Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: Ochaye on July 07, 2009, 06:13:35 PM
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a new neighbour moved in upstairs from me a few weeks ago, she is quite deaf and has a special intercom at her front door designed for the hard of hearing
thing is i can hear every word spoken in her house through my combo......tv, kettle boiling,drills,phone,conversations, everthing!
i thought at first my OD pedals were to blame but after some troubleshooting i have discovered this "interference" happens with a simple guitar to amp set up
i have changed guitars, amps, and leads to no avail
it's too soon to approach my new neighbour over this matter, it MUST be the special intercom/hearing aid device
anyone got a similar experience to this...whaddya think Tim?
john
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Sounds like the setup for a movie ... if you happen to overhear her being murdered and become part of a government cover-up plot, don't come crying to me! PDT_008
There's not much you can do. Are you in the UK? Do you have the amp grounded (earthed)? You can try lifting the ground on the amp, that may help. Short of lining your ceiling with lead, or your neighbour switching to a new intercom, I think it's RF borne and not much you can do about it!
Edit: It's also possible that the location of your amp is acting as an antenna; amp chasis have been known to do this. Try plugging the amp in another location and see if it is still a problem.
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Sounds like the setup for a movie ... if you happen to overhear her being murdered and become part of a government cover-up plot, don't come crying to me! PDT_008
There's not much you can do. Are you in the UK? Do you have the amp grounded (earthed)? You can try lifting the ground on the amp, that may help. Short of lining your ceiling with lead, or your neighbour switching to a new intercom, I think it's RF born and not much you can do about it!
Edit: It's also possible that the location of your amp is acting as an antenna; amp chasis have been known to do this. Try plugging the amp in another location and see if it is still a problem.
UK? yes...amp grounded? yes...murder? Hmmmmmm
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the transmitter of your neighbour is clearly transmitting out-of-band radiation. I would raise it with them.
Gareth
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Sounds like one of those induction loop type things that are often fitted in churches , but also in banks and railway stations so that people with hearing aids can pick it up almost like having a radio in their ear
It can cause problems to other electronic gear
Had a church guitar player telling me about the hum problem he was having because of the induction loop they have and how it makes a racket through his amp
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An amp with a cable and guitar is basically a cr@p radio antenna. If somethings near enough or strong enough on the right frequency (as per cable amp and guitar fairly arbitrarily as opposed to anything predicable) then theres nothing much you can do.
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Actually your pickups are a very good radio antenna. That's why amps are (or at least should be) designed to attenuate frequencies above the audio pass band to prevent RF getting in your amp, although I'm sure we all come across/ owned bits of kit that pick up radio signals.
The problem here, as stated above, seems to be due to an induction loop, which is used as a way of transmitting signals to hearing aids. Unfortunately these can have quite a wide range, as you have found out. One way of reducing the effect would be to reduce the size of the loop.
My guess is that your neighbour probably doesn't want you to be able to listen in, so I'm sure if you broach the subject with them, they might be quite motivated to get the problem sorted out!
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I've had a similar problem to this before, at a drummer's house. I plugged in a little combo I had at the time, and picked up what sounded like a german conversation. It happened a few times there, and we never found out what it was. I have no idea if it was a radio station, or perhaps a similar situation the the one you are in.
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Oh yeah...hadnt thought of all those thousands of nicely alligned closed loops in pickups....for some reason...on a pickups forum...wheres a facepalm smiley when you need it?
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Oh yeah...hadnt thought of all those thousands of nicely alligned closed loops in pickups....for some reason...on a pickups forum...wheres a facepalm smiley when you need it?
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v516/Offkorn/emot-doh.gif)
:)
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thanks guys,i will talk to her soon...i said, I WILL TALK TO HER SOON
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thanks guys,i will talk to her soon...i said, I WILL TALK TO HER SOON
Yes - telling her that you hear every word of every conversation will motivate her to get it sorted
Nobody likes being eavesdropped upon
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If there was ever going to be a plot for a truly British 'Being John Malkovich', this is it.
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thanks guys,i will talk to her soon...i said, I WILL TALK TO HER SOON
:lol: classic. doesnt quite work on the internet but kudos for going there ;)
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I've had a similar problem to this before, at a drummer's house. I plugged in a little combo I had at the time, and picked up what sounded like a german conversation. It happened a few times there, and we never found out what it was. I have no idea if it was a radio station, or perhaps a similar situation the the one you are in.
Haha yeh i always get random german convo's through the amp at one of the rehearsal rooms we use!
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thanks guys,i will talk to her soon...i said, I WILL TALK TO HER SOON
:lol: classic. doesnt quite work on the internet but kudos for going there ;)
I thought it worked pretty well, actually!
Roo