My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

[Redmist]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

I've just read this thread and I think GuitarDoc owes rumble box an apology.... way before post 97!


Of course what rumblebox said made perfect sense in that the only electrical connection of the strings to any hum would be through the bridge wire which was obviously good if touching the strings made the hum go away.

We have had a similar thread to this before, with no real answer in the end.
Blame was also placed on the selector cavity and wiring not being properly shielded, ... however, this still does not explain why touching strings would help to ground the problem if the pots to ground are good in the first place. There would simply be hum from unshielded which would not go away when touching the strings and only better shielding would help. This is not your case ....

If touching strings makes the hum go away, then there is not a good ground connection to the jack ground at some point, ...( probably through a pot as Bob suggested) as the body becomes the ground through the bridge wire, instead of the ground at the jack.)

Try checking for 0 ohm between all grounds in the cavities and the jack ground to find the culprit.

Simple electrical IQ :naughty:

 

[JordanM82]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

At this point with all the issues I would personally rewire the whole thing with quality shielded wire. It will take probably the same amount of time as trying to find which wire or solder joint is not sufficiently providing a connection to the jack ground.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Let us know the results of putting in the shielded wire to the switch.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

I'm out too. Have fun.

but good luck explaining how your body can ground a guitar by touching the strings without a ground being connected to the bridge.

And also explain how picking a string that isn't actually connected to the pickup can produce a sound.

 

[Redmist]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

And also explain how picking a string that isn't actually connected to the pickup can produce a sound.

Are you saying that it can't ?

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Obviously not.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

This thread has gotten entirely too long. I'm out. But I still want to know the end result and what the "cure" turns out to be.

 

[lex666]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

This thread has gotten entirely too long. I'm out. But I still want to know the end result and what the "cure" turns out to be.

+1

too much confusion going on. I just wanna know what went wrong for future reference. Sound like its a common problem and should have been an easy fix.

 

[Jessie's ghost]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

My mistake has been in thinking that the strings and bridge need to be grounded because they somehow create noise through some kind of capacitive coupling. (Or something. I don't know.) I figured that normally they would be grounded by being connected to the guitar's electrical ground. If the bridge ground wasn't there, your body would ground the bridge and strings when you played. All I can say is that some respected scientists believed in phlogiston for about a century before good science burned it off and left only the charred remains of truth in its place.

 

[The Dali]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Listen, you aren't the only one.

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. I just updated the wire to the switch and it did, indeed, reduce the noise. Still not 100% quiet, but that might be related to the humbuckers themselves. Plus, there is a good deal of wire floating around in the cavity which might be contributing to the noise.

Given that the guitar works beautifully in all positions, I believe the wiring to be correct, but there might be a slightly bad solder joint somewhere. As it stands now, the noise level is tolerable so I'm comfortable thinking that we got to the root of the problem.

Again - thanks for all the suggestions and I think we will be able to help others in the future regarding the "your bridge is/is not grounded"...

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

At this point with all the issues I would personally rewire the whole thing with quality shielded wire. It will take probably the same amount of time as trying to find which wire or solder joint is not sufficiently providing a connection to the jack ground.

And all new pots too. Theres a cold solder joint to the pots, as nice as it may look, you just have too much bad solder built up underneath..scrap everything and do a complete pot and wiring harness change. get some good bumblee-bee caps.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Glad it got better.

But, DANG...it should be perfectly quiet! There should be no hum with humbuckers.

This one's gonna drive me crazy until you figure out how to get rid of all the hum.

 

[lex666]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Plus, there is a good deal of wire floating around in the cavity which might be contributing to the noise.

...but there might be a slightly bad solder joint somewhere.

IIRC, you said your guitar has the Jimmy Page wiring?

Jimmy Page wiring (already complex) + a nest of wires in the control cavity may be the cause of the extra noise. This might be another reason to re-wire the whole thing and try to minimize the mess of wires in there, especially any exposed wires used for soldering.

I had a luthier install the Jimmy Page mod in my LP. I'm happy to say paying a pro to do it was well worth the money. Its super quiet and he did a very neat job on the control cavity. When I attempted to do it myself, it was a huge mess and didn't even work right.

 

[The Dali]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Glad it got better.

But, DANG...it should be perfectly quiet! There should be no hum with humbuckers.

This one's gonna drive me crazy until you figure out how to get rid of all the hum.

I know!!!!

Per Lex666, I think I might remove the JP wiring intact and re-wire with a standard wiring schematic and see if that cleans up the hum. Very frustrating to say the least!!

I was originally just going to wire normally when I gave to the old tech... but then he said he could wire up the JP wiring... so I figured let's go for it. I should have just wired it up normally, as I've found the JP wiring not as useful as the effort involved.

So, I might get new switch, jack, and CTS pots and start over to hopefully remedy the situation.

 

[The Dali]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

In the meantime I'll play my 100% quiet Carvin!

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

I know!!!!

Per Lex666, I think I might remove the JP wiring intact and re-wire with a standard wiring schematic and see if that cleans up the hum. Very frustrating to say the least!!

I was originally just going to wire normally when I gave to the old tech... but then he said he could wire up the JP wiring... so I figured let's go for it. I should have just wired it up normally, as I've found the JP wiring not as useful as the effort involved.

So, I might get new switch, jack, and CTS pots and start over to hopefully remedy the situation.

+1.

I always felt like the JP wiring was just a little too much pling and not really very useful in a practical/perfoming sense.

I get all I need from '50s wiring, independant vol. with Triple Shot mounting rings. Very simple to wire up, very easy to use, very versatile, very quiet.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

In the meantime I'll play my 100% quiet Carvin!

Personally, I think that the Carvin is the better solution anyway. And I think you probably like it better too.

 

[JordanM82]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Personally, I think that the Carvin is the better solution anyway. And I think you probably like it better too.

+1, Glad I'm not the only one who feels this way...

 

[MojoMonster]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

Keep 2 of the push/pulls, get a pair of Triple Shots and rewire.
Put the push/pulls on your volumes, one for series/parallel between pickups when both are selected and the other for OOP when both pickups are selected.
That gives you the full JP plus the TS ability to switch between coils.

That's how my Trad Pro is wired and its as quiet as any other guitar.

 

[The Dali]

Re: My Les Paul is noisy! Video!

UPDATE!!!

Ok, so the noise was still present so I decided to determine, once and for all, if the guitar was haunted.

Did I go to a priest? Rabbi? Medium?

No, I ordered a brand new LP wiring kit and installed it! I used an Allparts kit - great deal. $45 for 4 CTS pots, Switchcraft jack and toggle, braided wire, caps, and wiring diagram. The 3-way switch is easily $15 by itself.

Ok, anyway. I took out ALL the wire and pots, switch, jack and replaced with new. Straight standard wiring, no push/pulls. I used super heavy-gauge shielded wire for the main run from the switch to the cavity. I had a set of large bumble-bee caps that I used as well.

Wahoo!!!

I wired it up last night, totally skeptical that it would still make noise since this would be the fourth complete re-wire. No problems. It is very quiet, even with gain, and that is something considering the hot pickups. I A/B tested with my Carvin and it was just as quiet! I will post a video this week if I get a chance.

So, I'm not sure what the issue was... a bad switch? Bad jack (is that possible?)?? Maybe just bad connections. Or, perhaps just too many wires. In any event - the guitar has been saved from ebay!

Thanks again for all your suggestions!