Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

[birdman123]

So I've had this project guitar I've been working on for a while now. I prefer fender guitars but I wanted humbuckers; so I bought this beautiful sunburst squire Jagmaster off of ebay(the japan one ). I also wanted some really nice pickups. After doing some research the somewhat obvious choice for me were the Seth Lovers. I did the wiring myself and am pretty confident in my work.

Now the problem I'm having is that as I play my guitar, when ever I touch the pick guard near the pups, static noise comes out as the output mixed in with my regular tone. Its REALLY annoying. Another weird thing about it is that it seems to only happen when I play it.

I was wondering if anyone has experienced the same problem. Its really a drag because I have a jcm800 50watt combo waiting for the seth lovers to scream with their full potential. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

So I've had this project guitar I've been working on for a while now. I prefer fender guitars but I wanted humbuckers; so I bought this beautiful sunburst squire Jagmaster off of ebay(the japan one ). I also wanted some really nice pickups. After doing some research the somewhat obvious choice for me were the Seth Lovers. I did the wiring myself and am pretty confident in my work.

Now the problem I'm having is that as I play my guitar, when ever I touch the pick guard near the pups, static noise comes out as the output mixed in with my regular tone. Its REALLY annoying. Another weird thing about it is that it seems to only happen when I play it.

I was wondering if anyone has experienced the same problem. Its really a drag because I have a jcm800 50watt combo waiting for the seth lovers to scream with their full potential. Any help would be much appreciated.

Is it just that guitar that creates the problem? Does tapping on the guard make the noise occur? What about moving or tapping on the volume and tone pots? Could be a bad pot,bad ground,or loose wire connection..

Tryed another guitar cable and have you isolated the problem to just your guitar and not your amp etc.?

 

[birdman123]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Thanks for the reply. The amp isn't a problem and the cable isn't a problem. I haven't tried these pickups in another guitar yet. To be more specific, the noise occurs when i drag my finger on the pickguard below the pickups. This happens naturally when I play and is unavoidable. It sounds like static noise.

I have noticed that the the factory wiring of the pots is a bit different than the diagram on this site. The .047F cap from the tone pot isn't grounded at all. Instead it is connected to a node of the vol. pot with the 3-way switch.

I think I might get a new pickguard and start anew.

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Thanks for the reply. The amp isn't a problem and the cable isn't a problem. I haven't tried these pickups in another guitar yet. To be more specific, the noise occurs when i drag my finger on the pickguard below the pickups. This happens naturally when I play and is unavoidable. It sounds like static noise.

I have noticed that the the factory wiring of the pots is a bit different than the diagram on this site. The .047F cap from the tone pot isn't grounded at all. Instead it is connected to a node of the vol. pot with the 3-way switch.

I think I might get a new pickguard and start anew.

Others will chime in.Just hang before spending money on another guard..More than likely an electrical problem and one of the techs like Zerberus will chime in for you! :13: :fingersx:

 

[Mephis]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

turn up the gain a bit and don't touch any metal part of the guitar. Then touch the tuners, strings, bridge, knobs, anything metal that is liked to the electronics of the guitar.

If there is quite a bit of noise when you're not touching something, then when you touch it, it pops and goes away... Then you have a bad ground and should check all your grounds.

 

[birdman123]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

There is also a lot of noise coming from the bridge pickup when I touch it. Also I want to add that the bare wire from the bridge pickup isn't grounded. I accidentally clipped if off. However, I heard this isn't a big deal.

 

[Mephis]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

There is also a lot of noise coming from the bridge pickup when I touch it. Also I want to add that the bare wire from the bridge pickup isn't grounded. I accidentally clipped if off. However, I heard this isn't a big deal.

Well, there's your problem lol!

 

[C-Martin]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

There is also a lot of noise coming from the bridge pickup when I touch it. Also I want to add that the bare wire from the bridge pickup isn't grounded. I accidentally clipped if off. However, I heard this isn't a big deal.

you might want to solder a piece of wire to whatever is left of the bare wire and solder it to ground.. that right there might be the problem... i just redid the entire electronics on my friends les paul and after a slight problem with the pots i had to desolder and resolder everything to fix it and i accidently forgot to solder a ground wire.. i had a very similar problem than yours when playing the gutiar.. and very significant when using lots of gain so i reopened it and i was right, there was a missing link in teh grounding.. i fixed it, and the problem is solved.

The noise comming from the pickup when you touch it can be a few thigns btu mainly the ground wire might fix it, my friends neck pickup was doing the same thing and it was something in the pots that was shorting the circuit.. fix the ground first, then if that doesnt work or make things better check your wiring, and check see fi your pots are not damaged.. turn the knobs and see if the noise goes "on and off"..

 

[C-Martin]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Well, there's your problem lol!

aye :laugh2:

if that dont fix it, it will atleast make things better for sure.. odd thing is that the noise increases when he touches the pickup.. i had that problem once and it was a damaged pot that was shorting with the ground.. but chances are just wiring the bare to ground will fix his problem

 

[birdman123]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Thanks for all the help. I definately will ground that bare wire first. I heard that it was there to shield the other wires. If that doesn't work, do you think that the pups could possibly be defective? I don't think its the pots simply because I wasn't having this problem til I put the SL's in.

 

[birdman123]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Update:

I rewired my guitar today bypassing some switches I put in, in order to make the wiring as basic as possible. I grounded the bare wires and followed the schematic off this site completely.

Result:

No change in the static noise I get from the pickups.

I'm out of ideas. defective pickups?

 

[hamerfan]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Do not think of the pickups first! Static noises can have a lot of reasons. Let me think of the most common. Do you have your bridge grounded? Bad ground of any component (pots, switches and so on), a defective output jack (they are often of bad quality) and others.
Use the exclusion method by leaving out one component after the other!

 

[Artie]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

I have this same problem with two of my guitars. Its worse in the winter, when the air is dry. What you're hearing is actual static discharge caused by rubbing your fingers on plastic. (The pickguard is plastic, right?) This doesn't really have anything to do with the electronics.

I solved one by making a temporary wooden pickguard. The other is still in pieces as a project guitar, but I plan to put some of that self-stick foil under the guard and ground it. Unfortunately, I can't say yet, whether that will work. You might try that.

 

[Malicious Matt]

Re: Problems with Seth Lover Pair OMG! Please help.

Well, that sounds like a dilly of a pickle.

Maybe a stupid question, but it the pickguard shielded?