Are Humbuckers totally noiseless?

[Scatterwound]

Hope this is not a dumb question...But are humbuckers supposed to be completely noiseless? :question:

If you plug a guitar with humbuckers in an amp and turn up the gain/volume on the amp is it normal for even humbuckers to produce some noise? :smack:

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Are Humbuckers totally noiseless?

Yes....especially with high gain amps. There are theory's about ground loops and star grounding to reduce hum in guitars. I've got a link I'll post, but I really think it's more beneficial for single coil guitars than for humbuckers. However, I think all guitars benefit from shielding to reduce as much noise as possible.

I'm not sure my ears could tell the difference between a guitar with star grounding and no ground loops vs a normally wired guitar. Anyhow, yes...you will always have a little noise because each coil of the humbucker is not perfectly identical, so not EVERY frequency can be canceled out 100%.

Here's the link.

Strat Grounding

 

[Scatterwound]

Re: Are Humbuckers totally noiseless?

Hey Jeff H,

Thanks for the quick reply....That star/ground looping sounds interesting although I do not understand what it means. :duh:

I am off to check out that link!

Thanks again.

 

[HolyDirt]

Re: Are Humbuckers totally noiseless?

Hey Jeff H,

Thanks for the quick reply....That star/ground looping sounds interesting although I do not understand what it means. :duh:

I am off to check out that link!

Thanks again.

humbucking works when both coils of a humbucker are wound so that the sound cancels itself out, but both coils can't be wound with the exact same amount of wire so there is still a little noise, but very little

 

[Mattt]

Re: Are Humbuckers totally noiseless?

You'll need a noise gate if you wanna get rid of the noise completely.

 

[WARRENLEELYNCH]

Re: Are Humbuckers totally noiseless?

You'll need a noise gate if you wanna get rid of the noise completely.

I agree even with EMG's players use a gate