Problem with Hot Rails Pickup, hiss, hum

[Marshall3203]

I bought a Hot Rails off of eBay, used. I didn't install it until a couple of months later (now) & I'm noticing two things. 1. when I touch the rails without touching the strings there is a massive hum; 2. at times there is a hissing. It's like static but it sounds like white noise, and it will trail off. This happens when my hand bumps it when playing. After i noticed this, I could run my finger over the rails & cause it to happen (left hand holding the strings here otherwise the massive hum would happen).

The first thing isn't as big a problem because it only happens when my left hand isn't touching the strings, which wouldn't occur normally. But the second thing happens when I'm playing and is annoying. It's very noticeable because of distortion. I switched amps, and cables and it didn't not change anything.

I have two other guitars with rail pickups in the bridge like this one, a GFS Lil Killer and a DiMarzio Fast Track 2 and the Lil Killer did the #1 thing but not the white noise/hiss, and the Fast Track 2 did neither.

Can anybody help on this?

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Problem with Hot Rails Pickup, hiss, hum

First things first:

-solder joints
-ground wires
-white and red soldered together and tapped off

?

 

[Marshall3203]

Re: Problem with Hot Rails Pickup, hiss, hum

the 3rd thing, no because I wired it for series-split-parallel with a 3-way blade, according to the Duncan tech drawing for an Esquire. That part works great, does all 3.

What of solder joints? Should I be looking for something, like one came off? I did a quick visual of the controls cavity and everything seemed intact.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Problem with Hot Rails Pickup, hiss, hum

the 3rd thing, no because I wired it for series-split-parallel with a 3-way blade, according to the Duncan tech drawing for an Esquire. That part works great, does all 3.

What of solder joints? Should I be looking for something, like one came off? I did a quick visual of the controls cavity and everything seemed intact.

What "solder joints" generally means is: Do they look well done? they should be shiny and kind of dome shaped. Keep in mind this is not a rule: often I'll take apart a guitar and see the factory solder joints and many of them seem cold.

Do you have a multi meter?

 

[Marshall3203]

Re: Problem with Hot Rails Pickup, hiss, hum

I installed it myself, and mostly I try to get them shiny. I do have a multi-meter. This is the only pick up in the guitar I should add.