Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

[dotsdad]

Recently installed Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 in neck $ middle and Vibtage Hot Stack STK-S7 in the bridge. The neck pickup is dead silent. The middle pickup is very quiet but not silent. The bridge is quieter than a standard single coil, but it definitely is still noisy.

I have checked and double checked the wiring, grounding, etc...could the copper shielding in the guitar body be hurting instead of helping? The silent pickup is way down in the pickguard, the noisiest is the one sticking up most. Could the copper be blocking EMI noise from reaching the noise cancelling coil???

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Another way to look at it is: the quietest pickup is the lowest output, the loudest is the highest.

The last time I tried to read about how stacks work I gave myself a huge headache, but I wonder if the dummy coil is not quite so effective on a higher output arrangement?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

I try to do the best grounding I can wether I'm using noise cancelling pickups or not. So I solder ground wires to all the electronics, including the switch which people leave out, as well as the bridge and a screw mounted in the body. I don't know if there's another issue contributing to your noise, but grounding thoroughly always helps. Is the noise present even at medium volume clean?

 

[PicoRiveraTele]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Recently installed Classic Stack Plus STK-S4 in neck $ middle and Vibtage Hot Stack STK-S7 in the bridge. The neck pickup is dead silent. The middle pickup is very quiet but not silent. The bridge is quieter than a standard single coil, but it definitely is still noisy.

I have checked and double checked the wiring, grounding, etc...could the copper shielding in the guitar body be hurting instead of helping? The silent pickup is way down in the pickguard, the noisiest is the one sticking up most. Could the copper be blocking EMI noise from reaching the noise cancelling coil???

There's a good post on this forum about noise https://forum.seymourduncan.com/sho...terference-and-fighting-it-in-guitar-and-bass The type of noise that shielding blocks is not the same kind of noise that humbucking cancels. They're different things. That's why humbuckers originally always had metal covers.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

I try to do the best grounding I can wether I'm using noise cancelling pickups or not. So I solder ground wires to all the electronics, including the switch which people leave out, as well as the bridge and a screw mounted in the body. I don't know if there's another issue contributing to your noise, but grounding thoroughly always helps. Is the noise present even at medium volume clean?

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[Clint 55]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

So the preamp is probably grounded right?

I bet it would help if you run ground wires to the components if they're missing them including the switch. Also when I got a wire soldered, not just attached, to the bridge it lowered noise. Also when I soldered a ground wire to a trem claw screw mounted in the body it brought my true single coils all the way quiet to where I can dime the volume (no gain) on my solid state practice amp without noise.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Yeah, the body shield is connected via ground wire, as is the trem claw.

Ive never grounded a switch. How do you do that without shorting out the pickups and/or tone pots?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

OT, but did you do the routing for the battery and preamp?

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

OT, but did you do the routing for the battery and preamp?

No, that was done by Brian Hawkins, a little in VirginaBeach. Pretty sweet, eh?

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[dotsdad]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Stupid phone...luthier

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[Mincer]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

I shield no matter what pickups. Have you tried the pickups direct to the jack (one at a time) without a preamp attached? I wonder how quiet they are. My stacked pickups (passive circuit) are dead quiet. This at least might isolate where the noise comes from.

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

No, that was done by Brian Hawkins, a little in VirginaBeach. Pretty sweet, eh?

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Yes, it is nice.

I shield no matter what pickups. Have you tried the pickups direct to the jack (one at a time) without a preamp attached? I wonder how quiet they are. My stacked pickups (passive circuit) are dead quiet. This at least might isolate where the noise comes from.

This is what I'd do as well.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Ive never grounded a switch. How do you do that

Use some flux and solder a ground wire to its base.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Most switches are already grounded if there's metallic shielding on the pickguard.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

It isn't as effective and can let noise in.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Most switches are already grounded if there's metallic shielding on the pickguard.

In that case yes the switch is grounded[emoji2]

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[Clint 55]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Relying on foil to ground the components is effective enough for the guitar to function, but in most cases not enough for it to be completely quiet. If you want to eliminate the possiblity of the noise being caused simply by user error, you must ground each of your electronics with a wire. And have that connected to your chassis ground of the bridge and body.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

Thanks for the suggestions. I just cant wrap my head around why one would be dead silent and another noisy. If it was the switch wouldnt everything be noisy?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

When I turn up my amp loud enough to get the noise cookin on my strat, each position sounds differently for me too. Don't know why that is. But I do know you can't give that noise a chance. Just ground the crap out of everything - wires to every electrical component plus wires soldered to the bridge and a screw.

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Does shielding affect Stacked pickups?

I hope someone with a bit more tech. knowledge chimes in but... I still feel like it could be due to an imbalance between the lower and upper coils that is made more evident when the "live" coil is made hotter; imperfect noise cancellation? The bottom coil is apparently "tuned to cancel hum" individually for each pickup, but I wonder if there are limits to the design...