Amp clicky noise in specific room?

[Niel]

So my Marshall amp when i have it plugged it in upstairs and some of the rooms downstairs it works fine, but when its in one paticular plug in the living room where the wifi router/modem is when i plug the amp in it makes a rapid clicking sound, why is that? Does the wifi router have something to do with it ? It goes away when i move the amp away while still plugged in like further away from the wifi router from the same wall socket.  The wifi router modem is plugged into a multi wall plug which also has the vaccuum charger and all plugged into it and my amp goes in that multiplug, i cant remove the multiplug from the wall unless i want the modem router off thus no internet.

Edited September 30 by Niel

[Niel]

It's making my EQ pedal also act up strangely and get all crackly through the amp, i know it was the culprit cus when i removed EQ from the chain to test it was fine again and away from the router modem. But the EQ wasn't doing that in the other rooms upstairs and downstairs. Whats going on? 

[Bizman62]

@Niel that's normal. As you know your guitar wire carries a weak signal from your guitar pickups to your amp. Aside ground the weave inside the wire acts as a shield against radio interference but when you're close enough an antenna like the WiFi router the wire will act like an antenna, catching and amplifying the WiFi transmission. The more pieces of wire you have including those chaining the pedals the wider range of radio signals you'll catch - even more so if you have your effects powered by the same wall socket. There's more and the explanation is not scientifically exact but you'll get the idea. Back in the day when I tried some multitrack recording looping a cassette deck and a walkman cassette player through my amp I could sometimes hear MW radio from the USSR! The same is known to have happened to multiple bands sharing a couple of extension cords in bars and pubs without properly planned stage electrics.

At least here the wall sockets of several rooms can be under a single fuse so using a different wall plug in the same room doesn't help much. Using batteries in your pedals may help a little, also if your wall plugs are two prong only flipping them may help. Supposing your power is three phase similarly to ours (different voltage, though, but that's another story) it's possible that in another room the power is wired differently inside the fuse box. Thus you may not suffer from the WiFi ticking in another room, even if there's only a thin wall separating the router and the amp.

Other electric devices will also cause interference to your amp, at least the fridge and any rotating thing like fans and air conditioners.

[Niel]

@curtisa I was just worried about blowing the speaker or something on my amp. Basically the setup is this, Theres the multiplug socket in wall where the wifi router modem is plugged in, with other open slots 5 of em to be exact. I have a extension cord which is also another multi one that has the Delay and Mt2 (9V adapters) and Amp plugged into it so its not directly on the wall multiplug but on the extension plug through that plug. It works with the other 6 sockets in same area The dining and living room are connected and house 7 wall sockets. Funny thing is i used to play the amp and all down here before and it used to be fine it only started recently doing this at this one specific common played location and wall socket. If i use the eQ pedal in chain that also runs on a 9V so that would be 3. It works perfectly well elsewhere around house upstairs and downstairs, theres no static or hum or anything no matter how many pedals are even connected together its just this 1 spot down here that happens be by the Router Wifi, i cant use the other sockets because they are connected to minifreezer and tv and lamps and other stuff sadly so this one spot and chosen wall socket is only available space. It wasnt doing this before i dont know exactly what changed to cause this. 

[Bizman62]

4 minutes ago, Niel said:

Funny thing is i used to play the amp and all down here before and it used to be fine it only started recently doing this at this one specific common played location and wall socket.

It wasnt doing this before i dont know exactly what changed to cause this.

You've found the straw that breaks the camel's back. Adding one pedal means you've also added one power cord and one signal cord. Apparently those were needed to "tune" the combination of wires to an antenna that catches the radio signal of the WiFi.

[henrim]

Things like that can happen and the source can be tricky to track down.

A decent pedal power supply is the thing I have found out helps to solve most noise related issues, but they can cost quite a bit. I use a Voodoo lab power supply, that had a hefty price tag, but solved my noise problems pretty well. If a certain pedal is causing issues, it may try to power it with a 9V battery. If the pedal doesn't accept batteries, you can power it with a battery adapter through the power socket. That should eliminate any noise coming from the grid/power supply.

[Niel]

@curtisa I ran a couple of tests unplugged and plugged. It seems even with the pedals all unplugged and only amp on and i move it around various space around and away the router/modem it will still do that ticking thing when close to the router and when i move it away while still plugged in it goes away. This wasnt happening before and i dont know why it is now. So i don't think its a pedals issue because the unplugged test all pedals were unplugged and disconnected and the amp still did the same thing. @Bizman62

Edited September 30 by Niel

[henrim]

So the amp is interfering with the router. Somehow you just have to keep them away from each other. I guess there are other ways to tackle the situation, but keeping them separated would be the cost effective solution.

[Niel]

@curtisa @Bizman62 Just ran another interesting test. When i had the EQ pedal in the chain just now (The plugged test) it would loudly hum wether pedal EQ was on or off, when i took it out and swapped it for the Chorus Pedal and then Univibe it was better and no hum or ticking with amp away from router still. With the EQ on and giving the hum/ticking even moving the sliders cutting didnt work. but The EQ pedal doesnt do this upstairs or the other rooms around the house. Perhaps the EQ is the bad apple in the chain ? 

[henrim]

1 hour ago, Niel said:

Perhaps the EQ is the bad apple in the chain ? 

Cheap pedals may not have much power filtering. If used with a simple wall adapter there can be all kinds of interference. As said, a good quality power supply can help solve the issue. Or, I'd first try it with battery. If the pedal doesn't take battery directly, use a battery-to-jack connector, like this:

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9518

Mind the polarity though. Most pedals are center negative (–), but there are exceptions. It is likely marked on the pedal.

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, Niel said:

it will still do that ticking thing when close to the router and when i move it away while still plugged in it goes away.

That's normal behaviour. I'm more surprised that you haven't  noticed that before. It's the same phenomenon you can encounter by having your cell phone close to the amp. Before it starts to ring you'll hear a rhythmic buzz from the amp. The radio waves interfere the amp and cause noise.

8 hours ago, Niel said:

it would loudly hum wether pedal EQ was on or off, when i took it out and swapped it for the Chorus Pedal and then Univibe it was better and no hum or ticking with amp

As @henrim said some pedals may have a better power filtering. It can also be that the circuitry inside the EQ acts as an antenna. Or both. Antennas or aerials can look quite different than you'd think by looking at cars or houses or even WiFi routers, sticks, whips or rakes aren't the only shapes used. A printed circuit will work as well. And speaking about printed circuits, there's antenna booster stickers available for a dollar! Can you tell which one is a booster sticker and which is the circuit board for a Univibe pedal?

[Niel]

@henrim @Bizman62 I solved the issue. I remembered the router used to be a bit above ground stead of on the ground before i think my girlfriend put it on the ground a while ago when our wifi had issues and she reset it and didnt put it back. I did another test with the amp on and kept the wifi router on ground level and moved it around by the amp and closer the ticking got louder and more noticeable and away less noticeable but was still there. THEN i put the wifi router above and away still by the amp and tested all distances and no clicking anymore. I think the noticeable thing here is don't keep the wifi/router at ground level with your Amp it needs to be up and away.

 

@Bizman62 I can't tell lol which is the booster sticker and which is the univibe  Im not as proficient as you and @henrim and @curtisa are at this stuff. You guys know alot and have a wealth of great knowledge. I'll take a random wild guess since you kindly asked, i'll sayyyyyy booster stick is the black and white one, and univibe is the golden? lol. I haven't studied pedal schematics and dont really know what i'm looking at or reading or supposed to look for. i have to learn all that too in time. 

Edited September 30 by Niel

[Niel]

@Bizman62 True i've heard many people complain about EQ pedals even the high quality ones like KFK 10 bands mxr 10 bands n GE7s etc that they are great noise causers. They're like the loudest ones at the party whereas the Wah likes to be more in the corner and only spoken when talked to at the party. I guess thats why alotta bands use noise suppressors wether rackmounted or Ns2s and all when they use a EQ pedal, i just noticed that thinking of my fave guitarists and realised they do use a noise gate with the EQs in chain or rack.

[henrim]

All right good you got it solved. I just realized I didn't fully understand what the ticking sound was. All the time I was thinking some sort of noise you get from wall outlets, but I now get it was interference from wifi. Of course I know the sound of it, but I don't think I have heard it in a long time. Now that I think about it I have had an amp that was prone to radio interference. 

[Bizman62]

8 hours ago, Niel said:

I'll take a random wild guess since you kindly asked, i'll sayyyyyy booster stick is the black and white one, and univibe is the golden? lol. I haven't studied pedal schematics and dont really know what i'm looking at or reading or supposed to look for.

To be honest with you, I'm not that savvy in schematics at all! I sort of knew that an antenna might look like that and googled for one - and to my surprise found out that there's such thing as booster stickers! Didn't know such existed, but after having found that I started searching for circuit boards for pedals in order to find one that'd look similar. Oh, and the Univibe is on the right.

Anyhow, the idea about those two circuit boards was to show that inside your stomp boxes there's circuits that look similar to antennae. And if they're similar enough, they'll also work as such, in a way and to some extent. The RFID stickers on some products work similarly, there's a tiny chip and an antenna that looks like a labyrinth. Same principle there as well. Actually any wire rolled into a certain pattern may do that, I once was caught by the guard at a shopping center because I had some Ethernet cables in my bag and they made the gate beep. I'm a computer techie so I usually have some cables and wires with me. That's also how I've learned about radio interference, it's very annoying when my phone is beside the computer speakers that are turned on full. Bzzz-bz-bz Bzzz-bz-bz Bzzz-bz-bz Bzzz-bz-bz...

As you got your problem fixed by raising the router it seems that the WiFi signal moves mostly horizontally, something to bear in mind if you have a basement or an attic to work in with your computer. Turning one antenna sideways will help some in such a situation.

[Niel]

@curtisa One of the true downsides to our art and craft lol. Those pesky radio/wifi and electronics interferences with our amps. Glad it got resolved and nice to know also it wasnt damaging the speaker or amp at all. 

@Bizman62 I learnt that too that the wifi signal moves horizontally which is nice to know because it makes it easier to work with to avoid interruptions for any future occurences. 

[Bizman62]

6 hours ago, Niel said:

that the wifi signal moves horizontally which is nice to know

Actually, at least with a stick type antenna, the signal seems to move at a 90 degrees angle from the side of the rod. Turning the antenna sideways will improve the signal between floors.

[Niel]

@Bizman62 The Modem is in the basement and the Router is upstairs where the guitar is played our house is a 3 level house. so mainfloor is where the dining/kitchen/living room and extra rooms are. they are both digital  boxy devices, i think thats the right term theres no antenna sticking out of them though unless its inside the device. That's pretty cool too you got a second skillset as a computer techy apart from guitars. Pretty talented and highly skilled i must say. I remember when i was a kid younger, some of friends we knew who used to be huge into computers made their own computers at home from scratch it seemed to be a thing to do back then for some kids. It was mostly pcs they built from scratch for gaming.