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I have a fender jazzmaster that generates a lot of hum in the system. Have a Samson MDA1 direct box. Will this reduce the hum? I'm going into a ZED10FX mixer, into the GTR1 HiZ channel. If it will help, is there anything I should know about hooking it up? Thank you

Comments

Boswell Fri, 04/09/2021 - 09:36

The direct box should help, but it's best if it is of the isolating type (the spec does not say). Plug the guitar into the input jack on the DI box and use a microphone cable (XLRF - XLRM) to connect the output of the DI box into an XLR microphone input on your mixer. If you are not using a battery to power the Samson DI box, it needs to be powered by 48V phantom power, so make sure that is turned on at the mixer.

MC208 Fri, 04/09/2021 - 10:09

Thank you for the reply. I've hooked it up, supplied phantom power via the mixer. Not entirely sure if it's making a difference as of yet. If I use the -15db button, it cuts down the hum. Also when I push the switch to Ground, it seems to reduce the hum as well... Will test and see soon..

bouldersound Fri, 04/09/2021 - 10:58

The -15dB button will turn everything down by the same amount. There's no advantage to that (unless the input level is so high it's distorting).

The ground switch is the one that might help. Whatever setting gives the least hum is the one to use.

But if the pickups are single coil and the hum changes with the guitar's orientation, well, that's why humbuckers were invented. I don't think a DI is going to make much of a difference with that.

kmetal Fri, 04/09/2021 - 18:16

Not an ideal option, but have you tried rotating 360 degress to see if some of the hum gets reduced in certain positions? This has helped me in some cases before. Also have you found the quiet spot in the room, by walking around w the guitar?

These aren't ideal but might help get quiter recordings until you can identify the source of the noise.