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Cell Tower affecting guitar amplifier

Y

Yreva

New Member
Oct 19, 2022
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Hi all,
I’m hoping someone here might be able to make some suggestions for a problem I’m having with a nearby cell tower. I’m hearing a high frequency oscillating static punctuated with an occasional beep from my guitar amplifiers. It’s not my wiring as I’m observing the same thing with various amps both tube and solid state, even battery powered ones. When I use the amps in my basement no problem. What options do I have as far as shielding a guitar amp from this? My guitar tech of 40 years is grasping at straws. I know this forum is a shot in the dark but I’m determined to find a solution.
Thanks for your input,
Mark
 

Good chance that wacky beeps and burps are not coming from devices in the house. Besides, unless you have a generator or UPS to power your guitar amps, turning of your building's main power won't be informative if the affected amplifiers are all powered off.

I would start by unplugging all mike, guitar and pedal cords from all the input sockets. Power up the amplifiers this way and see how it affects the noise problem. If ALL the noises go away, filtering the amplifiers' inputs may help.

And if you still hear noises, this is not the route to take. Ferrite clip-on chokes on the guitar and mike cords would probably help if that's how the RF is sneaking into the amp.

And if you hear the interference with all of them unplugged, other measures will be needed.

At least see if you can begin to pin down the entry point into your equipment. The basic choices are the input cords, the power cords and direct pickup by wiring inside the amp.

Good chance that more than one entry point is active. Start by narrowing down the input sockets as a suspect.

73
 
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John David Trolinger said:
Did you try turning off all the power to your house to see if the interference goes aw
nomadradio said:
Good chance that wacky beeps and burps are not coming from devices in the house. Besides, unless you have a generator or UPS to power your guitar amps, turning of your building's main power won't be informative if the affected amplifiers are all powered off.

I would start by unplugging all mike, guitar and pedal cords from all the input sockets. Power up the amplifiers this way and see how it affects the noise problem. If ALL the noises go away, filtering the amplifiers' inputs may help.

And if you still hear noises, this is not the route to take. Ferrite clip-on chokes on the guitar and mike cords would probably help if that's how the RF is sneaking into the amp.

And if you hear the interference with all of them unplugged, other measures will be needed.

At least see if you can begin to pin down the entry point into your equipment. The basic choices are the input cords, the power cords and direct pickup by wiring inside the amp.

Good chance that more than one entry point is active. Start by narrowing down the input sockets as a suspect.

73
Click to expand...
Hello Sir,
Click to expand...
Thanks for your reply. The noise is present when no gear is plugged into the amp. It’s definitely not coming through the guitar, cables or effects. The noise is also not dependent on any adjustment to the amp controls. The only solution is to move to the basement of the house where the amps are shielded from the RF of the cell tower. Surely there is a viable way to shield the equipment.
 
One thing you could try is getting some heavy-duty shielding for your amps, like those copper foil tapes. They can help block out unwanted signals.
 
It would be interesting to listen to the noise on an SDR (software defined radio) might be some kind of data transmission to a radio station or some kind of telemetry from a weather station or something.
 
You're getting RF interference from the cell tower. This is a well known problem for recording studios that have been around for a long time and suddenly find themselves neighbors with new cell towers which are causing interference. Any equipment with low level input suffers from this problem.

The noise is almost exactly as you describe; hissing punctuated by beeps.
There was a well documented case last year in Vancouver and the Phone Company was ordered to shield THEIR equipment better and the studio was found not at fault. Unfortunately, in that case, not even the phone company techs were able to find a solution and last I heard the studio was thinking of moving elsewhere.

So a solution may be hard to find in your case. I'm only kinda kidding when I say the easiest solution may be to move to a house that's not near any cell towers.
You might live longer too; I wouldn't want to live close to one of those cell towers and I work in broadcast radio as a tech and play with radios for fun!
 
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Yreva said:
Hi all,
I’m hoping someone here might be able to make some suggestions for a problem I’m having with a nearby cell tower. I’m hearing a high frequency oscillating static punctuated with an occasional beep from my guitar amplifiers. It’s not my wiring as I’m observing the same thing with various amps both tube and solid state, even battery powered ones. When I use the amps in my basement no problem. What options do I have as far as shielding a guitar amp from this? My guitar tech of 40 years is grasping at straws. I know this forum is a shot in the dark but I’m determined to find a solution.
Thanks for your input,
Mark
Click to expand...
Can you record it and post it here? Have you experienced this with different guitars? Single coil vs. double coil? Does the noise occur with no guitar plugged in?
 
Sportymdim said:
One thing you could try is getting some heavy-duty shielding for your amps, like those copper foil tapes. They can help block out unwanted signals.
Click to expand...
Also, try moving your amps around to find a sweet spot where the interference is less annoying.
Besides, it's always good to have some backup knowledge. I stumbled upon this guide at https://guitarsrepublic.com/guitar-basics, and it's been a lifesaver for me. It's not just about fixing interference, but it's got tons of useful tips for guitarists. Check it out when you can; it might just be what you need.
 
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You could try slapping some ferrite beads on the cords—power cables, extensions, whatever you’re using. If it’s a bigger problem, maybe hit up an RF tech or someone who knows their way around shielding gear near towers.
Honestly, I’ve been learning more about how interference works with amps and sound gear, and it’s been super helpful. If you’re into that kind of thing, checking out some online music lessons could be worth it.
 
Many moons ago a pioneering electronic-music composer named Wendy Carlos moved into an attic apartment in Manhattan and made it a recording studio. She had problems with the noise level in the analog mixing board, synthesizers and rack equipment. Figured out it was the heavy RF environment all around her building. Covered the ceiling and walls with copper screen and grounded all of it to the building's steel frame. Cut the noise level by 16 or 20 db, if memory serves. Finally she could make proper recordings of her music free of random hiss noises.

And this was before cell networks became widespread.

With any luck filtering the cords that run into and out of the amp will be sufficient to remedy the issue. When filtering alone doesn't do the job, shielding is the next step.

73
 
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