Humbucker is humming!! Why?

[Brian Hunsaker]

Hi, I recently replaced my Bridge pickup in my S470DXQM with a Seymour Duncan Full Shred, and I noticed the other day that when I'm playing with distortion on my amp, the bridge pickup is making a lot of "hum", whereas the neck pickup makes none...and the single coil makes a lot too (but that's expected, it's not a humbucker). This is happening even with my computer monitor turned off. I had to switch the black and green wire I think it was when I soldered the bridge pickup in, so that the bridge pickup would be in phase with the single coil.

Does anyone know why my humbucker would be humming? Seems very strange to me. If there's a different place I should post this question, please let me know.

 

[Jackson Distortion]

Re: Humbucker is humming!! Why?

What brand is your neck pickup? Is this your first Seymour Duncan humbucker? Every S.D. humbucker I've had hummed like mad under distortion, and even on clean you could hear a bit o' buzz. I now use DiMarzio's - not because all the Duncan's hummed, but they had the tones I wanted - and they are much quiter under the described conditions. Not to deter you from Seymour Duncan pickups by any means, but my humble theory is that I think it's because of the amount of winds used in the pickup, because the DiMarzio's seem to use a good deal less, and they are quieter.

I may be off base with my troubleshooting, but this has been my experience. Somebody more experienced with the in's and out of pickups will be along shortly to help you.

 

[Pete Galati]

Re: Humbucker is humming!! Why?

You might want to take a picture of your wiring so someone can scrutinize it.

To me it sounds like a grounding problem. You would have needed to leave the bare wire connected to the ground when you reversed the phase, not move it over to the + connection.

Pete

 

[Brian Hunsaker]

Re: Humbucker is humming!! Why?

You might want to take a picture of your wiring so someone can scrutinize it.

To me it sounds like a grounding problem. You would have needed to leave the bare wire connected to the ground when you reversed the phase, not move it over to the + connection.

Pete

I'll try to take a picture...I did leave the bare wire connected to the volume pot (ground I assume) when I reverse the phase. I really hope it's not just "too many windings" like the first response is talking about.

 

[Brian Hunsaker]

Re: Humbucker is humming!! Why?

What brand is your neck pickup?

The neck pickup and the middle single-coil are both stock pickups. They are either Dimarzio or Ibanez (if they make any) pickups. No this is not my first Seymour Duncan. I've also had the Duncan Distortion pickup and the JB. And neither of those hummed at all.