Furman PL-8 noise issues?

[noodlesatf]

I've been having some noise problems with my rig that I haven't been able to solve until recently. I was talking with a band that pratices near us, and the guitarist was telling me everything was noisy until he unplugged it all from his Furman and plugged it into the wall. He said he has replaced it twice, but has the same problems.

I tried this last night, and it fixed my noisy rig, too. WTF?!? Has anyone else experienced this? I thought power conditioners were supposed to act like a big surge protector and reduce noise, not add to it! [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[Cleveland Metal]

Re: Furman PL-8 noise issues?

If it is equipment that is in a rack, you might possibly be experiencing a ground loop from all the rack ears being grounded through the rack rails to the furman, and also being grounded through the guitar cables connecting them as well as any grounded plugs or maybe a non-grounded plug being reversed in the socket... that can certainly induce hum.

Maybe try plugging it all into the Furman with the furman out of the rack, reverse the plug thus switching polarity on any ungrounded plugs, start removing one effect at a time and maybe isolate the offender. You could also get the ground isolating washers for all of your rack screws to make sure that the units aren't grounding on the rack rails through the screws.

Then again, if nothing has changed and the noise just started, maybe it actually is the furman going bad.

[Matt Crooks]

Re: Furman PL-8 noise issues?

I've never had problems with my rack, but I use rubber washers to isolate all my gear from the rack rails. That could be the problem. Do you have any unbalanced connections crossing the powerlines in your rack? That can cause a problem as well.

[noodlesatf]

Re: Furman PL-8 noise issues?

I had some plastic washers on some of my stuff, but not everything. Rubeer sounds better, where can I get some?

I definately have power crossing guitar cabling in the back. I'll have to rerun those lines, keeping things separate. I'll go a piece at a time like Cleveland Metal suggested.

Guess I'm tearing apart the rack this weekend. Yay! [img]/images/graemlins/idea2.gif[/img]

[Matt Crooks]

Re: Furman PL-8 noise issues?

Nothing says a great weekend like tearing apart the rack and tracing down noise issues.

Also, check to make sure that all the grounds are connected and the lift hasn't been ingaged on any of your gear.

I don't remember where I got the washers, probably from Fisher's hardware in Springfield.

[noodlesatf]

Re: Furman PL-8 noise issues?

Fisher's is exactly where I was going to check. I've got a hunch the main culprit is the Alesis compressor or eq. Both of them use wall warts, which tend to be noisy. Maybe I've got a ground loop between them and the Furman.