I have a Squier Standard Strat, and i installed a hot rail on de bridge position, everything works fine, but when i combine the hot rail with the mid pickup it produces hum, and when the hot rails is alone i have to touch the strings to cancel the hum. I reviewed everithing, and the ground cable is perfect.
Hum with Hot Rails
- Thread starter frnk993
- Start date
F
Funkfingers
Guest
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Welcome to the forum.
First, a word of warning. In extreme cases, grounding your guitar by touching metal parts can result in electrocution.
From your description, you have some sort of grounding issue involving the bridge pickup rather than the vibrato bridge spring claw. This is probably a minor oversight. It will take a copy of the schematic diagram that you followed plus photographs of your wiring to solve this problem.
Usual things to check;
1) All new solder joints.
2) The link between the two coils of the Rails pickup.
3) Whether any wires are physically shorting out against metal parts in the control cavity.
EDIT - If your Squier employs the generic, SE Asian, eight-contacts-in-a-line type of selector switch, it is possible that overzealous soldering has melted the plastic and affected the contact terminals.
Is your guitar is wired to automatically coil split the bridge pickup when combined with the middle pickup? There are various ways in which this can go wrong.
If the Squier circuit does not automatically split the Rails pickup, you get three coils running together, they cannot possibly achieve total hum rejection.
Welcome to the forum.
First, a word of warning. In extreme cases, grounding your guitar by touching metal parts can result in electrocution.
From your description, you have some sort of grounding issue involving the bridge pickup rather than the vibrato bridge spring claw. This is probably a minor oversight. It will take a copy of the schematic diagram that you followed plus photographs of your wiring to solve this problem.
Usual things to check;
1) All new solder joints.
2) The link between the two coils of the Rails pickup.
3) Whether any wires are physically shorting out against metal parts in the control cavity.
EDIT - If your Squier employs the generic, SE Asian, eight-contacts-in-a-line type of selector switch, it is possible that overzealous soldering has melted the plastic and affected the contact terminals.
Is your guitar is wired to automatically coil split the bridge pickup when combined with the middle pickup? There are various ways in which this can go wrong.
If the Squier circuit does not automatically split the Rails pickup, you get three coils running together, they cannot possibly achieve total hum rejection.
Last edited:
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Following on with this thread - I have just bought a hot rails pre-wired pickguard for an old Yamaha strat body. And I have the hum that goes away when you touch metal problem. When actually playing - it sounds great by the way but the hum is embarrassing. Any solutions? Or things to check.
The wire from the tension springs to the pre-wired board is light gauge but is a connection though because the hum goes away when I touch anything metal -strings, bridge, tuners.
I tried turning off fluorescent bulbs - no difference noted.
Any thoughts about fixes?
Following on with this thread - I have just bought a hot rails pre-wired pickguard for an old Yamaha strat body. And I have the hum that goes away when you touch metal problem. When actually playing - it sounds great by the way but the hum is embarrassing. Any solutions? Or things to check.
The wire from the tension springs to the pre-wired board is light gauge but is a connection though because the hum goes away when I touch anything metal -strings, bridge, tuners.
I tried turning off fluorescent bulbs - no difference noted.
Any thoughts about fixes?
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Thanks for the input. A couple of thoughts after I moved the guitar around the place a little.
Initially in music room in basement - hum was pronounced. I have other guitars and amps and not had the same problem. Also no hum noted when I connected to the Studio One system on a laptop downstairs.
Also, turning on and off the fluorescent lights in music room did make a noticeable difference. When on the hum was louder. And this has been noted before with other guitars and amps (but not quite as bad perhaps).
Any additional shielding that would work perhaps?
Thanks for the input. A couple of thoughts after I moved the guitar around the place a little.
Initially in music room in basement - hum was pronounced. I have other guitars and amps and not had the same problem. Also no hum noted when I connected to the Studio One system on a laptop downstairs.
Also, turning on and off the fluorescent lights in music room did make a noticeable difference. When on the hum was louder. And this has been noted before with other guitars and amps (but not quite as bad perhaps).
Any additional shielding that would work perhaps?
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
I went to install a pre-loaded pickguard from 920D last night -- cool-cool-hot rails -- really bad hum -- it's a hardtail strat partscaster -- ground wire under the bridge and ultimately to the volume pot -- pickups are also grounded there -- here's what's odd: when using a headphone amp, there's not much noise -- it's a really high gain one -- but when I go into an amp -- horrible hum. I've plugged a single coil-equipped cheapo Beringer strat copy in, and it is dead quiet -- any ideas? bad ground connection? the cavity is shielded, and grounded. I'd been shorting to ground for a little bit on the jack plate -- but that's been fixed. It seems like the bridge connection is good as when I touch the strings, some noise dissipates.
I went to install a pre-loaded pickguard from 920D last night -- cool-cool-hot rails -- really bad hum -- it's a hardtail strat partscaster -- ground wire under the bridge and ultimately to the volume pot -- pickups are also grounded there -- here's what's odd: when using a headphone amp, there's not much noise -- it's a really high gain one -- but when I go into an amp -- horrible hum. I've plugged a single coil-equipped cheapo Beringer strat copy in, and it is dead quiet -- any ideas? bad ground connection? the cavity is shielded, and grounded. I'd been shorting to ground for a little bit on the jack plate -- but that's been fixed. It seems like the bridge connection is good as when I touch the strings, some noise dissipates.
shadowfire90
New member
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Try the guitar at someone elses house, sometimes the wiring in the walls of our homes especially in older places can cause hum. Even the best job of shielding won't do it. if that is the case get a power bar with RFI and EMI protection. Zzounds website used to sell them.
Make sure your input jacks soldered into the right places
remember SG like a gibson .. sleeve ground. Sleeve is metal to the base
the only hum you should get from a hot rails is from the extra output as the hot rails is over 16k and a very high inductance
and ground is
string ground
pot to pot in single file
sleeve of the input jack
no need for fancy shielded wires or anything like that. If I could get a hot rail to be quiet on a chibson or fender copy anyone can
also double check the color code
black - hot lead
red/white - coilsplit
green/bare - ground
if its a basic wiring be sure to put heat shrink or tape over the red/white wires
one wiring that will cause hum that not a lot of people mention is "series out of phase" - it sounds more like a tele 2 wire bridge pickup than anything
try contacting the people who made your pickguard if you bought it pre-loaded
Try the guitar at someone elses house, sometimes the wiring in the walls of our homes especially in older places can cause hum. Even the best job of shielding won't do it. if that is the case get a power bar with RFI and EMI protection. Zzounds website used to sell them.
Make sure your input jacks soldered into the right places
remember SG like a gibson .. sleeve ground. Sleeve is metal to the base
the only hum you should get from a hot rails is from the extra output as the hot rails is over 16k and a very high inductance
and ground is
string ground
pot to pot in single file
sleeve of the input jack
no need for fancy shielded wires or anything like that. If I could get a hot rail to be quiet on a chibson or fender copy anyone can
also double check the color code
black - hot lead
red/white - coilsplit
green/bare - ground
if its a basic wiring be sure to put heat shrink or tape over the red/white wires
one wiring that will cause hum that not a lot of people mention is "series out of phase" - it sounds more like a tele 2 wire bridge pickup than anything
try contacting the people who made your pickguard if you bought it pre-loaded
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Welcome to the forum!
You can try posting pics of your pickguard here, and we can see if anything is visibly out of order. I think that company has had issues with pickguards lately. Wasn't there a thread a few days ago saying that there were issues?
Welcome to the forum!
You can try posting pics of your pickguard here, and we can see if anything is visibly out of order. I think that company has had issues with pickguards lately. Wasn't there a thread a few days ago saying that there were issues?
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Thanks -- yes -- the guitar works -- with loads of hum though -- less with a usb headphone amp -- tested with another guitar -- much quieter. I may try to post pictures later. The middle knob for tone seems to roll off or on most of it -- I'll look more closely at the connections there. The bridge ground is connected to both the "faraday box" and the back of the volume pot, with the pickup grounds -- could that be an issue? I figured a ground is a ground, and it should be common? Am I confused about that? I started with shielding paint, but then used copper tape over it all too. I've done work on several other of my guitars over the years and never had issues like this.
Thanks -- yes -- the guitar works -- with loads of hum though -- less with a usb headphone amp -- tested with another guitar -- much quieter. I may try to post pictures later. The middle knob for tone seems to roll off or on most of it -- I'll look more closely at the connections there. The bridge ground is connected to both the "faraday box" and the back of the volume pot, with the pickup grounds -- could that be an issue? I figured a ground is a ground, and it should be common? Am I confused about that? I started with shielding paint, but then used copper tape over it all too. I've done work on several other of my guitars over the years and never had issues like this.
Re: Hum with Hot Rails
Well, I am not quite sure what is going on here. But you can always try wiring each pickup direct to the jack and making sure they are working properly. It would be a huge coincidence if it was all 3 pickups as the source of this. Normally, a Hot Rails is pretty quiet.
Well, I am not quite sure what is going on here. But you can always try wiring each pickup direct to the jack and making sure they are working properly. It would be a huge coincidence if it was all 3 pickups as the source of this. Normally, a Hot Rails is pretty quiet.
