Buzz in my cable?

My first thought would have been shielding in the guitar since you said it goes away when you touch the strings. This is typically a sound that indicates a grounding (or lack of) problem in the guitar but you said the same noise is there when you unplug the guitar so that narrows it down to the amp, the cable, and the house ground.

Now since you said the buzz goes away when you unplug the cable then it probably is not in the amp. I could be wrong on that if it is an input jack that cuts off the circuit if nothing is plugged in. So what that makes me think is that either the ground in the house is not good or the cable is leaking.

If the cable is not shielded properly it can act like an antennae and pick up electrical signals from around the house. However, the house grounding should eliminate or at least reduce the noise.

So, having said all of that and in fact said nothing I suggest two things. 1) Try a different cable and see if the noise changes and 2) try the amp at someone else's house.

If neither of these change/fix it then we start over.

Does the amp have a three prong plug?

I have a friend that snapped off the ground prong because his house didn't have a three prong outlet. As you can imagine, his amp now buzzs.

If you can try another cable just so you can rule that out. It sounds to me like it's a grounding issue. But, I am no expert.

I'm with the others on the grounding issue.

You can also test whether your cable is acting as an antenna - tie it in a bow. I'm not joking, the knots break up the signal that is being picked up (assuming the cable IS acting as an antenna).

I would try another guitar cord to see if it still does it. When it comes to buying cords don't get the one with molded plastic ends. Pay the extra couple of dollars and get a good one. A good shielded guitar cord if taken care of will last for years. This means don't wrap it around your elbow and thumb and then loop the rest around it and throw it in a cord case.

Joe

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, the amp has a 3-prong (grounded) plug.

I explained the problem to a co-worker who also plays guitar, and he knew exactly what I was talking about. Interestingly, he insists that it's totally normal! Now that doesn't seem quite right to me ...

I'll try tying the cable in a bow first and see if that helps, and if not then I'll carry everything to my neighbor's place to see if the problem persists over there. Otherwise I'll replace the cord with a higher-end one that is fully shielded. Any suggestion on brands? How about Monster?

Just for kicks, what type of amp is it?

As for cables, I use Planet Waves (gold plated) cables.

Here's a recent discussion on cables:
https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12076

Just for kicks, what type of amp is it?

It's a Line 6 Spider II 30w. It has a built-in noise gate feature, but I think it sounds terrible on the clean and "chunky" channels where I spend 80% of my playing time. It's a necessity and works quite well on the metal and "insane" channels - in fact, there is almost no noise at all when the noise gate is engaged. But on the clean and chunky channels it sounds like the strings are being muffled, so I don't use it there.

PappaJohn: thanks for the link; I'll take a look.

No luck tying the cable in knots. :lol: Will try the neighbor's place next, then the shielded cable option.

sure thing :D

Bad grounds are a common and dangerous problem. Do you have noise problems with any other audio equipment? radios, sterios, telephones and the like? If you do you might want to have your house checked by an electrician.

Do you have any of those "touch senitive" lamps in your house. Those things are famous for making electrical noise. There are tons of inexpencive imported electrical devices these days that do not meet FCC requirements for radio interference. It's prety much up to you to find and disable the offending device, not an easy job sometimes.

I have a Crate 30 and it dosen't make a lot of extranious noise. However when I bought the amp, guitar, and a bunch of other stuff the store gave me a cheap cable. I took it home and pluged every thing in and it started making a bunch of noise. My wife asked me why it didn't sound like it did in the store and I told her it was the cable. I replaced the cable with a 15 dollar one and it fixed the problem.

Get a new cable first, don't spend a bunch of money but don't buy the cheapest thing you can find either. Then if that doesn't fix the problem then your going to have to really start looking under rocks.