NGD- Ebtech Hum Eliminator HE-2 / ISP prorack G

[misterspockyall]

My setup is getting quite out of hand, and in an attempt to quell noise on both my Uber and 5150, I bought a Prorack G Stereo Mod to run in both loops. I hooked it all up, it immediately clamped the preamp hiss (most of it on the 5150- another can of worms), but I noticed quite a bit more 60hz hum than before. I traced the hum to the Prorack, and got pretty pissed. It's supposed to be the end all be all in noise reduction, and here I was with added noise.

After a lot of reading and cable switching, I began to believe that the hum was a result of the Prorack using one power source to track the signal in front of the amp, and to gate it in the loop: ground loop. Dozens of threads on multiple sites exist on the matter, but a few suggested some sort of hum removing device between the Prorack and the amp. I settled on an Ebtech HE-2, which has two passive hum eliminating channels. Long story short, I reduced my noise floor from around 55db to around 40db at the speaker. In laymans terms, my Peavey 5150 combo now seems dead quiet between notes

Placement of the HE-2 is crucial, basically it needs to be the last stop before the amp input as well as the loop return. But I'm shocked: a product that does what it says it will. Some folks have complained of tone loss, to my pretty critical ears, I don't hear any.

Anyhoo, $72 to maintain use of my Prorack G, which I greatly prefer to the pedal versions in terms of headroom and "set it & forget it".

 

[atrox]

I use the Ebtech for my loop always, even though it doesn't need it in most situations. It's a great piece of kit.

Yeah. i got the Hum Eliminator when i was using a ISP G-String and the ground loop was inevitable. That shit just happens so easily when you got stuff going through the front and loop at the same time. So often that i'm surprised that ISP has not started to slap a ground lift or something on their products.

 

[misterspockyall]

I use the Ebtech for my loop always, even though it doesn't need it in most situations. It's a great piece of kit.

Yeah. i got the Hum Eliminator when i was using a ISP G-String and the ground loop was inevitable. That shit just happens so easily when you got stuff going through the front and loop at the same time. So often that i'm surprised that ISP has not started to slap a ground lift or something on their products.

My Prorack has 3 (!) ground lifts, and they did very little to reduce the hum. I'm thinking the boys from Ebtech and ISP could get together and make a bit of money...

 

[Dave L]

Often you can just lift the send side of the shield in the connecting cable, that´s what Fractal sells as their proprietary Humbusters and an absolute must when rigs (especially with guitar gear that mostly runs unbalanced) get more complex. Normally you don´t get any extra interference what so ever without the shield attached at both ends, and then you can´t get ground loops in that connection anymore. Transformer isolation is of course better, especially on long cable runs, but sometimes you don´t need any extra gear at all.

But then again not everyone solders their own cables.