Grounding issues

5

5150time

New member
Hey there,

This forum has basically taught me everything I know about soldering, wiring, and all that, and I'm so grateful. Here we go again...

I've been wiring a few things lately and have been suffering some grounding issues. When I touch the strings, or something metal (knobs bridge etc) it goes away. I know that's obviously a grounding problem. I haven't run into it before until recently, and I haven't changed my gear/soldering iron/technique or anything like that. I follow the duncan wiring diagrams to a T. I'm just unsure about why i'm getting the hum. It's not blisteringly loud or anything, it's just noticeable, and I know it shouldn't be there. It doesn't occur on clean, only distortion, but, it really shouldn't hum on it either, seeing as I've got plenty of guitars with similar pickups that don't. Do I add extra grounds, and if so, how?

I'm no electrician, so I don't really know how current and grounding work. Any advice or a website that breaks all that down would be just awesome.

Thanks so much.
Craig.
 
Re: Grounding issues

Lazarus1140 said:
It takes some diligence to get around this site, but the shielding info is good:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/index.php
Click to expand...

+1

Under "Wiring & Shielding" click "Modifications" and check out quieting the beast. BTW when you click a link another link opens so thats a pain.. but it's a great site.

My Tele and all my Strats are shielded exactly like this.

I just don't understand why guitar Manufactures do this. I still haven't found a good answer why is everything is grounded to the pots instead of having one common grounding point like in the instructions. You are still completing the circuit.
 
Re: Grounding issues

Thanks alot guys. You've all been really helpful, like always!

I'm still a little shaky on this shielding/grounding thing. I've been to guitarnuts before, but I couldn't make ANYTHING of it. It seems to deal alot with pickguard style guitars, and I really don't own many with a pickguard. not that I can tell if that matters or not. The site's wording is quite difficult. I'm not even really sure what the difference is between shield and ground problems. Am I basically just supposed to buy a bunch of aluminum tape and hope for the best? And why would I be running into this problem only now, and not before? I'm still struggling a bit.

Thanks for the help.
Craig.
 
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