Can a Power Strip Affect Grounding?

[seth3]

Hello,

I am using a One Spot to power my pedals. I notice that the effects often hum or, worse, make deafening pops when the One Spot is plugged into a power strip. Last night, on a whim, I switched it to the outlet on the wall and the ill-effects seemed to disappear.

Is this a fluke or can the power strip actually affect the grounding? It seems like it should be more about the source than another (glorified) cord (as is the case of the power strip).

Anyway, any thoughts?

[deluxe83]

if the strip has a bad ground, then yes.

[ylo]

You may have your effects picking up noise through magnetic induction and / or RF spikes generated by the OneSpot or other wallwarts.

If you are having problems with noise, one solution is to move all high voltages, AC and wallwarts to a rack or remote location away from the pedals, then run just low voltage DC lines to your pedalboard. This is the way I do it. It frees up space for more pedals and I have a dead quiet board. However, I have lots of low-voltage power lines and connectors running from the board, a downside.