Hum

 Today I had hassle with hum. Or something. I was hearing a radio station (indistinctly) through my amp. And a much greater than usual noise in general. When I clicked on the Boss Reverb unit, the crackle and hiss was horrible. Turning one pedal box on and another off made the hiss worse or better. I changed power cables; removed the Boss from the signal chain altogether. Nothing made it go away. So after checking the forum on gearslutz.com, I concluded maybe the Stratocaster's single coil pickups was the culprit. I particularly bought the Strat with the N3 pickups (noiseless), and usually, they are dead quiet. So I broke out the Epi Dot guitar at left, (which has humbuckers), and sure enough, the noise was much better.

Not gone completely, but acceptable. I couldn't use the Boss Reverb though; it created horrible sounds. Maybe it's the weather, or who knows what. Strange that I haven't had this problem before. I'll just check it out every day and see if I can nail it down. For now, I guess I go to the Epi Dot when the noise gets bad.

P.M. update: This evening I cranked up my system and, well, no hum! Or, not much hum. Way quieter. No change to the setup or anything, and again, I was using the Strat which I thought was the culprit. Maybe it's the night-time somehow? Like no sun spots or electromagnetic sun radiation to contend with? Or at night there aren't so many noise creators in the neighborhood running? I don't know, just grasping at straws here.

Next night update: No hum or feedback at all! Very quiet. Even with the Strat. Sunspots are the cause; that's as good as any explanation.

Look for me on: whispersinspace or whispers in space or out in space!