400 Hum

Steve England · From: Austin, TX

I bought a new Nashville 400 last year and have been having a pretty major on again off again problem with it. When I have the amp on at home I get a real unbearable hum from the speakers at anything above 2-3 on the volume. Sometimes when I am playing out I have no trouble at all, so I assumed it was maybe a problem with my room. Yet sometimes I can play in a real large hall and have no problem, other times I play in a more medium size venue and can't get enough volume from the amp without this infernal humming. It is very frustrating, any ideas what is causing it?

I posted this on the Peavey interactive forum a few months ago, but the only replies I got were from people suffering the same problem.

Craig Allen · From: BEREA, KENTUCKY, USA

Steve, I am having the same trouble!! My amp is a brand new 1999 model!!
I found that I had an effects processor that was giving me crap.
Are you running any processing gear??
If so, take it out of the loop, and run the amp by itself. If the amp is clean, then use the process of illimination to find the funky peice of gear.
And, if you do find it in a peice of gear, move that peice, away from your Nashville, and see if that clears it up.

Also, one club I play in, has an Ice machine on the same electrical cirquit. When that thing runs, I can count on a hum from hell.
Change cirquits, if at all possible.

Check the ground on your guitar, and also check that your cable ends are all in good shape.
Lastly look at your volume pedal. If the pot is starting to give up the ghost, it'll also creat some humming problems.

But after all this, I suspect that you have a peice of outboard gear, like a tuner that's giving you greif.

Another thing, if you are running outboard gear, in a rack, make certain you are not getting a ground loop. They can make life a living hell if you can't seem to put your hands on the problem.

Again, plug the amp in all by itself, and turn it on. No hum, then it's in outboard gear. Then you'll have to figure out what peice of gear is messin' ya up.

Hope I helped.

C YA

Steve England · From: Austin, TX

Thanks for the help C, but no it ain't that, I thought it was at first too. I don't have any rack effects, just guitar, pedal amp. I have tried different cables, different guitars, different inputs. But still get this hum. The place where I had the worst problems was a club I frequent quite often, and see many many steel players using 400's in the same position as me, and using the same outlets. One time I was next to the fiddle player and she was using a 400 with no bad effect whatever, I was having trouble even being heard above the hum. Very embarresing and frustrating.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Check the I/O connector for the reverb. In fact turn the reverb control to 0 and see if you have the hum. If it's gone then it's in the reverb circuit and probably a flakey molex connector for the reverb. Some hum in the reverb circuit is normal on the Nashville 400's (we had a big discussion about this on the forum a while back). I run the reverb on my 1996 Nashville 400 around 4 - 5 and the reverb hum is not objectionable.

Another source could be the guitar, if it does not have hum bucking pickups. Also make sure you have good grade cords with metal coverings (shields) on the plugs. Coiled cords or cords that have a plastic moulded plug head are notorious for causing hum problems.

Craig Allen · From: BEREA, KENTUCKY, USA

Mr Stoner is absolutly correc, as usual. Check that dad-gum molex connector.

And again, check your cables.

Finaly, I learned something from John Fabian a while ago. If your input on the guitar is not tight, or the wiring from the pick-up isn't kool, you WILL get a hum. But it seems to me that that's not your problem. As Mr. Stoner has said, check out the reverb. It's most usualy the culprit when it comes to Peavey.

I don't know why Peavey hasn't done something about this, because it IS a known problem with their gear.

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

We have hardwired the speaker output on the Nashville 1000's and Session 2000's. The reverb molex connector has not posed a major problem for our amps. We sometimes repair amplifiers dating back to 1975, so we have a lot of data on our manufacturing methods.

However, I will pass along your input concerning our connectors as it is valuble to us. Thanks for using Peavey products.

Bill Terry · From: Bastrop, TX

I hardwired (Soldered) the speaker connection on my Nashville a long time ago. Since the BW speakers have those nice spring loaded terminal clips, if you need to pull the chassis just unhook the speaker wires at the speaker and fish the wires through the chassis as you pull it out.

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bterry.home.netcom.com

C Dixon · From: Duluth, GA USA

Mike,

With much admiration and respect I have to tell you that the molex connector is a problem. Both my Nashville 400's have it. My latest one had it the day I bought it brand new in Atlanta for the SGE show. When the hum comes in and the reverb control takes it all out when turned to 0, I can almost guarantee it is in that connector.

For those of you experiencing a hum that is intermittent on a Nashville 400, ligthly tap on the top of the amp when the hum is there. If it goes away, check that molex connector going to the reverb unit and push it on tight.

God bless all of you,

carl

Mike Brown · From: Meridian, Mississippi USA

Thanks for the input, guys. I have passed along this string to our engineers. Your input is invaluble.

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