Noisy High Gain Amps

[WhoFan]

Is it me or is there way too many overly noisey higain tube amps on the market these days...? I have been trying Marshall 2000 series combos, Traynor Combos and some others and the over all hum and buzz is extremely loud! My 5150 is much more souped up than those amps and is much quieter.... What do you think is up with these new higain amps being so noisey? Are they trying to save money by not using stuff to quiet them down?

WhoFan

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Is it me or is there way too many overly noisey higain tube amps on the market these days...? I have been trying Marshall 2000 series combos, Traynor Combos and some others and the over all hum and buzz is extremely loud! My 5150 is much more souped up than those amps and is much quieter.... What do you think is up with these new higain amps being so noisey? Are they trying to save money by not using stuff to quiet them down?

WhoFan

It's just very hard to get very high gain without noise...High gain is noise in a sense..it's a distorted signal...If you plug single coils into that high gain animal then you're really talking alot of noise..How close are you to the amp when you're playing through it? Most times you need to find a sweet spot with a strat or a tele that has single coils..

 

[some_dude]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

What do you think is up with these new higain amps being so noisey?

Are you playing them in a store?

It's been my experience that most music stores leave super cheap cables around the store for you to plug in with. My amps nearly dead silent on it's lead channel, but the one time I plugged a cheap cable into it hummed so loud I had to switch to the clean channel whenever I wasn't playing.

 

[colz10]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

i agree that there are too many high gain noisy amps. What's up with that Marshall mode four-- 350 watts!! And the new Fender Metalhead amps---550 WATTS!!!

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Cables can make a surprising difference in the hum. And if you're playing in a music store then you will almost ALWAYS get interference not only because of the cables but because of all the other amps and equipment in the vicinity.

 

[Metalman_666]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

i agree that there are too many high gain noisy amps. What's up with that Marshall mode four-- 350 watts!! And the new Fender Metalhead amps---550 WATTS!!!

LOL the MetalHead!! I went to a music store the other week to try out a couple of guitars with large frets and I saw the MetalHead and I HAD to test it! With the volume on about a 1/4" between 0 and 1 it was loud enough almost for practice levels (ok, mild exaggeration) and the gain channels sucked.... bigtime! Even the METAL ZONE sounded better than the amp distortion.

 

[Neeradj]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Is it just me or are modern high gain amps a lot less noisey, to almost noiseless? My Powerball has a built in noisegate that I don't even use, but I guess that's because I almost never turn the gain past 11 o'clock, Metalheads need to control their tone instead of turning the gain up as much as they can! It'll also sound a lot cooler. Sure if you were to crank an amp with cheap parts it would have noise regardless of the tone, but most "modern" high gain amps with good grade parts don't seem to have that much to any noise, at least none that I've witnessed

 

[Boleslaw Gers 666]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Daisy's right, the cables are crap. Also, you probably aren't running an NS-2 when you're playing in the store. But tube amps are noisy. It's a tradeoff we make.... impeccable tone for a little noise.

 

[BigBazz]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

its not just tube amps that are noisy, Solid states are the same exactly when it comes to guitar/amp humming/buzzing noise, also noise comes from bad power sources and the main cause is that most people use more gain than they actually need, i dont use a noise gate with my 5150 and im fine, but its no less noisy than my Marshall Avt150 if i have the gain at 10.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Flourescent lights can be partially to blame, as well.

 

[Young Angus]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Is it just me or are modern high gain amps a lot less noisey, to almost noiseless? My Powerball has a built in noisegate that I don't even use, but I guess that's because I almost never turn the gain past 11 o'clock, Metalheads need to control their tone instead of turning the gain up as much as they can! It'll also sound a lot cooler. Sure if you were to crank an amp with cheap parts it would have noise regardless of the tone, but most "modern" high gain amps with good grade parts don't seem to have that much to any noise, at least none that I've witnessed

Ooh ENGL...nice My savage doesnt have the noise gate, in fact i dont think any other ENGL head does, but im curious if it actually does anything...?

For the money ENGL's are worth you wouldnt expect them to be too noisy, but having said that they are still high gain, and in fact the guy i bought my savage off said that he had to use a boss noise supressor to get rid of noise...he was in a korn style band called cyclone tracy.

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Gain refers to how much your signal is increased before it hits the next stage. If you increase your signal from the guitar 1000 times you also increase the underlying noise 1000 times. The higher you set the gain the more you amplify the noise along with the signal. It's really not a new phenomina though and if you listen to old Hendrix, Led Zep or Who tracks yoiu can hear the amps humming in the background, especially on the live stuff.

Gates and supressors can help and having a clean source of electricity and good tubes can help but it's always there to one extent or another. As long as the noise isn't louder than your playing level you should be ok. Personally I am not a big amp noise fan and I do gate some of my settings to keep the noise down at idle.

 

[Stratcat]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

No Gain, No Pain. Nothing is perfect. My advice is to use noiseless pickups.

 

[y2stevo]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

No Gain, No Pain. Nothing is perfect. My advice is to use noiseless pickups.

Or, To turn off your gain altogether :laugh2:






















Like that's gonna happen :laugh2:

 

[pac112]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Cables can make a surprising difference in the hum. And if you're playing in a music store then you will almost ALWAYS get interference not only because of the cables but because of all the other amps and equipment in the vicinity.

i gotta agree with u on that one. always use good cables. they're worth the investment.

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Noisy High Gain Amps

Gain refers to how much your signal is increased before it hits the next stage. If you increase your signal from the guitar 1000 times you also increase the underlying noise 1000 times. The higher you set the gain the more you amplify the noise along with the signal. It's really not a new phenomina though and if you listen to old Hendrix, Led Zep or Who tracks yoiu can hear the amps humming in the background, especially on the live stuff.

Gates and supressors can help and having a clean source of electricity and good tubes can help but it's always there to one extent or another. As long as the noise isn't louder than your playing level you should be ok. Personally I am not a big amp noise fan and I do gate some of my settings to keep the noise down at idle.

Couldn't have said it any better!