My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

[Dave]

My amp picked up some radio and sent it through the speakers. It seems to happen with a particular cord-George L. believe it or not! I've swapped out a cord and it hasn't happend since. Is the cord worthless-do I need an amp tech?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

My Wah pedal gets the local oldies station. I swear than station puts out too much power. The FCC need to check them out.

Sorry bro, I don't know anything about radio either.

 

[J Moose]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

If you swapped the cable & the RF problem went away, then you've got a bad cable & not a bad amp.

Most times that's caused by either a faulty ground, a ground loop, or just the physical location of the cable/piece of gear.

 

[Dave]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

Moose-thanks for the reply.

Could that be a problem with the grounding of my guitar-or the contact interface at the jack?

 

[Lava Man]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

If you swapped the cable & the RF problem went away, then you've got a bad cable & not a bad amp.

Most times that's caused by either a faulty ground, a ground loop, or just the physical location of the cable/piece of gear.

Correct! +1 sometimes cables can pick RF and George L's only have 4 layers to include the shield - most other coax has an addtional layer of inner PVC that helps in reducing RFI...

 

[tone4days]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

it is very rare for a commercial radio station to be out of compliance for power emanation ... and by law, it is the responsibility of any electric device to be shielded against picking up undesired signals

 

[YJM_Rocks]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

it is very rare for a commercial radio station to be out of compliance for power emanation ... and by law, it is the responsibility of any electric device to be shielded against picking up undesired signals

It's probably because I live close to the tower. I don't know where it is though. It comes in on 3-4 places on a radio dial; all across the spectrum.


Should I wrap my Wah in tin foil? :laugh2:

 

[Corbic]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

My Wah pedal gets the local oldies station. I swear than station puts out too much power. The FCC need to check them out.

Sorry bro, I don't know anything about radio either.

You could use that to your advantage if you're ever covering any oldies :fingersx:

 

[J Moose]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

Correct! +1 sometimes cables can pick RF and George L's only have 4 layers to include the shield - most other coax has an addtional layer of inner PVC that helps in reducing RFI...

Kinda but not really.

The PVC won't do squat to shield against RFI...it's just plastic!

Instrument & mic/line level cables will have either a foil shield (typical of inexpensive or permanent install wire) or a braided wire shield which is typically found on 'stage quality' cables that are gonna get beat around a lot.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

My home theater used to pick up a local radio station. Quite annoying, actually.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

I had/have this trouble with my Peavey Classic 50 head.... Someone told me to try a computer grade power bar with RF Filters that you can buy pretty much anywhere these days.... bought mine at Home Depot for $15... It works... no noise/radio station when i use the power bar with RF Firters in it to plug the amp into it...

i wrote Peavey and they said i should have the head looked at by a qualified tech... i phoned my tech and he said that it could be just about anything that could cause the radio stations to be picked up.... he said he could look at it for me but said if the power bar has blocked the radio noise he said just use it that way.... One day i should have a tech look at it i guess....

 

[Jonny R]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

There's no hearing-aid amplification loop in the vicinity? That can make it happen too...

 

[Dave]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

it is very rare for a commercial radio station to be out of compliance for power emanation ... and by law, it is the responsibility of any electric device to be shielded against picking up undesired signals

Nice, Bill-how can we sue them?:laugh2:

Johnny R-
My bass player and guitar player have wireless headphones-is that what you mean?

I'm sorta bummed about the George L.-aren't they supposed to be the best? My cheaper Fender Electrovolt was the solution.

 

[LesStrat]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

The good surge protector/filter was the solution for my home theater problem as well.

I believe Jonny is referring to systems such as this.

 

[Jonny R]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

That's the one, yep.

 

[Young Angus]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

My amp was picking up the keyboard player in the next rehearsal room the other day! He had his keyboards set up right next to the same wall that i was set up next to, and whenever i had my lead channel switched on and guitar volume turned up his i could hear everything he was playing quite clearly...i tried jamming along to it!

I was thinking it could have been the pickups though since i could control the volume of the keyboards coming out of my amp with my guitar volume knob...hmmmmm

 

[WhoFan]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

In my classic 50's case i pickup radio stations sometimes when the power and standby is on but nothing plugged into the amp..... strange stuff...

 

[hareek]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

I pick up stations every now and then but only when my guitar is plugged in. And its not the cable or the amp because I've swapped those to see if it made a difference. I think it was the single coils.

 

[schecterplayer]

Re: My amp is picking up radio-WTF?

Its only happened to me once when I was using my friends fuzz wah and this old crappy 60s or 70s era cable of my dads. We got the local NPR station so we sat around and listened to car talk for a while before we started swapping cables and made it go away.