Nylonica
Is it normal for my Fender Hot Rod Deluxe White Lightning to buzz a little on the drive channel?
Thanks
Gearhead
It is more normal than it is desirable. I always console myself by saying that at least I know the amp is on when it buzzes a little. If any circuit is going to buzz on your amp, it's the drive channel. Buzz in an amp is sometimes hard to get rid of, it depends. I don't know your amp, take it to the shop if it is new, take it to a tech if it isn't new and bugs you.
Nylonica
Thanks, it will only really buzz when I turn the drive up. I bought it second-hand from Music Connection and they gave me a warranty. But they will probably say that its completely normal. Also when I touch the strings on my humbucked guitar the buzz quiet-downs a bit.
Nylonica
or could it maybe be the electricity in my house?
VellaJ
Are you using energy-saving bulbs? I am, and the noise I get from those through my amp is absolutely unbearable. I can only play by incandescent light. Your problem doesn't seem as extreme as mine, but I am using single coils...
If the buzz quiet downs quite a lot when you touch the strings, you may have an earthing problem in your guitar. If it's only a little, that's pretty normal AFAIK...
Nylonica
It is small, but my guitar has only done it with this amp. But it did seem to be less noisy in the shop. Maybe I just have inconsistent power.
Nylonica
Is it also normal for my BD-2 to be making a little noise?
VellaJ
Well, from my experience, tube amps do tend to hum and make more noise than transistor amps. It's just their nature (of course, I'm sure the more experienced guys have methods to remedy this, but for the rest of us, this tends to hold true.) This is exaggerated as you turn the gain up. My Peavey is quiet on clean, can show some noise on crunch, and really shows up ambient noise on the "mean" channel.
I'm afraid I haven't had any experience with the BD-2 (though I would like to) so I can't really comment on that. But logically speaking, it would be the same thing. Any noise that your guitar is picking up with be amplified as you turn up the gain, which is essentially what the pedal is doing.
Nylonica
Haha, yeah you're probably right. Maybe a pro could pop in a for a bit and tell us what they do? ?
costafonix
There's many things that can cause buzz on your amp, which may not necessarily be an amp problem, e.g.
poor quality or faulty guitar cables,
proximity to appliances (fridges, flourescent lighting, fans etc).
badly wired guitars,
and even faulty pedals.
I played a gig once where I was plugged into the same power source as a cigarette vending machine and only when we switched the machine off and unplugged it did the buzz disappear.
any of the above can cause the buzz to be more evident when you switch to your overdrive channel on your amp.
try another guitar, move the amp to another location and try different cables to see if it improves or not. :yup:
Nylonica
This is what is does.
costafonix
wow that is quite bad...
If you were to unplug the guitar altogether and switch channels does it make the same noise?
Sounds like its earth related.
