Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

[Thomas_Desch]

Hi guys

I've just installed a Strat pickup in an old acoustic guitar I have. I will install vol and tone pots later, but for now, I just run it straight to the jack. But the hum!

What am I doing wrong? Is it the strings I need to ground somehow?

Tips will be much appreciated.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

Everything.

1 - single coils hum period
2 - need to ground it

 

[Thomas_Desch]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

Everything.

1 - single coils hum period
2 - need to ground it

1 - Thanks. This is no news
2 - Ground it how? Could I create a grounding point on the guitar, such as fix a screw to the wood and connect the ground wires from the pickup and the output jack respectively to this screw?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

1 - Thanks. This is no news
2 - Ground it how? Could I create a grounding point on the guitar, such as fix a screw to the wood and connect the ground wires from the pickup and the output jack respectively to this screw?

Wood doesn't usually conduct electricity.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

Unless you have a metal bridge, you'd need a ground wire directly to each individual string, which just isn't practical. The most shielding you'll get on a guitar with that little metal on it would be replacing the leads on the single coil with something shielded. You could also shield the pickup itself. Add some copper tape to the inside of the pickup cover, but do not completely close to loop. If you close the loop you'll lose some high end. Then use some sort of wire to connect the new copper to either the ground wire of the pickup or the output jack. Here's a picture of how the cover should look:



Clearly have a few choices, but the easiest would be to just buy either a Lace Sensor, active pickup, or single coil sized humbucker. These pickups are designed to have less hum, and you'll get especially quiet results from the Lace Sensors or active pickups.

 

[Thomas_Desch]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

Unless you have a metal bridge, you'd need a ground wire directly to each individual string, which just isn't practical. The most shielding you'll get on a guitar with that little metal on it would be replacing the leads on the single coil with something shielded. You could also shield the pickup itself. Add some copper tape to the inside of the pickup cover, but do not completely close to loop. If you close the loop you'll lose some high end. Then use some sort of wire to connect the new copper to either the ground wire of the pickup or the output jack. Here's a picture of how the cover should look:

View attachment 102833

Clearly have a few choices, but the easiest would be to just buy either a Lace Sensor, active pickup, or single coil sized humbucker. These pickups are designed to have less hum, and you'll get especially quiet results from the Lace Sensors or active pickups.

Thank you for the constructive response.

I found a solution. Not very elegant, but effective. I pulled some copper wire between the saddle and bridge pins and made a loop so the wire goes around and touches all the strings. I connected this to the ground wires on the guitar, so at least when I touch the strings the ground hum goes away. Of course the ordinary single coil hum remains, but that's just the nature of the beast.

At the moment I have no volume or tone control installed, so the tone is pretty harsh, and the full sonic spectrum goes into the amp. I believe with the controls in place the tone will soften and some of the higher frequency buzz will be taken care of.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

What amp is it going into?

 

[Thomas_Desch]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

At the moment just into a Line 6 Toneport audio interface.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

Stacked humbucker maybe
Some sort of cheap rail pickup

Awesome inventive idea

Pictures please

I have seen them attached with brackets across the sound hole
You can hot glue the flat wheel pots to the backside of the bracket

I hate those end pin jacks
But a small box Jack mounted below the end pin would give you some clean lines

I thought about putting one of those floating humbuckers on my Epiphone Hummingbird

But I'd put a preamp and all on it

Hog out the upper bout
Put a dual preamp with a microphone inside
And then just blend the two together
The preamp will tend to the grounding thing too

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

This acoustic guitar needs a floyd.

 

[Thomas_Desch]

Re: Installed strat pickup in acoustic guitar - hum issues

Stacked humbucker maybe
Some sort of cheap rail pickup

Awesome inventive idea

Pictures please

I have seen them attached with brackets across the sound hole
You can hot glue the flat wheel pots to the backside of the bracket

I hate those end pin jacks
But a small box Jack mounted below the end pin would give you some clean lines

I thought about putting one of those floating humbuckers on my Epiphone Hummingbird

But I'd put a preamp and all on it

Hog out the upper bout
Put a dual preamp with a microphone inside
And then just blend the two together
The preamp will tend to the grounding thing too

I'll post some pictures when it's done. It's an old beater guitar that had mic and preamp system in it - junk - which I tore out a few years ago and threw in the trash.

The pickup I mounted on a piece of wood that I put in the soundhole and screwed to the soundboard. Looks ugly, but this was supposed to be a "ghettocaster" anyway. The controls I'll put on a piece of wood on the upper bout - there's already space for it because of the previous preamp.