Picking up radio stations in my amps...

[Sean Sullivan]

Does anyone know how to cure this problem? I've tried several different amps (Reverborocket, Champs, Twin Reverb) and all of them pick up radio stations in my house. It's super annoying and makes it impossible to record. Is it a problem with my outlets or tube amos in general? I've gone to a hardware store and they said they've never dealt with the problem, so hopefully you guys know the cure!

[darjama]

I dealt with this in one rehearsal space. The only thing that helped was switching to a bass with a shielded cavity.

The space I was in was within spitting distance from an FM station transmitter, perhaps that's your problem?

[Sean Sullivan]

That's possible, but this is the case with the last two houses I've lived in. Maybe Cincinnati is overloaded with radio signals.

[Blade]

I had the the same problem last year!

All of my mic tube preamps, , my 74b jr. , and even my solid state Vox Conqueror amp would pick up the same radio frequency. It wasn't super loud, but enough to drive you insane.

I found out that I was about 3 miles from a 100,000 watt transmitter tower.

I've since moved and now everything is as clear as a bell.

I don't know of anything you can do to cure this, except to move the gear around and maybe you will find a null area that will block it out!

Good luck.

[darjama]

hmmm...maybe all this money we've been spending on bass traps should be spent deflecting radio waves. Does Owens Corning make lead-based 703?

[Jeff White]

That's possible, but this is the case with the last two houses I've lived in. Maybe Cincinnati is overloaded with radio signals.

Is WKRP still on the air?

I've had this problem is every place I've ever lived. Either my Oktavas, my amps... Ground lifts don't work, just make the problems worse. Welcome to the wonderful world of cheap wiring.

Jeff

[mikeyc]

Is WKRP still on the air?

Thank you for saying that. I starting twitching with the WKRP bug as soon as I read this thread. Now I can relax.

[chadwick]

First, is it coming only from the amp or the guitar? multiple amps making the noise would seem to point to the guitar. Definitely shielding. If you guitar insides aren't properly shielded or grounded than definitely review that.

Does it change when touching the strings or letting them go? A lot of axes loose or never get the electronic ground connected to the bridge and strings causing more antenna like behavior.

The proximity of a radio transmitter could also be the issue though I've never noticed it myself.

good luck.

[rolandk]

You might also want to make sure your guitar cables are in excellent condition and use the shortest length possible. They are basically antenna's for all the RF crap floating around in the air. Distortion boxes can cause problems too.

[brianroth]

A "Faraday" shield is essentially wrapping everything inside of copper "chicken wire" ... which is expensive.

Which radio station are you hearing> Use www.fcc.gov to see how far you are located from the towers.

Bri