Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger pedal

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 2:10 pm

Do any of you have any experience with this pedal? It claims to totally eliminate hum from your guitar signal. It sounds almost too good to be true. Here's a video demonstration:

http://www.gearwire.com/electro-harmoni ... ugger.html

Here's a product page on Musician's Friend:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ ... sku=150136

Or do you know of something else as simple/easy as using a pedal like this that would eliminate hum? (I can't or don't want to do things like rewire my apartment or replace my pickups, etc.)

jack · Post by **jack** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 3:33 pm

there seems to be a morley version going around for about $60 retail.

ha, i just noticed it was linked on the MF page

all the reviews i read seemed positive though.

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:46 pm

I like EH products for the most part, but haven't used that one. I have a Boss one I no longer use but that's pretty much just a gate. People often complain that things like this suck their tone away, so maybe something else to consider.

Märk · Post by **Märk** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 4:49 pm

Paco: they claim it's not a gate or low-freq cutoff. It's obviously magic.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:05 pm

That little device looks like a great way for the single coil guys to get rid of their hum, without giving up that single coil twang. Most of my Fender playing friends have switched to those Seymour Duncan stacked double coil jobbies so that they don't have to rape their guitars with a router. But they aren't 100%.

The first thing I noticed when I got my PODXT Live was the complete elimination of ground loop hum. It's built in to the circuitry, so there are no adjustments or switches to hit. You can play a single coil guitar right under florescent lights and turn off the gate, with no hum. I've never gotten a straight answer on how they do it, but I'm pretty sure it's a variable ground lift of some kind. Probably analyzes the hum frequency and sets the lift or breaks the loop accordingly.

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:10 pm

I would not be surprised if it were magic, somehow, big dope that I am. I still look at a telephone and marval at how amazing it is that a voice can squiggle through a wire and travel around the world.

Is your guitar that noisy Lunkhead? I've seen video of you with a Les Paul type guitar and that should be pretty quiet as is.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 5:39 pm

It buzzes a lot at my apartment. At practice or a show it doesn't matter, but when I'm recording at home I'd like to get rid of the noise if possible. It's likel due to a combination of bad and/or old wiring, crappy cables, poor arrangement of my electronic equpiment. Some of those things I can try to do something about, some I can't.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Sun Nov 25, 2007 6:22 pm

#1. Eliminate things that have a high energy field, such as florescent lights, don't play too close to your computer monitor, etc. I'm sure that you've already figured that out.
#2. Just a simple radio shack polarity switch can sometimes do the trick.
#3. Another cool trick in your apartment. Find every receptacles that is on the same circuit as the one that you plug your guitar equipment into. IE: turn off the breaker that you are using, and walk around your house with a blow dryer and test every receptacle. On a 20 amp breaker circuit, there shouldn't be more than 4, but you never know with old houses, because shiz gets added through the years. Unplug everything from that circuit, like TVs, clock radios, etc. You can also check for correct polarity with a little hardware store device for a few bux. If you have even one plug on the circuit that you use, with the priority flipped, it will make your shiz hum.

#4. buy that little device that you mentioned up yahhh ^^^

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Mon Nov 26, 2007 7:18 am

Well Lunkhead, if you do end up trying this pedal please tell us what you think of it. Maybe it's time for a studio re-arrange though. Good luck and (please) keep us posted.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:48 pm

I ordered this from Zzounds on Sunday, so I should have it soon. I'll post again once I've played around with it a bit. (crosses fingers hoping that it actually does perform magic hum removal)

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 3:23 am

Not that it's so exciting that I need to update everybody with every development, but of course after ordering one of these new last week I find one tonight on Craig's List for $45! I'm going to try to buy the used one tomorrow, and investigate returning the new one when it eventually shows up (it's already on its way). Anyway, I may be posting results of my initial investigation into this pedal's magic soon.

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 4:46 am

That's just typical. Related to the "Oh-I should really buy that while I'm here. Maybe I'll come back for it tomorrow" which you go to do, to find it gone, scenario. Good luck!

Justin · Post by **Justin** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 9:20 am

It claims it doesn't work like a noise gate, so maybe it is magic.

Maybe it works like airplane headphones, sampling the hum when the guitar isn't playing and then adds cancellation waves to cancel it out.

or maybe it is magic.

blue · Post by **blue** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 1:52 pm

oops.. both say it sucks the balls w/distortion.

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/new-prod ... ugger.html

http://reviews.harmony-central.com/revi ... ugger/10/1

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:37 pm

Too bad Lunk now owns two, lol.
The second link guy sounds to be liking it.

Overall Rating : 9
This thing worked great for me, made me love my amp and my old single-coil guitars again. I plug my guitar into the Hum Debugger and then on to a Compressor, Tube Screamer, Chorus, and Digital Reverb, before it hits my amp. If I lost this thing, I'd buy another immediately. I read these gear reviews at Harmony Central all the time, before making gear purchases. There were no reviews on the Hum Debugger and I felt that I should contribute something about my experience with it. If Hum makes you crazy (like me), give this thing a try, I think you'll like it.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 2:41 pm

So "Macaroni" didn't like it but one reviewer on HC said it actually worked but affected his tone "ever so slightly" while the other reviewer basically just said that it worked. Seems kind of inconclusive to me, even for only three data points. Of course, I do wonder why somebody is selling one on CL for $45, but at that price I can probably sell it again for what I paid for it if it doesn't work out. And I'm willing to "sacrifice tone" if it makes it possible for me to record at home at lower volumes. Anyway, I'll find out first hand in a few hours. Maybe I will even go so far as to post example sound clips so people can hear for themselves and judge, rather than just posting some vague bullshit.

EDIT: And it looks like zZounds' return policy is pretty good, so I think I'm covered there, too.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Sun Dec 09, 2007 7:25 pm

First impressions: It definitely kills all hum, but it definitely also colors the sound a bit, primarily with distortion on. With distortion on there's almost a kind of slight flanging type effect, which you can hear mostly if you strum muted strings. I'll try to make some recordings and post them tomorrow night. Immediately I would say it's not worth $118. I've only tried it for a few minutes though, and right after my guitar. I'm going to try it after my distortion pedal, and in my effects loop, just to see what happens, though I doubt the results will be much different.

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 11:51 am

Interesting. If it's going to be a device used primarily or entirely at home, than you should be able to use it to cancel hum and then go about adjusting any tone changes. Probably first in a pedal chain, methinks. Thanks for the updates, too.

Billy's Little Trip · Mon Dec 10, 2007 12:48 pm

Well, it sounds like it's good for clean guitar, which is where you want it. There's nothing wrong with a properly gated distortion. It's not like you can hear hum while bashing out bar chords. In fact, it adds to the effect.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:13 pm

OK, here are some audio samples:

EH Hum Debugger test 1, Les Paul, clean
EH Hum Debugger test 2, Les Paul, distortion
EH Hum Debugger test 3, Strat, clean
EH Hum Debugger test 2, Strat, distortion

In each clip, I start out with just the noise from my amp, then I roll up the volume on my guitar (technically I'm using a volume pedal, but the result is the same), then I take my hands off the strings for ultimate noise. Then I turn on the Hum Debugger on Normal, then I set it to Strong. Then I play some stuff, with the pedal set to Strong, then Normal, then off.

Full info here.

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 7:08 am

Great test page Lunkhead, especially the 'full info here' page. Well done. Well, it sure does take away the noise, doesn't it? Using it on clean settings should be worth it alone, maybe use a gate type effect on distorted parts? Seems a pain in the ass, but in the control of the studio it all comes out as end result anyway. The amp seems to have normal amounts of noise and servicing it wouldn't hurt, but probably wouldn't make a difference. I'd use it until you either go crazy from the flanging, which wasn't terribly dramatic to me, or until living situations or technology changes. Seems maybe more take than give, considering the noise without it.

Note: I feel like a weasal bringing this up, but if you decide to look for a gate, I have a Boss NS-2 sitting un-used in its box that I'd sell mega cheap to you. It'll probably just sit there until I'm dead as I'm not a big buy and sell guy. I haven't used it for 2 years and it's only 5-6 years old anyway. Again, not trying to pitch ya, but I'd gladly make a 'members only' sale if you were interested.

Post by **Lunkhead** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:10 am

One final note: The new pedal I ordered showed up, and it wasn't sealed up or taped up or anything, so I was able to try it out while leaving it in "brand new, unopened, safe for return" condition. Sadly the results were the same with the new pedal, so I think the flanging sound is not the result of a broken pedal.