Ticking sound....

Danie

Hi, can any body help me with this one...

I have a ticking sound coming from somewhere when my guitar is plugged in? Is there any way to locate the tick or anything I can do to get rid of it?

I play guitar through a few pedals and into a solidstate amp...

Thanks

guitarboy2828

Hmm... Is there an electric fence near by? If so, bingo was his name...

Not sure why, but electric fences do that to us poor guitarists.. If you turn your guitar volume off, is the tick still there?

[deleted]

guitarboy2828 wrote Hmm... Is there an electric fence near by? If so, bingo was his name...

Not sure why, but electric fences do that to us poor guitarists.. If you turn your guitar volume off, is the tick still there?

+1

Any electrical interference really...

Check your pedals too, take them out the signal path ?

Bob-Dubery

Danie wrote Hi, can any body help me with this one...

I have a ticking sound coming from somewhere when my guitar is plugged in? Is there any way to locate the tick or anything I can do to get rid of it?

Well first you need to figure out where the tick is coming from.

I'd start off by removing pedals from the signal chain one by one. If the ticking stops after you remove a pedal then you have two suspects - the pedal itself and the patch cord you removed from the chain along with that pedal.

If you remove all the pedals and the sound persists then change the lead between the amp and the guitar. If the noise persists then try moving the amp and axe to a different location.

Etc etc.

But eliminate things one at a time or you may end up with a situation where you have got rid of the noise but don't know what caused it - in which case it is likely to return at some inconvenient time in the future.

TomCat

Electric fences are notorious for creating interference as it is a high voltage electrical pulse that surrounds your property and creates a nice magnetic field in your house.

First step is to switch off the fence and see if it goes away. If it does turn out to be the fence then there is little one can do about it as it probably being picked up by your pick ups.

Edit: - What guitar are you playing? Does it have SC or HB Pick Ups

Danie

Thanks for the info,

Yes, we have a electric fence right outside the window, which also makes the same ticking sound.

Thanks

aja

Stop eating clocks. Solved.

nicovlogg

Had the same problem, so I bought a ClearLine power socket for my amp! And it works like a - no wait, it didn't work at all. :-\

aja

I wonder if using an On-Line UPS would solve the problem? Then you will be running on completely clean power. However they cost about R7000 upwards for a good one...

Gearhead

Then there's the earth thing...

FenderBender

And the RF thing that gets in everywhere!

Wizard

If the magnetic pulse being generated by the fence is being picked up by the pickups, then cleaning up the power supply to the amp (via a UPS) won't make any difference.

DonovanB

Gearhead wrote Then there's the earth thing...

Ja Global Warming is a bugger. 8)

TomCat

DonovanB wrote
Gearhead wrote Then there's the earth thing...
Ja Global Warming is a bugger. 8)

:roflmao:

nicovlogg

Wizard wrote If the magnetic pulse being generated by the fence is being picked up by the pickups, then cleaning up the power supply to the amp (via a UPS) won't make any difference.

True, but it ticks even when there's nothing plugged in. It definitely does tick more with a guitar plugged in. I think it's partially magnetic, partially voltage spikes.

Wizard

Maybe play in shielded box ?
Perhaps an attractive copper paint on the walls? (with earthing wire)

Alternatively ... find songs that can usefully use the "tick" as a metronome ... ?

[deleted]

Wizard wrote Maybe play in shielded box ?
Perhaps an attractive copper paint on the walls? (with earthing wire)

Alternatively ... find songs that can usefully use the "tick" as a metronome ... ?

? Hahahahaha

Riaan

Same thing happened a couple of weeks ago when a friend and I jammed. Whenever he played his strat, there was this ticking sound. It sounded just too regular to me, like a clock...which in fact it was. He's left handed, and wears his watch on his right wrist, but playes right handed. Whenever the watch came near the single coil PUPs, one could clearly hear it ticking over the amp!

TomCat

Have you switched off the electric fence to establish that it is the electric fence that is causing the interference?

baseline

Danie. change your cable first and see, then borrow and amp so you can isolate where it comes from, do you get the same tick when you move the amp to a different location. ie a friends house.