Quiet amp.

[tom1946]

Hiya,
seems a bit of a daft statement but playing in a church can be noisy, we usually have about 20 mins of absolute quiet while the Minister talks. The problem is the humming noise that comes from having a small amount of gain on. Are all amps like this? For instance we were out last night using my TC electronics 1x 15 combo again with the gain on about quarter and the volume quite high.

So am I doing anything wrong with settings? Or is there a quieter amp that doesn't buzz when you put a bit of gain on?

I realise this is a unique problem but there must be a way round it.

thanks!

[xgsjx]

I got no hum or buzz from my Markbass in church.
Could be a dodgy lead?
Unplug the instrument lead from the amp & see if it stops.
If not, try a different mains lead. If that doesn't work, test your combo in a different building (like your house). This way you can find out if it's the church wiring.
If you still get buzz or hum after all that, take the combo back. It's faulty.

[Roland Rock]

Do you use a single coil pickup? That can be noisy, especially if you are near an amp. Split/humbucking types will solve this. I believe you can also get hum-free singles as well

[tom1946]

Ah, some good points here, thanks for that.
My P basses are 1x MIM and 2x Squier, 1 Chris Aiken with a SPB-1 fitted and a VM P with the same. I'll go and try the leads and see where that goes.

[Dad3353]

Can you not turn down the gain during these 20-minutes sessions..? I'm assuming that the unwanted noise is coming from the instrument part of things, not the voice.

Edited September 23, 2014 by Dad3353

[Sonic_Groove]

Have you tried turning down the volume on your bass between tunes? P bass pickups are great but do pick up everything! turning volume down will attenuate PU. You could also try a volume pedal for extra slickness!

Brendan

[Beer of the Bass]

Don't those TC combos have a mute button? I'd use that during the speaking parts of the sermon.

[Roland Rock]

Silly question, but during these extended periods of non-playing, do you turn the volume down on your bass/mute the signal with a tuner pedal?

[HowieBass]

The TC Switch-3 footswitch allows you to mute the combo as well as turn the Toneprint effects on/off, might be worth considering.

[xgsjx]

You shouldn't need to touch the volume. If you unplug everything going into it first (other than the mains lead), then if there's no noise, you can try another bass on the instrument lead or try another lead.
If it's your bass(es), then you could check the shielding under the pick up & that it's earthed ok to the bridge.

[tom1946]

I could, but it's a faff on when trying to sit down so the service can carry on.

So, I think I have a solution, I changed my cable for an OBBM one I forgot I had and got an immediate cut in the gain buzz. So I tried a few different kettle leads and bingo! down to an acceptable level.

Just to add that when I unplugged my bass cable the noise stopped dead, I've never known a cable make such a huge difference.
I'm fairly new to all this as I played a 12 string guitar since the mid 60's, that was much easier to amp up

Edited September 23, 2014 by tom1946

[xgsjx]

Good to hear. Sounds like a little work on the bass's shielding and you should be noise free.