Nord User Forum

Pablo,
Thanks for clarifying this in such a reasoned and understanding way! Kudos to both you and classicrockguy for your responses (and apologies made where misunderstandings occurred). Well done both of you.

Earlier classicrockguy cited a communication between you and him regarding the emissions certification required for electronic devices:

"Nord's position on this will essentially be that there are very strict standards which must be met by these types of electronic devices in order for countries to permit their exportation/importation around the world. All Nord models are meticulously tested to meet or exceed these requirements and these testing results are certified by independent testing labs and on file with appropriate agencies around the world. I am able to produce copies of this documentation upon request."

These certifications are incredibly time consuming and expensive, so to limit cost, they require the testing of a single "golden" unit. If one unit can be shown to meet the limits required, the regulating bodies certify the product for sale.

The statistical variation in the tolerances of the electronic components used in the assembly results in a wide variation of emissions performance for individual units. A single unit might easily fail the regulatory limits (depending on the margin by which the original golden unit passed certification). These failing cases only get noticed by officials if they interfere with radio, TV, or telephone communications.

If you have not already suggested or tried it, can Nord/American Music & Sound provide classicrockguy with a replacement power supply (or supplies) to try in his Stage?

As you say, this is a seems to be a rare problem: It seems likely that a replacement power supply ought to perform better than his present power supply.

Best regards,
-pterm

So my question is: My Nord Stage power supply is humming and it becomes louder the longer it is turned on. Could the power supply be exchanged?

No problems with any type of EMI/RFI here at the house with my electric guitars or any of my Taylors. When I play guitar, I'm typically a foot or two away from both a NS2 88 and a Korg Kronos X 88 and have absolutely no problems. All of my power is going through a Furman AR PRO and I also have an APC UPS plugged into the Furman, which powers my keyboards, mixer, a PC and select pieces of my outboard gear.

MattC wrote:So my question is: My Nord Stage power supply is humming and it becomes louder the longer it is turned on. Could the power supply be exchanged?

My Presonus 16.4.2 developed a similar problem after owning it for a few months. The warmer it got, the louder it became. Just before the warranty ended, I contacted Presonus and got them to send me a replacement power supply, which solved the problem. I'd recommend sending your NS in for repair. It sounds like a lamination on the transformer may be loose, which is causing the hum. If you're electronically inclined, you might be able to convince them to let you do it. I'm an electronics tech, which helped convince them I had the skills needed.

An entire replacement instrument was provided, and yielded the same results, leading us to the conclusion that there is something specific to the guitar rig causing the issue in this instance.

Pablo

I double on guitar on stage and spend almost all my onstage time with a guitar slung around my neck while I play my keyboards and I have never had the faintest trace of hum or noise interference from my Stage classic. My main guitar has a mixture of moderately high output passive humbucker and single coil pickups (Seymour Duncan's) routed to a pedalboard containing several high gain overdrive pedals (mostly Wampler and Z-Vex) and then to a traditional Marshall stack. (Wired system). If anything should have a problem, it should be a setup like that.

I refrained from chiming in on the thread as simply saying "well I don't have a problem" doesn't actually help the poster if you have no suggestions to offer, which I'm afraid I didn't - and can be pretty annoying for someone struggling with a major issue.

Nonetheless, it shows that this problem is by no means universal to Nord products, or any other brand I have used in the last thirty years or so.

Oh, and if this damn autocorrect changes "Nord" to "More" one more time, there's going to be trouble...

RedLeo wrote:Oh, and if this damn autocorrect changes "Nord" to "More" one more time, there's going to be trouble...

You mean one 'Nord' time, surely?

pablomastodon wrote:An entire replacement instrument was provided, and yielded the same results, leading us to the conclusion that there is something specific to the guitar rig causing the issue in this instance.

Hi Pablo,
I realize you and classicrockguy had a lot of offline communication, so I'm sorry if the following seems presumptuous. I only have the information in the thread to go on...

I agree that classicrockguy's guitar rig might be part of the solution, but you seem to be overlooking classicrockguy's reported interference from the Nord on:

1. his guitar rig
2. his wireless microphone system
3. their lead guitarist's rig.

This strongly suggests to me that the problem can't just be one specific guitar rig.

I understood that Sweetwater replaced the unit. --In my earlier post to this thread I pointed out that the two Sweetwater Nords likely contained power supplies built in the same batch, thus increasing the likelihood of them exhibiting the same problem.

I asked my question about trying a replacement power supply with the thought that a power supply built at a different time might behave differently (hopefully better). If this makes sense to try, I imagine Nord's Serial Numbering ought to provide the means to determine that a replacement supply comes from a different batch than those in the two Sweetwater Nords tried already.


-pterm

@classicrockguy: do you recognize a hum without using the guitar rig? So if only the Stage is turned on?
Mine is humming all the time (and as I wrote it becomes louder the longer it is turned on).

MattC: That sounds like the transformer vibrating. Classicrockguy is experiencing EMI getting through the guitar coil-type pickups. A different issue.