Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

[orpheo]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Orpheo, I love ya.

But I love shielding tape more.

Any difference you can hear, doesn't make a difference when you're playing. Heck, it almost doesn't make a difference whether you play a LP or a Tele. Play what feels best in your hands and in your heart. The ears will take care of themselves.

I love yah too, doc <3

I understand your stance. It's just a matter of choice At Aristides, we don't shield either, by the way...

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Noise doesn't improve anything.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Noise doesn't improve anything.

Noise doesn't improve anything, granted, but the shielding bleeds off so much highs that the shielding does detract something substantial and I can hear that. Sorry.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Ah, I don't like high end, anyway.

 

[nicksavridge]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Hello! I'm new to the Seymour Duncan forum and I actually have a question regarding an issue not too dissimilar to this one.

I'm having the same problem with buzzing when I touch anything metal on my guitar which is a Les Paul Junior, I have grounded the bridge recently and still have an annoying amount of buzz. I ordered some copper tape because I have a warmoth hardtail strat that is shielded with this and it has very little 60 cycle hum and also has a P90. I'm hoping this will help but I was wondering if brass bridge bushings are conductive enough if at all? I originally had a tonepros 50s style wraparound which came with these bushings but ended up swapping it to a mojoaxe cwt. I don't know if I should swap the bushings out, I'd prefer not to but I'm wondering if I should do this or take the bushing out again and just lay some copper tape between the bushing and bridge ground wire. Any input would help out a lot.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

^ Shield the cavity and ground every component with a wire including the switch.

Noise doesn't improve anything, granted, but the shielding bleeds off so much highs that the shielding does detract something substantial and I can hear that. Sorry.

I heard a noticeable drop in highs when I shielded my ssl1s. I don't notice that shielding the cavity makes my guitars sound dull or unnatural at all. What about coverered humbuckers? The entire pup is shielded! That doesn't ruin anything.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

^ Shield the cavity and ground every component with a wire including the switch.



I heard a noticeable drop in highs when I shielded my ssl1s. I don't notice that shielding the cavity makes my guitars sound dull or unnatural at all. What about coverered humbuckers? The entire pup is shielded! That doesn't ruin anything.

You're right about covered humbuckers. As a matter of fact, I can hear that too and I can even hear the difference between trembuckers that are stock (i.e. have the copper shielding around each coil) versus trembuckers with that copper removed. However, and I am not exactly sure, copper shielding all over the guitar is way, way worst in terms of treble loss. My guess is that it's much more copper => more eddy currents => more treble loss. Also, I have a hunch that a humbucker with a copper cover would sound way more dull than one with a nickel silver cover. Again, it's a matter of how much eddy currents are induced in a given material. Or so I'm guessing.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Hello! I'm new to the Seymour Duncan forum and I actually have a question regarding an issue not too dissimilar to this one.

I'm having the same problem with buzzing when I touch anything metal on my guitar which is a Les Paul Junior, I have grounded the bridge recently and still have an annoying amount of buzz. I ordered some copper tape because I have a warmoth hardtail strat that is shielded with this and it has very little 60 cycle hum and also has a P90. I'm hoping this will help but I was wondering if brass bridge bushings are conductive enough if at all? I originally had a tonepros 50s style wraparound which came with these bushings but ended up swapping it to a mojoaxe cwt. I don't know if I should swap the bushings out, I'd prefer not to but I'm wondering if I should do this or take the bushing out again and just lay some copper tape between the bushing and bridge ground wire. Any input would help out a lot.

Brass is conductive.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

I don't use grounding paint or tape in any of the guitars I built or assembled. They are quiet as a mouse. It's all about grounding all the connections. The SG Jr. is the only one that has a single-coil and even that one is super quiet until the gain is turned up on the amp and then you hear the usual single-coil type noise but it's not horrible. The other two are humbuckers and have pretty basic wiring to boot.

I shielded one guitar ever, it was a Strat with a pool route. I used heavy duty aluminum foil. I didn't notice too much drop in highs but it certainly dropped the noise. That was when it was loaded with Texas Specials.

 

[cactus jack]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Whether you're a fan of shielding or not, its undeniable it works very well. I wouldn't have believed it had I not tried it and for me it cut out 95% of the EMI buzz. It's also ridiculously easy to do. The copper tape is a breeze to put on, and I actually geeked out testing continuity. I'm sure paint is an excellent option, but I'm not sure the cost/benefit makes it better than copper. Plus, copper looks cool!

On my next build I might experiment with shielding the pickups per the article below. Also, I came across a video where Dan Earlwine shielded the cavity and then wrapped the pickup leads in copper tape before he ran them through the body. The leads were old cloth covered and he said it would immediately insulate them. I'm going to give it a shot.

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/26279-mod-garage-how-to-shield-single-coil-pickups

 

[cactus jack]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Hello! I'm new to the Seymour Duncan forum and I actually have a question regarding an issue not too dissimilar to this one.

I'm having the same problem with buzzing when I touch anything metal on my guitar which is a Les Paul Junior, I have grounded the bridge recently and still have an annoying amount of buzz. I ordered some copper tape because I have a warmoth hardtail strat that is shielded with this and it has very little 60 cycle hum and also has a P90. I'm hoping this will help but I was wondering if brass bridge bushings are conductive enough if at all? I originally had a tonepros 50s style wraparound which came with these bushings but ended up swapping it to a mojoaxe cwt. I don't know if I should swap the bushings out, I'd prefer not to but I'm wondering if I should do this or take the bushing out again and just lay some copper tape between the bushing and bridge ground wire. Any input would help out a lot.

If the buzz increases when you touch metal thats a strong indicator that your guitar is not properly grounded. Something somewhere has poor continuity or you might have missed a jumper or something. The only way I know how to track down grounding issues is to triple check every possible ground combination. I recommend starting with the jack, and working back through the circuit. Besides neck bolt screws and strap buttons, darn near every other metal bit on the guitar should be grounded.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

If it increases when you touch something, I always check to see if the jack is wired backwards.

 

[nicksavridge]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

No the hum decreases when I touch metal parts on it maybe I said it wrong lol. But I just shielded the pickup and electronics cavities with copper. So I took away the jumper between the two pots since I didn’t need it anymore, and I checked all the ground connections and they’re pretty solid from what I can tell. I think the shielding/removal of the jumper helped a little bit but I’m trying to figure out if I need to take the tailpiece bushing out again and lay a piece of copper foil in the bushing cavity so that the bushing sandwiches the wire in between the copper and the bushing itself? Because right now it’s just banged down between the bushing and the bare wood. I think that may be the trick because that’s how the bridge of my hardtail strat is grounded. Or maybe I just solder the bridge ground wire to the pickup lead? Excuse the lengthy response &#55357;&#56834;

 

[cactus jack]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

Did you shield the pickup cavities and then connect them to the shielding in the control cavity? If not, give that a shot. With P90s you should get solid hum, but not buzz, and if the sound goes away when you touch metal it means you grounded everything properly...you just need to improve the shielding.

 

[nicksavridge]

Re: Classic Grounding Question: Hum Goes Away When I Touch Strings

no actually I didn't...how would I go about that? The route from the pickup cavity to the control cavity is pretty narrow, would I just run a wire from the pickup cavity to the control cavity? Or is there a better way?