do you have electric fencing?

Amps often pick up th ticking from electric fences.. Have you tested the amps out at different plug points?

Does the ticking stop at someone elses house?

Sounds like electrcal interference... or good old fashioned "dirty" power

I have a very consistent ticking on my amp and I've been able to establish that it is coming from the neighbour's electric fence. It is very annoying and there is nothing I can do about it. I've moved my guitar and amp to another room, further from the fence, and it improved but didn't eliminate the ticking altogether. I wish I knew how to shield against it.

DDR4LYF wrote: Well I bought a marshall MS-4. Tiny battery-powered micro stack, for those who don't know them. But with the little amp running on batteries and running perfectly fine at a friend's place, it makes the exact same ticking noise when it isn't plugged into anything (except a guitar). Anyone with suggestions on what it could be?

The noise is being picked up by the guitar's pickups.

Get a few 'clip-on' ferrites from a decent electronics supplier - and fit them to the power leads as well as audio and speaker cables, you sometimes have to use 2 or more on each cable - they look like this

Similar ferrites (cylindrical non-clip on types) are often found on the signal cables of VDU screens and are used to suppress unwanted signals, these can often be stripped off scrapped display screens and 'recycled'


sample http://www.mantech.co.za/ProductInfo.aspx?Item=14M4818


Update
interference from nearby electric fences is commonly experienced, especially when the pulser units of the electric fences are incorrectly earthed or incorrectly adjusted ('tweaked' to higher than permitted power), or when there is arcing (sparks) between the fence and nearby vegetation - this results in a broadband radio signal which will be picked up on a radio/or an audio amplifier with long and unsuppressed leads (which act as an antenna), such 'interference' is in effect an illegal radio transmitter. Illegal primarily because it is a 'spark gap' transmitter - a mode that is prohibited because of the interference it produces.

Some delay pedals can introduce a ticking like sound

guidothepimmp wrote: do you have electric fencing?

Amps often pick up th ticking from electric fences.. Have you tested the amps out at different plug points?

Does the ticking stop at someone elses house?

Sounds like electrcal interference... or good old fashioned "dirty" power

Nope, no electric fence.

No ticking at any other place I've played my amps.

That's the thing. The small one is battery powered and it makes the same noise. It isn't plugged into the houses power.

Also, I can hear the ticking with just a cable plugged in with no guitar on the other end!!! This is incredibly puzzling!!

I've had weird noises and even picked up radio channels on systems that turned out to be earthing issues.

Did some more investigation! Like a regular old Patrick Jane!

I carried my little amp around the house, pointing the loose end of a cable at things in the house with the other end in the input jack of the little amp. I got some major ticking noises when the cable end got near any electrical devices and also near all the taps... Hmmmmm the plot thickens.

So I recon the house is giving off some airborne signal cause of these earthing issues!!!

Has anyone else experienced something like this???? :-\

Some switch mode power supplies (eg for printer/modem/phone charger) and certain (DSTV) satellite receivers can also produce interference.
If you think that the interfering signal is originating within your own house, you can also try to isolate it by switching off various appliances (one by one) and seeing if the 'tick-tick' signal goes away. You can also try to find the signal using a portable radio and walking around to determine where the signal is strongest.