When recording guitar, especially bass guitar, I was getting a consistent, annoying hum upon taking my fingers off the metal parts of the instrument. With enough high end, you could call it a buzz. Terrible.
This happens not only with my little amp, but even with the preamp direct into the computer. My guitar cables aren’t balanced. Maybe the real solution is to have XLR outs from guitars. That must not be good for other reasons.
Anyway, what seems to work is running a wire from the jack to my body. I was going to wear the wire (show on the right) as a bracelet, but that leaves too little contact to be effective. So for now I have to hold the wire under my tongue. No hum/buzz. But maybe I won’t try recording during a thunderstorm.
Figments of a lack of imagination
Darn. It’s not all gone. Still get a terrible hum with the bass guitar.
Comment by Mark — December 21, 2009 @ 10:47 am