My incessant amplifier buzz problem mystery has been solved, and oh what web of idiocy that was.
So last week, as I mentioned, I broke out my newly refurbished Les Paul for band practice. At first everything was fine through my little Marshall, but then Evil Buzz came back with a vengeance; the buzz was practically louder that the notes. Fuck it, we go with a bass amp, and everything seemed fine. Great – I was convinced now my amp was the absolute problem. I was not very happy when I left the studio last week.
Cut to this week. Over the weekend, some of the boys did some more work in the studio. They set up a bunch of baffles to separate the instruments, set up some new mics, re-routed some stuff here and there, and threw my Marshall up into storage and replaced it completely with that bass amp. I was not happy. First thing I did was to get my amp out of storage and give it another shot. Evil Buzz. Fine. Fuck it.
I plug into the bass amp. Evil Buzz. Seriously. Who’s fucking with me here? I was this close to freaking out accusing the boys of punking me.
We spent the next hour running around, replacing every cable, trying every guitar in the room, I even fell back on a completely different amp - a little 25watt Peavy. Evil Buzz.
Now I was convinced that I was magnetic or something. I, personally, was the only common denominator. I had just said, “you know what, I’ll just sit out this session, because I’m totally bummed out about this.” I didn’t even feel like playing at that point. I was a five year old kid whose new roller skates were broken.
Then the bass player said, “let me check something out.” He went down stairs where is workshop is (he’s a carpenter by trade) did something and the buzz cut out like someone clipped a power chord.
He comes back up and says, “I turn off the fluorescent lights down there.”
I had been standing right over a bank of fluorescent lights for the last two years and the only reason why the buzz never occurred in the winter is because he doesn’t use that shop in the winter.
Goddamned fluorescent lights – for two years.
Oh, but the rest of the night was a dream. I cranked that little Marshall up for all it was worth and went to town. I don’t even know how well I played last night, but the sheer joy at making the kind of noise I wanted to make without all the noise that I didn’t want was amazing.
I was happy when I left the studio last night.