Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

[Kenni]

Good evening, everyone...

I've just installed a Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring Harness into a Gibson Les Paul Standard, and all is working, but...
I get noise when I turn the Tone Pots from 0 to 10... When the tone pot(s) are at 0 I have no noise, but when I turn them to 10 I get noise..
The volume pots are at 10, with no problem, but the tone pots are starting the issue, when turning them up...
The noise goes away when I touch the strings, metal parts, etc...

All connections are good and no cold solder joints... I've gone back and re-heated/re-soldered the ground connections, and that didn't help..
I've tried shielding the control cavity, backplate and jack access, but that did less than expected, to be honest..

I've seen several other guitarists have same issue, or something similar...
I can't seem to find a solution... Can you help me?!

This is getting really frustrating..
Thanks.

 

[jimilee]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Is the bridge wire grounded?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shadowfire90]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Feel free to attach the diagram you went with. Don Breja (Brejatoneworks) on youtube has an apparently working diagram I suggest. This is his video on youtube
https://youtu.be/PS7YvCmop8Y

This is all the ground and if you're using copper shielding tape all the connections you're making. Anything extra aside from what is on the push pull pots require to get all the extra tones I'd remove. My first attempt at the jimmy page wiring i remember I made the mistake of making all the volume pots make like a square for grounding and it was my mistake.

properly illustrated this is what I came up with. If you're a Led Zeppelin fan I suggest this wiring. If not I've got a modified version of a Seymour Duncan P-rails wiring where you get 24 sounds instead. I usually do this on cheap ebay pickups and remember taking apart a set of pickups and both came to the same conclusion. The only down side to the "24 tone" wiring is no phase reversal or humbuckers going together in series for that fatter louder sound. One real world example of it being the 4th position on a modded tele with a 4 way blade.

Anyways I always like to mention approach
typical les paul grounding , it's shaped like a C as you can see
the string ground is there, usually you just see the one side of the wire
the input jacks in the correct polarity , having it backwards will cause the guitar to hum
and if you use copper shielding tape it's how I have always approached it, if you used aluminum tape ignore this and just ground the string ground to the back of any pot

View attachment 102529View attachment 102530

 

[orpheo]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Good evening, everyone...

I've just installed a Jimmy Page Les Paul Wiring Harness into a Gibson Les Paul Standard, and all is working, but...
I get noise when I turn the Tone Pots from 0 to 10... When the tone pot(s) are at 0 I have no noise, but when I turn them to 10 I get noise..
The volume pots are at 10, with no problem, but the tone pots are starting the issue, when turning them up...
The noise goes away when I touch the strings, metal parts, etc...

All connections are good and no cold solder joints... I've gone back and re-heated/re-soldered the ground connections, and that didn't help..
I've tried shielding the control cavity, backplate and jack access, but that did less than expected, to be honest..

I've seen several other guitarists have same issue, or something similar...
I can't seem to find a solution... Can you help me?!

This is getting really frustrating..
Thanks.

it's supposed to do that....

I wrote a blog about it:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/background-noise-closing-the-loop

still as relevant as ever.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

The reason it works the way it works is because you are a bag of water in a meat-casing. You act as an antenna and by using complicated wiring, there is more wire to pick up the noise you emit. Excessive shielding helps but drains so much high end I just refuse to sacrifice high end for noise when all I have to do it... frekking play the sucker. Touch metal, bye bye noise.

The reason why the noise is less audible when you roll down the volume: the specific frequency of noise you emit gets bled off when you roll down the volume. Add a treble bleed circuit or extremely high-end pots (those truly do exist) and you'll continue to hear the noise.

Ergo. Your wiring is just fine.

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Is the bridge wire grounded?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey there, @jimilee.
Thanks for your response..

Yes, the bridge is grounded, to one of the pots, and so is the ground from the pickups, and the pots are also grounded...

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Feel free to attach the diagram you went with. Don Breja (Brejatoneworks) on youtube has an apparently working diagram I suggest. This is his video on youtube
https://youtu.be/PS7YvCmop8Y

This is all the ground and if you're using copper shielding tape all the connections you're making. Anything extra aside from what is on the push pull pots require to get all the extra tones I'd remove. My first attempt at the jimmy page wiring i remember I made the mistake of making all the volume pots make like a square for grounding and it was my mistake.

properly illustrated this is what I came up with. If you're a Led Zeppelin fan I suggest this wiring. If not I've got a modified version of a Seymour Duncan P-rails wiring where you get 24 sounds instead. I usually do this on cheap ebay pickups and remember taking apart a set of pickups and both came to the same conclusion. The only down side to the "24 tone" wiring is no phase reversal or humbuckers going together in series for that fatter louder sound. One real world example of it being the 4th position on a modded tele with a 4 way blade.

Anyways I always like to mention approach
typical les paul grounding , it's shaped like a C as you can see
the string ground is there, usually you just see the one side of the wire
the input jacks in the correct polarity , having it backwards will cause the guitar to hum
and if you use copper shielding tape it's how I have always approached it, if you used aluminum tape ignore this and just ground the string ground to the back of any pot

View attachment 102529View attachment 102530

Thanks for the reply, @shadowfire90.

I'll check that wiring diagram out! I think I've seen the video before, when researching the wiring..

I've shielded the control cavity, backplate and output jack access.. That did a little bit, but less than I expected...
Maybe it's just going to be like that, with the noise... I don't know... It's just a little frustrating..

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

it's supposed to do that....

I wrote a blog about it:

https://www.seymourduncan.com/blog/the-tone-garage/background-noise-closing-the-loop

still as relevant as ever.

Thanks for the blog, I appreciate it!
I can see what you're talking about, but, it doesn't solve my problem, sadly enough..
Thanks anyway!

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

The reason it works the way it works is because you are a bag of water in a meat-casing. You act as an antenna and by using complicated wiring, there is more wire to pick up the noise you emit. Excessive shielding helps but drains so much high end I just refuse to sacrifice high end for noise when all I have to do it... frekking play the sucker. Touch metal, bye bye noise.

The reason why the noise is less audible when you roll down the volume: the specific frequency of noise you emit gets bled off when you roll down the volume. Add a treble bleed circuit or extremely high-end pots (those truly do exist) and you'll continue to hear the noise.

Ergo. Your wiring is just fine.

Thank you, I can understand that
Guess I'll live with that!
Thanks.

 

[orpheo]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Thanks for the blog, I appreciate it!
I can see what you're talking about, but, it doesn't solve my problem, sadly enough..
Thanks anyway!

You say problem but there is no problem to speak of. This is the way it is supposed to work. Want no hum or as little as possible? Play actives or a guitar with 1 humbucker without pots or switches. The more wires inside of the guitar, the more noise it can pick up. It's that simple.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

All of this makes sense...but.

There is no noise when the tone pots are on "0", and increases when they are turned to "10". This COULD be expected, because the high frequencies are being re-introduced into the system and hum is more noticeable in the higher frequencies.
However, it could also be because the tone pots are wired incorrectly.

Kenni, could you please insert a very clear image of your tone pots and all of the wires and connections to them (you may need to move some wires around so we can see an unobstructed view of the tone pots).

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

the input jacks in the correct polarity

Just for my own information, why do you persist in calling it an "INPUT jack"?

When you plug one end of the cord into your guitar and the other end into an amp (like is usually done by most guitarists), what are you "inputting" into your guitar from the amplifier?

And do you plug the other end of your cord into the input jack of your amp or the output jack (where the speakers are usually plugged in)?

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

***SOLVED***

The problem has been solved - yay!
After searching the net, reading about other players with similar issues, and posting comments on Facebook, someone suggested to check the wires running from the 3-way switch to the tone pot.
Those wires were unshielded - the issue!
I re-wired the switch, using shielded wire, and boom, the noise disappeared.
Of course there's still a little bit of noise, but I've compared that to some of my other guitars, and that's the same amount - so all good there!

Thanks for all your comments here!
Now I will rock on!

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

***SOLVED***

The problem has been solved - yay!
After searching the net, reading about other players with similar issues, and posting comments on Facebook, someone suggested to check the wires running from the 3-way switch to the tone pot.
Those wires were unshielded - the issue!
I re-wired the switch, using shielded wire, and boom, the noise disappeared.
Of course there's still a little bit of noise, but I've compared that to some of my other guitars, and that's the same amount - so all good there!

Thanks for all your comments here!
Now I will rock on!

From the 3-way switch to the tone pot? !!
In Jimmy Page wiring? !!!
If someone suggested this to you it is obvious that you'd better ignore anything he says. (The switch does not go to the tone pots.)

As far as using shielded wires for internal connections in a shielded cavity...The runs are so short that shielding is not necessary. But for long runs (like from the switch to the Jack, or from the pickups or vol pots to the switch) in Les Paul type guitar, shielded wires can be of benefit.

In any case, I'm glad you finally got your hum issue straightened out.

 

[Kenni]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

From the 3-way switch to the tone pot? !!
In Jimmy Page wiring? !!!
If someone suggested this to you it is obvious that you'd better ignore anything he says. (The switch does not go to the tone pots.)

As far as using shielded wires for internal connections in a shielded cavity...The runs are so short that shielding is not necessary. But for long runs (like from the switch to the Jack, or from the pickups or vol pots to the switch) in Les Paul type guitar, shielded wires can be of benefit.

In any case, I'm glad you finally got your hum issue straightened out.

MY BAD.. Of course not from the 3-way switch to the tone pot... I meant from the switch to the jack... All in all, the switch were wired using unshielded cable, and that was the issue...
Yeah, I'm super happy as well!
Cheers.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: Jimmy Page Wiring Noise Issue...?

Did you replace ONLY the wire from switch to jack? If you have any more noise issues you might consider also replacing the wires from the pups to the switch with shielded wires.

But if it's quiet now, you're good to go.