was hot outside or when there was a heavy load like running the A/C and a the clothes dryer. It was probably from the copper heating up and expanding, causing the connection to flex and arc.
The new panel and new ground wires solved the noise problem.
I went from a 200 AMP main to a 2 Phase 400 AMP main. It gave me 10 additional circuit slots... BONUS!

[jgcable]

No it won't. Check your home wiring. Its a ground issue.

[zeegler]

My ground wire is attached to the main water line, but I have never bothered to check for continuity from my panel to the ground wire. I'll check that first. Assuming it is okay, would adding another ground make any improvements?

[rjohnstone]

Zeegs, call a pro.
Here's a visual to roughly explain how your panel gets power.



You can see that the ground and neutral wires are connected.
You're playing with a lot of voltage now.
Inspecting is one thing... fixing is another. Be careful playing with the ground wires.

[Matt Crooks]

These will fix your problem as well:

http://www.tripplite.com/products/medical/isolation_transformers.cfm

[zeegler]

Zeegs, call a pro.
Here's a visual to roughly explain how your panel gets power.



You can see that the ground and neutral wires are connected.
You're playing with a lot of voltage now.
Inspecting is one thing... fixing is another. Be careful playing with the ground wires.

Well, I'm not completely geen as far as electricity goes. I have replaced almost all the circuits in my house. I just never thought to check the ground. I just assumed it was okay.

[rjohnstone]

Wasn't doubting ya Zeegs ... just telling you to be careful is all.
Adding another ground can actually make the problem worse.
This is what causes a ground loop in the first place.

"Ground loop" arises when you have current flowing through one ground wire developing a voltage across that wire and you connect another ground from a different source to that same ground wire.

[dg]

Zeegs, one other thing to check is that your water line is indeed copper going into the ground. A lot of the time you may have copper piping in the house, but PVC or some type of plastic flex pipe from the meter. You'd hope the builder or electrical contractor would know not to ground to a plastic pipe, but I've seen all kinds of stupid stuff like that, and seen it get past inspectors as well. Phone company techs around here are notorious for "grounding" to any spigot they can find, even if it's attached to a PVC pipe coming off a well pump. I pointed it out to one of them once, and he just gave me a blank stare & said he just does it like he was told to.