Power Conditioners

[Koop]

I'm having issues with noise, I believe it's due to a dirty mains line. I say this because sometimes my amp is quiet and the tone is good, other times it's really noisy and the tone suffers.

Tonight was a noisy night. I tried three different amps, three guitars and two instrument cords - all were very noisy with the dirt at the same frequency.

I play in my basement music area. I also have fluorescent lights, a refridgerator, furnace fan and PC on the same circuit. What can I do about noise?

Do I need an electrician or is there a magic power conditioner that can help a brother out?

[ampdoc1]

I'm thinking that a good isolation transformer or power conditioner will be a LOT cheaper than an electrician. There are a lot of reasonably priced conditioners on eBay. Gotta' remember your don'tkneed a lot of amperage for a typical guitar amplifier.

a'doc

[selloutrr]

Ideally you would have a circuit dedicated for your audio.
now lets talk about reality.

The isolation transformer is probably your best route. however. Keep a watchful eye on whatever you buy until you know how hot it gets. I've seen some Isolation transformers, constant voltage transformers start house fires. If you use a variac it's suggested as a safety precaution to also run and isolation transformer.

weber at one point offered a safe buss transformer which is an isolation transformer.

look at your amperage fuse and times it by 2 maybe 3 and you should be good to run any amp.

some rack power supplies such as furman offer conditioning i've had mixed results as to the success.

[leadfootdriver]

I have 2-Monster Power Pro 3500's. They do a pretty good job. I have one powering my studio: computers, mic pres, mixer, everything in my bedroom!... It has an external thumb screw ground on it too, that I used to ground my TV cable. It killed the hum and noise I was getting from my cable! Very cool.

I've been averaging 1 brown out per year. When that happens, the unit will shut down until the volts come up to spec, saving your gear. I fried a spiral light bulb running it on the 90 volts or so from another outlet during the brown out. Not a huge loss, but I didn't think you could toast something because it didn't have enough power.

I'd search ebay for an authorized Monster dealer with the best price. Then take that info to Guitar Center, and they will match the price. 3500's are a bit more pricey since I bought mine, but the 2500 is a fine 1 space unit as well.

Good luck.

[vibratoking]

I would not expect the Monster Pro 3500 to provide you with any useful filtering based on your situation. You need something like a Furman AR-1215 or better. I don't recommend Monster equipment because they are basically a marketing company. Try to find ANY real specs on ANY product they sell.

Also, fluorescent lighting can make your system noisy even with the BEST transformer unit. Lot's of EMI coming of flourescent lighting that can couple into your amp, your guitar, your cables...

[rdjones]

ETA Systems, Juice Goose, and Tripplite have pro level power conditioners that are suitable for an individual rig.
I know several touring pros who use the Juice Goose for their stage rig regardless of whatever else may be in use in the supply system.

There are also lower end products like the Furman and ART.

Use the Monster at your own risk, YMMV.

rd

[Cantplay]

Not just an isolation trafo, you want balanced power.

I've gone through most of the power conditioners on the market with my stereo setup, although I haven't needed it for the guitar.

Most kill dynamics(monster, chang, etc)

The 2 I've ended up with are the PS Audio P-1000, and several of the Richard Gray 400's. (4 stereo setups in this home)

In general, flourescent lights and dimmers are noisy.

John

[Structo]

Yeah I was going to say, see if you can get some other lighting source instead of the Flourescents.

Try to minimize the noise sources before going crazy with power conditioners, which rarely work on noise.

In my experience, non of those surge/ spike protectors will do anything for noise riding on the house current.
You will have to spend huge $$$ to get something that will actually clean up the power.

Is your breaker box in the basement?

I would consider running a dedicated 20 amp service to where your guitar gear is and have a dedicated circuit for it.

You can actually build a line conditioner with large capacitors (1000uF or so) with smaller caps to take out higher frequency noise.
Even some type of choke inductors.
I would get a 1:1 isolation transformer of the correct rating and then run the filters after.

Line conditioner circuit.

[img:300:114]http://justradios.com/source.gif[/img]

[Koop]

Thanks for all of tips guys. Problem is solved. I borrowed a high end power conditioner to see if it would make a difference. I plugged it in and the "faulty circuit" light immediately lit up! I went across the room and plugged it into another outlet, no warning light. Plugged my amp in and no noise! (Well, a light hiss if I crank the gain up).

I really happy to know it's a problem with that particular outlet, I can deal with that. I'm also a little embarrassed to think I didn't grab my amp and try another outlet before assuming the entire basement wiring was noisy.

[ApexJr.]

For those interested I have a few of a Topaz Ultra isolation
transformers 1KVA at $175.00 each

Steve @ Apex Jr.