GR-55 - Too much hiss

Started by Spatzi, January 20, 2015, 12:36:25 PM

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Spatzi

I have a clean guitar patch but the hiss is unbearable, particularly the low E string. I did a live Improv recording yesterday of acoustic playing and while the sound was good, recording is unusable due to this hiss. It's always worst on low E. I have checked for ways to reduce hiss but cannot find anything other than threshold and changing pickups. I can reduce hiss by turning up threshold but then you can pull the string off the guitar before you get any sound. I tried changing pickups but they all hiss. The piezo hisses least and is still not usable. I can reduce treble but that kills the tone of the guitar.

Elantric

#1
QuoteI have a clean guitar patch but the hiss is unbearable, particularly the low E string. I did a live Improv recording yesterday of acoustic playing and while the sound was good, recording is unusable due to this hiss. It's always worst on low E.

What type of guitar and 13 pin PU are you using ?


as a reference, the HISS during COSM Modeling is worst with guitars with Graphtech Ghost systems - I refuse to use the Ghost system myself specifically due to the poor signal to noise ratio and the high adjacent string crosstalk problems inherent in the Ghost Piezo saddles. Seems Graphtech never figured Ghost users would connect these Guitars to Roland COSM modeling systems - since Hiss never shows up as an issue / problem  when connecting Ghost 13pin guitars to Guitar to MIDI products ( GR-30/GR-33/ GI-10/Gi-20/Axon,etc)

As a work-around, on VG-99/GR-55/GP-10 you can lower the GK String Sensitivity ( which also lowers the hiss) and enable the  "Gk N.S." (Noise Supressor) on VG-99/GR-55/GP-10 - which gates the background hiss during COSM Guitar Modeling

Compared to Graphtech Ghost, the RMC Piezos have MUCH lower hiss and noise and higher immunity to adjacent string crosstalk - and explains their higher cost 

Spatzi

#2
It's the 13 pin cable that came with the gr 55. Gk 3 pu. Guitar is a very expensive limited edition parker mojo, which has its own piezo system.

I will try your suggestions.

By the way, having a hell of a time keeping the pickup glued down on the guitar. Two sided thin tape does not work. Clearance between string and pickup on high e is very small. Don't want to drill holes in the Guitar. Resorted to using duct tape on one side which is not pretty.

Elantric

#3
Try lowering the GK String Sensitivity to the 20-30 range - the factory default of "65" is way too hot for a GK-3, and makes the Acoustic COSM Modeling suffer lots of hiss,
and enable the  "GK N.S." (Noise Supressor) on GR-55 - which gates the background hiss during COSM Guitar Modeling

JeffTronics

Might as well chime in what I noticed, in my case. The hiss goes away if I turn off the Amp in the Effects tab. Things get very quiet. I normally keep my Amp to about 80. Guess I could experiment with lowering it, and experimenting with the overall Patch volume too. My sensitivity settings are between 15 to 25. I'll check out the noise suppression too. Thanks

Elantric

#5
Use the N.S. ( Noise Supressor)

Also if you are using a Piezo 13 pin system, those can be noisy too. (GK-3 tends to have less hiss, Graphtech Ghost Piezo preamps tends to have the most hiss )

QuoteI have a Godin, LGX-SA, with LR Baggs pickup, made in 2000.

Those are particularly noisy when used with all COSM V-Guitar systems

Back in 1998 when that L.R. Baggs preamp was designed,  The noise floor for the piezo preamp's 13 pin output was deemed to be trivial, since L-R Baggs felt this design was only feeding a Guitar to MIDI system , and never would be heard. But then the VG-8, VG-88, VG-99, GR-55, GP-10 COSM V-Guitar systems arrived where the physical string is the oscillator, and any noise in the signal chain will manifest as "hiss" in the final output.     

JeffTronics

Well, here I am posting again, an hour later. Go ahead, laugh. I find these issues I run into make me appreciate all the information this site has to offer. With that said, yes, I found turning off the Amp removed the Hiss, but I soon discovered  - not so fast - not in every case. I then had to turn off my Normal UP. This does seem to be the culprit. 

Elantric thanks for the historical info about my axe and how it all started. It's really good to know.

So here's my way out of this. Since I recently purchased CodeSmart's GKFX-21 Subsonic Filter, I'm now using an extra 1/4 pin guitar cable to plug into his box, where I found I had better overall sound and control from my Godin. Guess I'll figure out some cable bundling solution.  I'm curios if bundling the cables together will prevent my 13 pin cable form easily getting tangled. It has a mind of it's own, you know.

Thanks for responding to this older post.

Jeff

Willie941

Also, check the volume knob on your GR55, if you have it too high this can cause hiss, too. I discovered that mantaining the knob at half (50%) helps to avoid it.
Parker Nitefly SA w/GK3
Godin ACS SA Nylon
Roland GR 55 and VG 88
Fishman SA220 Soloamp
TC Helicon Voicelive2

dnieper

Go to System->GK Setting then set NORM PU GAIN to -20dB.  You'll still have plenty of gain on the normal pickup but most of the hiss will go away.  I find that I only have this problem if I'm running into my Mesa tube amp.  There is hardly any hiss running into the PA.