HUM on the RG16 again.

A

ARelicMind

Member
Hey Ron, everything works great with my setup. However i just had a Furman PL Plus added and i noticed today there is a hum when i go through the RG16. I know someone posted about the hum but i wanted to double confirm with you. So the hum is there when i plug through the RG16 and the rest of my rig but if i plug straight into my Mark IV its fine. I tried your solution of bypassing the buffer and the hum was gone. I want to use the buffer though. So does that mean i have to open the RG16 and switch the ground loop switch? I made sure all my plugs were grounded btw. Everything is 3 pin except the Timefactor but i used a grounded prong adapter to the furman.

What genius solution of yours shall i proceed with this time? ;)
 
Yes, if bypassing the buffer fixes the problem, then opening the RG-16 and flipping the ground lift switch will allow you to run the buffer without hum.
 
Noise is solved...at the cost of almost destroying my RG16 :( !!! What happened was i was unscrewing all the screws and everything was fine except the one above the Amp1 midi socket. Apparently the screw was almost stripped when i got it n when i tried some more it completely stripped. Tried all sizes of screwdrivers and flatheads to no avail. Went out and bought a stripped screw extractor that i saw on youtube (researched out of panic). Ace hardware didnt hv manual ones so i had to buy US$60 worth of electric drill plus the extractor. It only made a big hole in the middle of the screw. Panicked, i unscrewed the RG16 from the front panel and turned the top panel hoping i can unscrew with a plier from the bottom...no luck there. I decided to go with my instinct and tried an unorthodox way... taking the smallest size drill and drilling through the screw from the top in hopes that the screw is made hollow enough for me to knock out. The risk was drilling into the Amp 1 jack. I had no choice and noone to assist me so i went for it...made a dotted hair of a dent on the plastic part of the Amp 1 midi socket. Screw was off in 2 parts, a hollowed top n a hollowed pin. Covered the screw hole with a tape just to cover the hole.

I nearly had a heart attack watching my RG16 crumble all because of 1 screw !!! I put it back together safely and plugged everything back n everything worked beautifully without hum (the reason i opened it which was to switch the internal ground loop). I spent the whole afternoon til evening on it. Was the $60 worth it for the drills n screwdrivers (the extractor didnt work as they were supposed to)? I dont know n i dont care, whats important was the RG16 was back up and running :) ....

Some of you might laugh at my caveman ways but mind you i improvised everything at what knowledge i had of stripped screw removal ;P. Curse u ground loop hums !!!
 
I can sympathise and I'm sure most people have been there at some point with one stubborn nut, bolt, screw causing immense problems and extending the time it takes to do what should be a simple straight forward job.

At least you got it sorted and back together again
 
Oh no - I'm sorry you had to go through all of that trouble. I keep yelling at our manufacturer to watch how much torque is applied to the screws, but sometimes they still tighten them too much.

I'm glad you found a solution, though. That's pretty much how we handle the situation here - at least the really bad cases. I need to find the time to do a redesign on the RG-16 to move the ground lift switch to the outside, but I don't know how I'm going to do it unless I give up sleeping or something. :(
 
No worries Ron, i have just in a day made my RG16 very personable....Its like having a ding on ur fave strat :) . Yes i kinda know what working in factories require...i had the experience of being the only worker in an acoustic guitar factory in Singapore. Screws and such sometimes just happen. Dont lose anymore sleep over it, those ground lift are ok where they are i think, it was clearly marked. I opened up an Eventide H3000 and there was NO WAY i couldve figured out where the jumper was. RG16...idiot proof :)

On a side note, been still giving good word about u guys....people are always impressed and have had alot of people interested about the price and how it works. Just give it time... honestly the trend here picks up quite slowly . I think theyre still on 'oooh, true bypass' and 'ooh, its a mod' mode. :)
 
your right they are the best switchers on the market by far, I know I looked at them all before buying mine and virtually nothing comes close
 
4x4...i agree with u. Imagine the feeling i have being literally the only person in this country (right now im in Malaysia) to obtain this piece of beauty. I mean even back in my hometown in Indonesia the big sessionist and even those who were my 'idols' would be in awe. Id explain to them my rig n they'd go 'RJM?...Wow, those are really nice'...apparently the only item that impressed them...n i have Eventide, Mark IV and Keeley modded pedals as well as other boutique. Nope...just 'Wow...RJM!'
 
where is this ground switch located in the RG-16?
will it be enough to open the upper site of the unit?
i run my buffer out into an ebtech hum-eliminator to stop that noise, but i would be happy if this will not be necessary anymore.

and Ron, if you do a redesign of the RG-16, here are two more things, that would be great:

my wish list for the RG-16II

1) stereo-loops on loop 5-8
2) isolated output on the tuner out - so it would be possible to use the RG-16 as a real signal-splitter with two amps without hum.

thanks
joe
 
AFAIK, on the older RG-16s that don't have the ground lift switch, you just have to lift the top cover to get to it, yes.

I thought the tuner output was isolated, that's why it's only connected to the buffer?

Ron hinted in another thread that there may be a revised RG-16 with stereo loops in the next year or so.
 
ron, my RG-16 has the serial 0071, so i had to cut the trace on the board. it works perfect without any isolater.
thanks for that!
-joe
 
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