Eliminating Ground Loops

[davidmichael]

This question is for all the gigging musicians that use multiple amps.

It started when I got a John Petrucci JP6 ,with a piezo pickup and outputs for the piezo and the humbuckers ,which I would plug into different amps.

When doing this ,I would get a ground loop hum.

I finally started using an adapter ground lift plug to use on one of the amps that made the issue go away.

Then i figured if I could split the signal with that guitar ,I could do the same with my other guitars.

My current rig has me splitting the signal from the guitar into seperate pre amp/processors out to my Carvin halfstack on one side ,and my Mesa or a Fender bass amp on the other.

The stereo sound is to kill for and with the dual processed sound combinations ,and the big difference between the amps ,the sound combinations I can get are endless.

But I still get some slight background noise ,and am as concerned about safety as I have taken the ground away from one of the amps.

I am considering trying a power conditioner to hopefully finish the background noise ,and be able to have both amps fully grounded.

So I guess my question is how do proffesional musicians deal with this ,as Id imagine ,most have used multiple amps at some point of time.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[TapperMike]

What are you using as a splitter?

 

My Suggestion

[davidmichael]

I was just splitting my signal at the guitar with a simple Y cable.I have considered ABY boxes ,but this is the first ive seen that actually says it has something to kill the ground loop.

Called all the places I know in town and no one has it in stock ,but they all said they could order me one and have it here in a few days.

Im definately going for it.

Thanks for the info and I will post results when I get it.

[davidmichael]

UPDATE :

Got my Radial Bigshot ABY today and gotta say it works like a champ.

I would definatlly recomend this product to anyone encountering ground loop issues like I was.

And foremost I would like to thank TapperMike for the info !!!

Your the man !!!

David