Hasie
Hey everyone,
I'm more into playibg hard rock and metal and my amp is either on high gain or nu metal modulation. A Yanaha THR10. I'm saving up for a tube amp.
Tbis causes a very annoying humming sound, which is even worse when I'm not touching the strings.
Will a noise gat help?
Will it influence the tone or sustain?
Thanks.
beardedmoose
It rather sounds like a earthing problem....
Hasie
I'm certain the amp is earthed properly. Can it be on the guitar self?
Anyways, does anyone use a noise gate? Is it worth buying one?
GuitarDoge
What pickups are you using? Humbuckers or single coils? Any pedals? Quality of cable? Age of cable? Shielding on guitar? It could be a million things.
I just find that solid state amps on ultra high gain levels amplify a lot of noise? How much humming is there clean?
A noise gate may help.
Hasie
Humbuckers. LH-100s. On ESP Ltd M-10. Very cheap entry level. Cable about 9 months old. Decent quality cable. It is silent on the clean modulation setting. Only on the high gain it has this very loud humming.
Gearhead
Noise gates are common in metal effects chains. For some very staccato stuff it is the only pedal getting you from silent to full drive back to silent quickly enough. At these settings there is no austain whatsoever; milder settings obviously allow for some more sustain. One cannot have noiseless sustain without a perfect signal chain and at best medium gain. High gain hums, this is just one of those things
beardedmoose
It could be the guitar... check all the wiring...
Dinky88
Sounds like the guitar dude.
If it gets worse when you dont touch the strings its probably a earthing issue with the guitar man. Otherwise its feedback, ull get feedback if you have high gain settings and you are close to your amp, especially if you dont touch the strings, its all vibrations.
I use a boss ns2 after ive gotten fed up with noise from high gain settings. although i don't use that much gain anymore, i play thrash,blues,punk,grindcore and anything really ?
This is how i set up for high gain.
Boss sd1 into boss ns2 into front end of a already distorted amp.
I do use a guitar with actives, blackouts.
This might work for you too, eventually.
Get a OD pedal like the boss SD 1 (you must use a overdrive pedal,any tube screamer copy will do,the boss is good and affordable)
Set the OD pedal so that the level is on max, set the gain on about quarter to 12 and the tone to your liking, i set it to the trebly side to make my sound a bit more tight.
Then that into the Boss NS1 (use the input and out on the pedal,not the return and send.) I set the boss NS1 to reduction mode, and turn the decay all the way to the left and the thershold all the way to the right.
Then you go into the front of your amp, use a distortion setting you like and then back off on the gain, usually as much as 50% will do the trick because you are boosting it with the boss overdrive. Use your ears!
Now you have very little noise coming from your amplifier because there is no need too use so much gain, you dont loose any gain because you are boosting the amp and adding gain from the OD pedal, any noise from the guitar and the OD pedal gets filtered out by the boss NS2, take note that the NS2 is a reduction pedal and not a noise gate, it doesnt just clamp your signal shut.
I dont lose any sustain going this way, ive tried it on many amps, tube amps, hybrid amps and solid state amps. Ive tried it one one digital amp but it sounded a bit like poo, i think that amp just sucked.
Many players have their amps setup this way, especially the thrash and death metal players. for blues and lower gain rock etc it is not needed, ull just lose sustain etc.
Hope this helps you or someone ?
Hasie
Thanks everyone, especially Dinky88. I will check out the wiring and will try out some pedals. I've had my eye on a Blackstar HT pedal, but will look into the others. I think I must take ny guitar and amp, go to the shop and try it with different pedals.
Dinky88
No problem!
Thise HT pedals are real nice! you might still want to invest in a boss NS2 or a decimator pedal if you plan on using lots of gain, plugging a dist pedal into the boss NS2s effects loop kills all the noise that the dist pedal will generate.
Hasie
I will have to do a heist to be able to afford the HT. Will go for something like the SD1. And invest in a tube amp later on. I'll also get a better guitar sometime as it will probably make a huge difference in tone etc.
Dinky88
cool cool! good move to invest in a overdrive pedal! I wont tell you to get a tube amp or not as there is alot of options out there today that are tube and some are not tube but they all sound pretty good! Its all about what sound you are after! For some death metal a solidstate is amp is pretty decent, if you are familiar with dying fetus then you would have heard a solid state amp (Ampeg VH140C) in action. Get what is out there and what you can afford, obviously dont buy junk XD, ive personally used a randall rg solidstate amp that i boost with a sd1 and it sounds killer, some people will say oooh but that amps got enough gain, true true, but i get too much noise maxing it out on the amp and the OD tightens up the low end.
A new guitar will have a impact on tone yes, not always as huge as we think tho, lots of the tone comes from the players hands, i know everyone says it but its true man!
Good technique can make cheap gear sound 100 times better.
Good luck on your guitar journey! I take it you are still new to guitar?
Hasie
Yes I am. Been taking lessons and playing for a year now. Thats on an acoustic. Lessons include everything, not just chords. Even doing music theory. But I like metal, so I'm trying to learn that in between all the music lessons and practice.
You have given some great advice, so I'll get a good OD pedal, sort out the noise and just keep practising.
Hasie
So I did some research on my very digital amp and it supposedly has a built in noise gate - you van actually download software and fiddle with its setup via a USB cable. I dug out the nultimeter. Tested the guitar and all is fine. Tested the cable and all is fine. My amp has this US standard plug and I have an adaptor plug which I bought from a music shop, which they made themselves. Tested it and it has an earthing issue. Screw the guarantee clause which says I am not allowed to cut off the plug.
The result: High Gain modulation and Nu Metal modulation is as silent as the grave, with gain full open and master volume cranked while standing right in front of the amp. And the tone is so delicious, I want to lick off my fingers after playong.
Dinky88
Haha thats awesome man!
I remember my first amp that i got, it was a cheap silvertone amp, it also had a us plug, i just cut it off and connected a normal one after ive gotten fed up with not being able to find a converter plug good times!
Im very glad your amp is working fine now!
Do yourself a favor and read up on setting up intonation, action and pickup height.
I think its best to learn how to do these things yourself from the beginning. Before you know it you're doing fret leveling and dressing yourself ? Its possible tho, took me a while but now i do my own fret leveling and fret dressing.
Metal is goods, makes guitar fun, i was just all about playing metal but then I learned the blues scale and i realized daim i can improvise over stuff ?
Gotta keep it fun!
thrash metal is still my fav genre to play, its all serious grinning oaks trying to be evil and its very fast and the solos are very musical, except for slayer, but slayer is poo poo.
Listen too some evile and gama bomb for killer thrash and insane solos!
Keep on practicing dude! Use jazz III picks hint hint hint if you wana take it to the next level ?
