Soloist ground humming problems

[Burkwieser]

I just recieved my Soloist, and it is in mint condition. I am very happy with the Ebay purchase. I am having a grounding problem though. Just wondering if any of you have had the same, or might have some idea what I could do. It hums louder than it is suppose to. If I touch either the tone or volume nobs, it stops. If I touch the area around the pups (not the actual pup itself) it stops. If I touch the strings or trem, it is still humming. Any ideas, or what I could do? I opened it up and everything is wired and grounded correctly.

 

[Kent S.]

Re: Soloist ground humming problems

I just recieved my Soloist, and it is in mint condition. I am very happy with the Ebay purchase. I am having a grounding problem though. Just wondering if any of you have had the same, or might have some idea what I could do. It hums louder than it is suppose to. If I touch either the tone or volume nobs, it stops. If I touch the area around the pups (not the actual pup itself) it stops. If I touch the strings or trem, it is still humming. Any ideas, or what I could do? I opened it up and everything is wired and grounded correctly.

If it equiped with a Floyd (Flyod on a Jackson ... there's a stretch ...) ... chances are the floyd bridge is not grounded, just the way they made some of them ... (I can't guess as to why the hums stops when your hand is near the pups specifically, but human bodies do weird things to electrical fields),
you can ground the spring claw in the trem cavity, and that should take care of it, might have to drill a hole thru. If it's a hardtail, then same deal ... that's the only thing I can think of at the moment ... hey Zerb ...

 

[Burkwieser]

Re: Soloist ground humming problems

The claw is grounded. As far as being close to the pup and it stopping. It only stops if I touch the metal edge around the pup. The area that holds the springs to adjust the pup height.

 

[Kent S.]

Re: Soloist ground humming problems

The claw is grounded. As far as being close to the pup and it stopping. It only stops if I touch the metal edge around the pup. The area that holds the springs to adjust the pup height.

Then if it has a bridge ground I'd have to say that theres a a fault there somewhere ... I've heard of some Floyds not being able to ground properly ... something I read somwhere ... didn't make sense to me, since they are made out of metal. Check that ground line, make sure it's well actually grounded to the back of a pot or other ground connection.

 

[Burkwieser]

Re: Soloist ground humming problems

Yep! I checked them all out. I am thinking of getting a wire with a bare end on each side and do some careful touching. Ugh!

 

[Robert S.]

Re: Soloist ground humming problems

Burk, believe it or not you just might have a bad pot. Every once in awhile I get a guitar on the bench with this problem. I haven't found an easy way to test this out so I'll suggest what I do.

Completely remove the pots from the guitar. Connect the bridge pickup directly to the output jack. If the humming goes away then you have a bad pot. The only problem is figuring out which one it is. The easy thing to do is to replace all the pots and caps. That always works for me the first time. The other way would be to reinstall and check each pot one at a time until you find the noisy component. I never do that. It takes too long and can be very frustrating.

If the guitar hums with the pots and caps out, you most likely have a bad bridge ground, but you can quickly check that with an omh meter connected to the output jack sleeve and the bridge.

 

[Burkwieser]

Re: Soloist ground humming problems

Burk, believe it or not you just might have a bad pot. Every once in awhile I get a guitar on the bench with this problem. I haven't found an easy way to test this out so I'll suggest what I do.

Completely remove the pots from the guitar. Connect the bridge pickup directly to the output jack. If the humming goes away then you have a bad pot. The only problem is figuring out which one it is. The easy thing to do is to replace all the pots and caps. That always works for me the first time. The other way would be to reinstall and check each pot one at a time until you find the noisy component. I never do that. It takes too long and can be very frustrating.

If the guitar hums with the pots and caps out, you most likely have a bad bridge ground, but you can quickly check that with an omh meter connected to the output jack sleeve and the bridge.

Thanks a bunch! I'll go ahead and run through that.