Massive Hum (bad)

projectx1106

projectx1106

New member
Hey guys I recently upgraded my Floyd Rose system with some big block upgrades and I bought the brass claw plate. I tried soldering it myself but I still get a massive humming when playing through distortion. My guess is that there isn't really a contact point with the ground wire and the brass claw, just the ground wire to solder, and the solder to the brass. Any ideas on how to fix this before I ship it off to a luthier? I'd hate to have a tech fix it since I've installed all the recent upgrades myself without a hitch, just the claw.
 
Re: Massive Hum (bad)

I don't know what wattage soldering gun you have, but if you can borrow one from someone, get something beefy like a 100w and try soldering it with that.
 
Re: Massive Hum (bad)

projectx1106 said:
Hey guys I recently upgraded my Floyd Rose system with some big block upgrades and I bought the brass claw plate. I tried soldering it myself but I still get a massive humming when playing through distortion. My guess is that there isn't really a contact point with the ground wire and the brass claw, just the ground wire to solder, and the solder to the brass. Any ideas on how to fix this before I ship it off to a luthier? I'd hate to have a tech fix it since I've installed all the recent upgrades myself without a hitch, just the claw.
Click to expand...

First off, let's isolate the problem:

You say the hum is only with distortion? If it's a guitar problem, you should have the hum regardless of what you're plugged into. If you only have the hum on one amp channel, it's more likely the amp channel, or if it only hums with one pedal, it's more likely the pedal than the guitar.

Is the guitar humming when it's run into a clean amp setting?

Something I do when I solder to new metal is rough it up with a wire brush or sandpaper. This is absolutely necessary. Also remember: you want a 1) mechanical connection first, then 2) a solder connection.

You can test for continuity between the block and various grounds with a multimeter --- do that and you can determine, through linear reasoning, what is grounded and what is not.

Do that, and report in!
 
Re: Massive Hum (bad)

+1 to cleaning/roughing the claw with sandpaper before soldering - brass oxidizes very fat, adn that oxide will not take solder. Also, a bigger iron may be necessary.

Another approach would be a mechanical connection. I would suggest a crimp-on ring terminal on the ground wire, with a short #4 bolt through the claw. Use serrated star washers on both sides, because they bite in to the parts to 1) lock the nut, and 2) maintain agood electrical connection. As with soldering, you need to clean the oxide off the claw around both sides of the hole before bolting it up.
 
Re: Massive Hum (bad)

ImmortalSix said:
First off, let's isolate the problem:

You say the hum is only with distortion? If it's a guitar problem, you should have the hum regardless of what you're plugged into. If you only have the hum on one amp channel, it's more likely the amp channel, or if it only hums with one pedal, it's more likely the pedal than the guitar.

Is the guitar humming when it's run into a clean amp setting?

Something I do when I solder to new metal is rough it up with a wire brush or sandpaper. This is absolutely necessary. Also remember: you want a 1) mechanical connection first, then 2) a solder connection.

You can test for continuity between the block and various grounds with a multimeter --- do that and you can determine, through linear reasoning, what is grounded and what is not.

Do that, and report in!
Click to expand...

It only hums on the distortion effect on my pedalboard, and not on the clean, I know it's not the pedal though because my other guitar works perfectly fine on both clean and distorted. I think it's some sort of grounding issue because the hum stops when I put my hand/finger on the 1/4' insert plate.
I'll try the roughing up thing, that might work.
 
Re: Massive Hum (bad)

insert guitar chord into jack
set multimeter to OHMS
place one lead from mutimeter on the sleeve of the exposed jack
(thats the part just under the black ring , the above part is the tip, hence the tip/ring jack)
place other lead on the bridge of the guitar

if the reading is anything other tan dead short ( 0.0x )
reverse jack wiring

the tip is the hot
ground is sleeve

reverse them and the the shielding become an antenna
 
Re: Massive Hum (bad)

I suggest that your brass vibrato claw plate is grounded but only very poorly. Hence, when playing through a clean channel, hum levels are "acceptable". Under high gain circumstances, the grounding is not adequate to shield against RF interference. The pedalboard simply exaggerates the situation.

Try re-grounding your vibrato bridge by soldering to a steel component.

If you want to read the science bit, here it is. http://www.copper.org/applications/industrial/designguide/elect02.html

Alternatively, just content yourself that brass has its conductivity properties all wrong. Thermally-speaking, it gobbles heat from a soldering iron tip. Electrically-speaking, it is not a particularly good conductor. It is a pig to solder onto and the resultant grounding path is only about one third as good as through steel. <shrug>
 
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