ghosts in my amp

Hey guys,

Today I had my amp turned on and my guitar volume was all the way down while I was on the computer. All the sudden I heard people talking through my amp. I turned it all the way up and it's verystaticy, but it sounds like a radio show or even a movie. No I don't do drugs and yes I've been getting enough sleep.

How is this happening?

By the way, I just noticed it's only happening when my distortion pedal is on. ?

Originally Posted by: bbzswa777Hey guys,

Today I had my amp turned on and my guitar volume was all the way down while I was on the computer. All the sudden I heard people talking through my amp. I turned it all the way up and it's verystaticy, but it sounds like a radio show or even a movie. No I don't do drugs and yes I've been getting enough sleep.

How is this happening?

Your electric guitar, cable & amp with all it's wire & current is essentially an antennae for RF (radio frequencies). The distortion pedal only acts as a signal booster making the radio reception that much more powerful.

This article addresses some of these issues & how to correct them. Best of success!

http://www.premierguitar.com/articles/Silence_is_Golden

It's when the voices start telling you to do things that you should worry ;-).

Do you live near a tv tower, radio station, or in a city? That makes it more difficult to fix because the signals are very strong. Strong RF can do very strange things. I remember installing a 2 way radio in a construction vehicle and when you hit the transmit button, the winshield wipers would go on! We had to put in shielding to prevent it. Then there was the pa system in church that would pick up CB radio.

Back in the late 70's I played through a SUNN Model T tube amp. Every time someone would key up a CB in the parking lot the conversation would bleed through in my amp.

For a while I was getting DirecTV audio on my desktop speakers.

All these bleed over examples use to be pretty common but not so much anymore thanks to shielding and more careful engineering.

So I'm not going crazy! I'm glad to see some of you have dealt with this.

It would make sense if it was a radio station, but it sounds like a soap opera or a crappy movie! But I can't make it out clearly enough.

But thanks for that link Chris!