Faraday cage

[jjankosky]

This may be a little out there but I am desperate. I have the worst single coil noise ever in my house. Forget about any high gain tones on my strat, Big Muff? Ha! just forget it. My neighbor's house 100+ yards away, dead quiet other than normal single coil hum. I have cut the power to the house and still the noise is very loud, so I have no idea where it's coming from.

So I am seriously considering trying to build a Faraday Cage in my basement so I can play without the noise.

Just wondering have any of you tried this? If so, any tips? Waste of time? I am hoping that if I can find the direction it's coming from I can just shield it and not my whole room.

[NeoFauve]

How big's your basement?

http://www.silver-top.com/images/pro..._FrontView.JPG

[Marcondo]

Check the polarity of your house chances are its wired up wrong.

My friend had the same problem rewired all the outlets to be polarity correct and the prob went away. He said out of all the outlets in his house only 1 was wired correctly.

[Offshore Angler]

Remember, the openings in the Faraday cage must be less than 1/2 the wavelength.

[jjankosky]

Check the polarity of your house chances are its wired up wrong.

My friend had the same problem rewired all the outlets to be polarity correct and the prob went away. He said out of all the outlets in his house only 1 was wired correctly.

I get the same noise even when the house power is off and using battery powered devices.

[Kap'n]

Faraday Cage might be a good name for a band.....

+1 on the wiring issue.

[Marcondo]

I get the same noise even when the house power is off and using battery powered devices.

Are you close to a radio station or large high antenna?

Take the battery powered device outside the house see what happens.

You might have to shield your attic? LOL

[rudutch]

These are darn handy & cheap. I bring one to gigs to verify.
they check mis- wires, open ground, and other issues.

you might need one

[djinn1973]

Building a Faraday cage is a pretty drastic solution. I might start with some thing smaller like checking that your guitars are properly grounded, after that, body cavity shielding.

Quieting the Beast, Shielding a Strat
Fender® Highway One™ Stratocaster® goes Noiseless

One caveat, not too long ago I shielded/grounded one of my strats. The end result was a quieter guitar that sounded a little dull. I ended up undoing it all. If the grounding and or shielding doesn't work I think there are some sights on the net where you can find Faraday tents.

[StratMonster]

Faraday Cage might be a good name for a band....

I knew a band with that name back in the 80's...

[jjankosky]

I have one of the Ground testers somewhere, looking for it.

But I figured I ruled out the grounding thing when I used battery operated "amp" and had the power completely shut down to the house.

[rudutch]

Assuming your wiring is good (no mis-wires, proper NEC grounding)
you can hunt for the items that produce noise (rf)
Transformers, lamp ballasts, SCR dimmers, and swithching power supplies. Good luck, these things are everywhere

here is one on dimmers (they can be noisy)

http://www.lutron.com/applicationnotes/360484.pdf