I have an old fender pro reverb and a Mesa mk5 25 in my basement/ practice room and I'm having issues with an click coming through the amps. Also, just general noise from appliances in the house. I'm really wanting to clean it up, to do some home recording. Do power conditioners or other devices help with this issue? Thank you all for any help. It's greatly appreciated.
They can, but the ones that actually do anything are expensive.
Most power conditioners are merely glorified power strips, with a surge protector and if you're lucky, some EMI and RFI filtering. Great if you have lots of surges, or if you're picking up radio signals on your house wiring.
Beyond that level are an often bewildering array of gadgets, and very few of them do much. The ones that do:
1. The best is a true isolation transformer-equipped power box. This is a device that completely isolates your amp from the power in your house or your power line, and regenerates it with clean power. Some of the better ones also balance the AC (like a balanced mic cable or hum bucking pickup) to reduce noise in your system.
2. Second-best are devices that regulate the incoming power and filter it.
3. If you don't need regulation, there are boxes that have pretty effective filtering, and one has a 45 Amp power reservoir your amps can draw on.
Item #1 powers my studio. I also have a rack mount unit with item #3.
If you want to go full-hog, companies like Equi=Tech and Furman's "IT" series have long been the pioneers in these boxes. Furman also makes power filters and regulators designed for studio use and for guitar amps; their PF-1800 series are their current offerings in this area.
These run about $600 and up for anything that actually works effectively, and is worth bothering with. On the other hand, for the price of a few pedals, you can power your equipment with less hash and noise.
