Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

[JohnnyGuitar]

Just curious here - EJ plays a Strat that has pups that are not hum canceling, and he does it while using a fair amount of fuzz and drive...
Does he use a noise gate or anything to avoid the single coil hum?

 

[pinto79]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

EJ's been using DiMarzio HS2 adn HS3 pickups for years, both are humcancelling...

He also has a pair of Signature DiMarzio Humbuckers...

 

[sufferinrewind]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

EJ's been using DiMarzio HS2 adn HS3 pickups for years, both are humcancelling...

He also has a pair of Signature DiMarzio Humbuckers...

The HS-2s that he uses, he uses them split from what I've read. Never heard of him using HS-3s.

Not trying to say that you're wrong or anything, just stating what I've read...

 

[Empty Pockets]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

60-cycle hum isn't that big of an issue to a lot of people. I get a little hum from my Strat but it's no big deal...as soon as you play a note the hum's covered up by the guitar's tone.

 

[Simon_F]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

...as soon as you play a note the hum's covered up by the guitar's tone.

Exactly. How does he reduce hum? He keeps playin'!

 

[thespricket]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

60-cycle hum isn't that big of an issue to a lot of people. I get a little hum from my Strat but it's no big deal...as soon as you play a note the hum's covered up by the guitar's tone.

he probably is getting hum from the sc's, you just cant hear it in a live mix. And surely not in the studio. Same with any old recording of a strat. It's there. But its not that distracting cuz you arent listening for it, you're listening for the song.

 

[Gr8Scott]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

He also might have sheilded the guitar well, which can really reduce hum in certain settings. My Hamer Daytona (USA model not the slammers) is very well sheilded and it has very little hum even with decent amounts of gain added in. Only with gobs of gain or a really vicious compressor does the hum become really annoying.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

I heard that he uses ni-cad batteries aged exactly 2.7 hours in his Fuzz Face, set at an 18 degree right angle to his Echoplex. Maybe that eliminates hum.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

Careful grounding in the rig...

Gotta 'find mecca' too.

That's the point/angle where the guitar is picking up the least amount of electromagnetic noise...

Remember that spot and try not to deviate from it too much.

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

^Yep...point the right way....and most hum will be reduced.
Good shielding reduces static noise as well.

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

For some reason I was always under the impression that he had a "dummy coil" in his setup to reduce the hum.

Personally, I can't stand the hum. I stopped playing my Strats on gigs because the hum drive me nuts. It seemed like every stage I ended up on I had to plug my amp into the same outlet as the neon sign in the window and consistently it sounded like a chainsaw left to idle in front of a mic.

Actually, tonight's the first time I'll be bringing a Strat into a rehearsal in a long while. The only reason it's happening is because I installed a set of Lace Holy Grails and am very pleased with the tone as well as the hum canceling.

 

[ErikH]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

Minimal hum doesn't bother me. I can deal with a little bit of it. Surprisingly, my Strat isn't that bad anymore since shielding it. Under really high gain there's some but I don't use that Strat in those situations very often.

Eric Johnson also doesn't use a lot of gain. His tone is very clean, contrary to belief. That keeps the noise down. More gain/distortion = more noise. His Fender sig Strat is VERY quiet, and those pickups aren't DiMarzios. He may use the HS2's and 3's in his older Strats, but not in the sig model.

 

[mrturtle_91]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

ya, hum isn't all that bad, when you're playing it's not very noticeable...for me it's not noticeable at all because I have a noice reducer, which gives me noise free performance with crappy squier pickups!!! :cool2:

 

[That90'sGuy]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

I have his signature strat and his custom wound Fender singles aren't very noisy surprisingly.

 

[J Moose]

Re: Eric Johnson - does he use anything to reduce hum?

I took the pickguard off my EJ Strat pretty shortly after I bought it while tweaking the neck...

No sheilding tape or paint.

No dummy coils.

Just some foil on the back of the pickguard and three very 'regular' looking single coils...