Whole Lotta Humbuckers -- pretty noisy

[Rocco Crocco]

I just installed this set into a Les Paul. .Under medium higher gain amp settings, both neck and bridge are very noisy. The grounding is correct (when I disconnect ground, noise gets 10x worse). The pickups sound good otherwise. The Gibson 57s I removed from the guitar were very quiet.

I understand gain introduces more noise but using a different guitar with a Super Distortion pickup produces less noise.


Now my house's wiring is already pretty noisy, so I experience this to some extent with all my guitars. I can live with the noise for the most part using a Precision Drive noise gate, but I have to ask, are these pickups inherently noisier than a higher output pickup like a Super D?

 

[ErikH]

They shouldn't be, no. Do you have the red/white soldered together and covered? Without those connected, they are in split mode. I know you probably have that done but figured I'd ask.

There's been a few posts about noise after swaps to SD lately.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

They shouldn't be, no. Do you have the red/white soldered together and covered? Without those connected, they are in split mode. I know you probably have that done but figured I'd ask.

There's been a few posts about noise after swaps to SD lately.

Thank you and yes, red/white are soldered together with shrink tubing. Green/bare to ground and black is hot. The weird thing is that the noise is present with both the neck and bridge pickups, which made me think this was just a characteristic of the pickups.

There have been posts about newer Duncans in general being noisy? That's not good, but could lend credence to the fact that both pickups may be defective. These WLH pickups are pretty pricey and I don't want to keep them if they are supposed to be quiet.

 

[hamerfan]

If they have covers, test the resistances from cover to ground. Is the hardware still grounded (wire from the stoptail to ground) still there?

 

[ErikH]

I don't know for a fact whether it's a QA issue or not as I don't work there and my Duncans are quiet, even ones I've gotten in the last few years. Seems strange though.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

If they have covers, test the resistances from cover to ground. Is the hardware still grounded (wire from the stoptail to ground) still there?

The grounding is good. Could you tell me how to test the resistance from cover to ground? I do have a multi-meter.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

I don't know for a fact whether it's a QA issue or not as I don't work there and my Duncans are quiet, even ones I've gotten in the last few years. Seems strange though.

I also am not sure they are defective. A Super D may be inherently more quiet than these pickups. I think I will bring my amp and the guitar to my buddies house and see how it sounds there.

 

[Securb]

Interestingly that this is the second thread in a week where someone is experiencing noise with WLHs. I have them in two Les Pauls and mine are extremely quiet. I would be interested in hearing your experience after bringing the amp to your friend's house.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

If they have covers, test the resistances from cover to ground. Is the hardware still grounded (wire from the stoptail to ground) still there?

Oh boy. I should have double checked this when I first read it. In trying to determine if the covers were grounded, I discovered the ground wire to the tailpiece must not be connected. Continuity on all the pots and the output jack are checking out, no continuity with the ground wire, however.

I didn't think that was the problem because the guitar got much noisier when I disconnected the pickups ground wire from the circuit. I guess some of the noise went to what little ground there was in the pots? I know little about electronics so I am not sure, but I think I should be good when I reconnect the ground wire.

 

[ErikH]

Even without the ground wire to the tailpiece, the pots are connected to ground via the output jack. The bridge wire simply grounds the bridge/strings and YOU too. The ground wire simply acts as a path to ground for noise heard when it's not there because the strings are in contact with the pickup magnetic field and whatever else is in the air around them. So by grounding the strings, all that interference goes to ground.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

Even without the ground wire to the tailpiece, the pots are connected to ground via the output jack. The bridge wire simply grounds the bridge/strings and YOU too. The ground wire simply acts as a path to ground for noise heard when it's not there because the strings are in contact with the pickup magnetic field and whatever else is in the air around them. So by grounding the strings, all that interference goes to ground.

I have the ground wire sorted out and there is no change to the noise.

 

[Mincer]

They are not inherently noisy pickups, so I think the noise is somewhere outside the guitar.

 

[beaubrummels]

When I had a studio or at gigs just playing through amps, I never had a problem with Duncans or others. Where I started getting increased noise was at home within several feet of computer monitors, iPads, cell phones, laptops and other electronics on the same circuit. I think I hear it more with Duncans because mine are generally brighter pickups or just have a bit more top-end than others. (The DiMarzios and others I have are all darker pickups, so I don't hear the issue as strongly.) Also happens to me more with pedals and various pedal power solutions. I haven't sat down and tried to isolate the specific, biggest contributor, however. Need to look into that.

 

[eclecticsynergy]

It may be that the WLH has some coil offset, which could reduce hum rejection a bit in a noisy environment.
Most Duncan humbuckers are symmetrically wound, as are the 57 Classics (and I think the Super D).
Not sure whether that could be part of the issue here.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

I brought my WLH equipped guitar, plus the one with the Super Distortion to my friend's house. He recently got a Marshall DSL40, so I tried the guitars thru that amp and they were both equally quiet. The WLH pickups are not defective, but seem to be sensitive to the wiring in my house. I'll just have to make use of my noise gate when needed. Thanks for your replies everyone.

 

[devastone]

I understand gain introduces more noise but using a different guitar with a Super Distortion pickup produces less noise.

FWIW, passive pickups do not have active "gain", the Super D shouldn't be any noisier than the WLH. Single coil pickups can pick up more external noise than humbuckers because they don't have opposing windings.

 

[Rocco Crocco]

FWIW, passive pickups do not have active "gain", the Super D shouldn't be any noisier than the WLH. Single coil pickups can pick up more external noise than humbuckers because they don't have opposing windings.

Thanks. When referring to gain, I was talking about gain on the amp. Some humbuckers are noisier than others, including when the coils are mismatched, like someone else stated.

 

[devastone]

Oh, gotcha. I read that wong.

 

[EC Strat]

I have a WLH set and they work just any other set I’ve had when it comes to noise. Most of the time they’re dead quiet but every now and again they can get noisy with gain in the right situation In my instructors office they buzz like crazy - but so do my other HBs

 

[ThreeChordWonder]

I fitted a set of WLHs to my brand new Epi LP last week. I'm having the same problem. Still.

Despite having just installed a bridge ground (the tailpiece was/still is grounded by Epiphone but not the bridge, hmm), I'm still getting buzz.

I nuked the pot casing ground solder joints first. No joy.

I thought it was the amp (Marshall Origin50), but I don't get it with other guitars, and when I touch the strings it goes away. I tried bypassing the pedalboard and going direct into the amp, but no joy.

New cables were bought too. No joy.

I also checked the ohms from the backplate to the cover (zero) and from the backplate to the pot casings (also zero). By zero, I mean there's a circuit, because my multimeter beeper is telling me so, but the ohms are too low for my meter to read.

I'm stumped. And disappointed.