bLuEs wrote
Interesting Tom. What if its the neighbor's electric fence? is there any modification I can do to my amp in order to get the noise down? here's also a specific gig we play at, where I get heavy noise on my amp, don't know if it's the electronics in the building?
This is now getting very interesting. The whole subject of noise...hum etc is a very complex one as the causes could be many different things.
Chances are of your neighbors fence causing a problem ion your premises is very slim as their power is on a different neutral/earth to yours. depending on where the neutral/earth common point is.....usually either at the incoming DB of you house, or at the municipal connection....depending on the local by laws. Each house would have it's own neutral/earth point. However...if your Neutral/earth for Your house id dodgy.....Eg bad connection on either the neutral or the earth, you could possibly pick up all sorts of interference from nearby, including your neighbors electric fence.
The easiest test is the test I indicated above where you measure the voltage between your earth and neutral at a power outlet. A good neutral/earth should be in the region of about 0.5VAC...the lower the better from a noise perspective. Also do the test with the geyser and stove running as these draw the most power from you supply and therefore would increase the neutral/earth voltage to its highest value.
Regarding Gig venues....Traditionally these have the worst wiring and anything could be causing the hum problem.....again a multimeter in the power outlet neutral/earth will let you know what is happening. If the voltage is high then there is little you can do about it. what will make it worse is if there is stage lighting using dimmers. the create huge harmonics in the power and again if the neutral/earth is not right you usually end up with a noise nightmare.
Unfortunately in this country there is little understanding of these issues and the owner of the venue gets things added to his power on an ad hoc basis with no proper wiring design or planning.
One thing to try is to run all of the band equipment off a single power outlet, including your PA, thereby creating a single star earth point on stage. Doesn't always help but it might make a difference.
