Re: Which passive full size humbuckers have the best signal to noise ratio?
I'm going to say this - and you won't like it, but I'm going to say it. Why? Because sometimes we just need a serious shot of common sense.
Full Disclosure: I don't "mind" the noise because I'm too busy focussing on the music!
Now (brace for impact):
Get a freaking grip man. This is not about the damn pickups or the guitar or anything. You have a cheap freaking Fender Mustang or whatever in a room with what appears to be at least 10 more amps, wired to all sorts of polarities, with guitars and cables going who knows where. I'm not even going get into the wiring of the room/house etc. And guess what? It's noisy....REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
My call on this is that you have more money and gear than sense, and love gear more than music. If you had more sense, less gear, and loved music more (you know - the actual sounding notes), you would have an amp or two, a Strat, a Les Paul, a shredder and a tele, and be making notes instead of worrying about hum. And how loud is that amp turned up to??? And how much gain??? Gain = amplifying ALL the noise!
Gonna say this: You are not capable of playing in my 80's hair band, and could not play out anywhere I have ever been. The "noise" would bother you too much. Yet even as that is the case.....you are doing everything possible to generate noise!
Go find a room, take ONE amp, put a power conditioner between it and the wall, use one good shielded cable, and three guitars. That is as quiet as it will ever get. Period. The end. If it isn't quite enough, take up knitting.
:smack:
Aceman, since you were blunt, I will also be blunt.
You don't know what you are talking about, with regards to whether or not I love gear more than music or whether or not I have more money and gear than sense. Your "call" is bogus. And, I don't really care whether or not I am, as you say, not capable of playing in your 80's hair band, and could not play out anywhere you have ever been. And, how do you know that "the "noise" dealt with playing there "would bother me too much" and that I am "doing everything possible to generate noise"?
You simply don't. You're spouting drivel on the net, aren't you?
But, let me explain my position - since you have a problem with me requesting info about what it takes for me to obtain a lower noise floor.
I own a Strat, a Tele (in the video), an archtop, an acoustic guitar, and my first acoustic guitar that I grew up on. Two of those guitars were given to me. They were
FREE. One of them is the Tele in the video. I play a Fender Mustang III (not in the video) because it was given to me
FREE by a customer who appreciated that I was trying hard to help him whenever he showed up at the guitar shop that I work at. All those amps and many thousands of guitars that you can't see in the video are on our sales floor at the store that I work at. Again, I don't own those amps or control the layout of the wiring of my employer's building. So, I don't control exactly how noisy that showroom floor is. I assure you that I have neither money to throw away or the desire to spend it frivolously on the many awesome amps and guitars that we sell at the shop. I don't make much money. I play my guitar in my tiny apartment. I have downstairs neighbors with a ceiling plan directly beneath where I play and a row of A/C units directly outside my window. So, due to circumstances beyond my immediate control, I have to deal with noise coming into my environment. As far as I can tell, I will not not able to move any time in the immediate future. The noise that you hear in the video is at least as loud as it is in my apartment, which is partly why I want stop it at the pickups. If I loved gear more than I love music, I wouldn't even be asking these questions - which I am doing in an effort to not waste the little money that I have to try to fix this problem. And, if you asked my coworkers, they could tell you how often I tell people that I don't even want or feel it's necessary to own more guitars than a few.
Now, concerning your other lies and nonsense statements about me: I have no desire to play in your 80's hair band on any day - ever. (Not unless you actually preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there.) But, I assure you than I am capable of doing so. I have chosen a lifestyle contrary to sin and evil. I used to play at filthy bars full of druggies/drunks, punk rock clubs, house parties, and whatever kinds of gigs my noisy punk rock band could get it's hands on - for years. I grew up on industrial, metal (all genres), hardcore, indie, straight noise music, and am a known noisemaker. Despite that, because we apparently have the technology (as demonstrated in the video I posted with the dead-quiet $150.00 Squier), I should be able to choose when I want to hear noise and when I do not. As guitar players, don't we choose between a clean sounds, overdriven sounds, distorted sounds, and fuzzy sounds? Aren't those are all basically shades of noise?
But, here you are, on the net spewing nonsense, saying "Go find a room, take ONE amp, put a power conditioner between it and the wall, use one good shielded cable, and three guitars. That is as quiet as it will ever get. Period. The end. If it isn't quite enough, take up knitting."
This isn't a matter of common sense. This is a matter of me trying to find the appropriate tools for the job, according to the "art" I plan to make. Why do you think that it's acceptable for you to decide for me how dirty a tone I am allowed to have? How do you know that it will only ever get as quiet as you suggested or what noise floor is sufficient for my uses? And, if we have completely different pickups (which have different s/n ratios), wouldn't it stand to reason that we might reach different conclusions regarding what is/isn't quiet enough?
Full Disclosure: I never "got" Ace. But, I guess that's off-topic. Ace plays humbuckers, btw. I wonder what Kiss would have sounded like if someone in the past had decided that single coils were as good as it was ever going to get and that the technology was good enough for everybody - so that humbuckers were never invented. I'm wondering if he would have just stuck to single coils or given up guitar for knitting. Hmmm...
