Pedal board setup - battling a hum problem

[jpfeifer]

Hi Guys,

I'm kind of going back to an old-school guitar rig setup now, using a tube amp and floor pedals mounted on a pedal-train board.

Some of my effects have their own power supplies (such as the TC Electronix Nova Delay, etc) and the rest of the pedals are powered by a Dunlop DC Brick which provides 9v and 18v DC outputs. I'm using the 9v DC outputs to power a few Boss pedals and the 18v DC output to power an Fulltone OCD pedal.

I'm getting a lot of AC hum in my setup. I'm trying to figure out where it's all coming from and it's driving me crazy.

I'm wondering if it's the Dunlop DC Brick device, although it wasn't cheap, so I expect it wouldn't be the main culprit. I've also tried swaping cables and various things but it's just too much hum.

I'm using the effects loop in the amp for some effects such as delay, etc. and other effects are going in front of the amp input, such as compressor, overdrive, etc. I'm not sure where the problem is. It seems the the effects loop alone has quite a bit of hum.

Any ideas?

--Jim

[ZMAN]

What is your main source of power. Are you direct from the wall?
I found that any type of power bar will cause this. It also sounds like you need a conditioned power supply. The Brick is supposed to be conditioned. (no Hum). I went with a Furman board and they go to endless length on the pros of having a conditioned power supply, and it works. The fewer sources of power you have going into your amp the better.

[jpfeifer]

I discovered the main source of the hum problem. It was my Dunlop DC Brick that I use to power my effects. I didn't realize how noisy this thing was. I paid nearly $100 for it so I thought that it was pretty high quality, I suppose I was wrong about that. I finally had to break down and buy a Voodoo Labs Pedal Power ISO5 and try it to see if it made a difference. It made a HUGE difference. The AC hum is much less noticable, and I'm able to power almost everything on my board from the same source which cuts down on any possible ground loops between power sources.

My rig is now much quieter! I'm happy with the sound. The Egnater sounds fantastic with the Nova Delay, and Boss compressor especially. I can get some really fat retro surf-guitar tones with this setup which works perfectly for the band that I'm playing with right now.

--Jim