Whole Lotta Humbuckers -- pretty noisy
- Thread starter Rocco Crocco
- Start date
ThreeChordWonder
New member
Tomorrow I'm going to shield the cavities and backplate, ground those, and see if it helps.
Some youtube video (yeah, I know) seem to think it's static caused by the human. But, as any car mechanic will tell you, it's the big nut behind the steering wheel that causes 99% of problems...
Some youtube video (yeah, I know) seem to think it's static caused by the human. But, as any car mechanic will tell you, it's the big nut behind the steering wheel that causes 99% of problems...
ThreeChordWonder
New member
Agreed. It's called belt and braces on my part.
ThreeChordWonder
New member
Okay.
I have had a crack team of scientists (team photo below) working on this all night.
First they installed copper foil in the control cavity and its cover, making sure the foil was grounded. No joy. It's not external from light fittings or whatever.
Then Beaker had the idea of checking the pickup grounds by taking a piece of insulated electrical wire and touching the bare ends to the pickup covers and already known to be grounded bridge. No joy.
What Beaker did notice was that when he touched one bare end to the bridge and the other to himself, thus grounding himself, the hum abated.
Bunsen remarked that he had just had the carpets cleaned. His hypothesis is that whatever was in the carpet shampoo has left them non conducting and therefore static buildup in the human was the cause.
I have had a crack team of scientists (team photo below) working on this all night.
First they installed copper foil in the control cavity and its cover, making sure the foil was grounded. No joy. It's not external from light fittings or whatever.
Then Beaker had the idea of checking the pickup grounds by taking a piece of insulated electrical wire and touching the bare ends to the pickup covers and already known to be grounded bridge. No joy.
What Beaker did notice was that when he touched one bare end to the bridge and the other to himself, thus grounding himself, the hum abated.
Bunsen remarked that he had just had the carpets cleaned. His hypothesis is that whatever was in the carpet shampoo has left them non conducting and therefore static buildup in the human was the cause.
Last edited:
ThreeChordWonder
New member
The team
ThreeChordWonder
New member
BTW my highschool chemistry teacher, Mr. Martin, was a fantastic teacher. Unfortunately his resemblance to a certain tall skinny, red haired, lab coat wearing, Muppet caused him great angst.
Wow, good work Robin!
I made the switch from plug-n-play EMGs to passives a few years back and my soldering / wiring learning curve was practically straight up and down. I would be ashamed for anyone on this forum to see my first few attempts at installing my own pickups. My skills and trouble shooting abilities have improved dramatically since that time. I found that the power in the room in the basement where I keep my gear is just plain ‘noisy’ compared to power upstairs in the kitchen. I ‘think’ I have tracked that down to the fact that our home’s HVAC runs through the same secondary breaker box as the outlets for the basement. Anytime the furnace or AC cycles on and off, I get noticeable buzzing and noise while playing through my amps down there. I fought with what I believed to be a ‘grounding’ problem with one of my very first pickup install attempts till I was blue in the face. I brought the guitar upstairs (where I have a practice amp hiding behind the living room sofa) for a change of scenery and lo and behold, it was dead quiet - no buzz, no hum. I took her right back downstairs where it buzzed once again. For reasons I cannot explain, my EMG equipped guitars were far less sensitive to this than the newly equipped passive pickup guitars. Now I always do pickup swaps at the kitchen counter and test them out with what I know to be ‘clean’ power. Just a thought.
Cdwillis
New member
ThreeChordWonder
New member
I've just ordered some copper braided sheath from Amazon, $21 for a 10 foot length. I'm going to try sheathing the wires between the toggle switch and the main control cavity, and wile I'm at it I'll shield the switch cavity and backplate in copper foil as well.
If that doesn't work...
If that doesn't work...
ThreeChordWonder
New member
New switch cord bundles made up, ready to go in. One for my WLH equipped Epi LP and one for my P90 equipped thinline.
I dispensed with the dedicated ground wires for the switch, adding "tails" soldered to the braiding instead. I then put heat shrink over the ends to smooth the out for pulling through and to stop the braiding from fraying.
We'll see if it has any benefit later today.
I dispensed with the dedicated ground wires for the switch, adding "tails" soldered to the braiding instead. I then put heat shrink over the ends to smooth the out for pulling through and to stop the braiding from fraying.
We'll see if it has any benefit later today.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
I am interested in the outcome on this.
I went back and spent some time trying to figure where my noise was coming from. All I was able to isolate so far is that it only happens when I use amp emulation pedals. If I plug straight in or don't use an amp simulator, there really isn't that much audible noise at all to start with for me. I believe the amp emulations I have may be significantly compressing and raising the signal without any gating or filtering to deal with any noise in the line.
Also, I'm not standing on carpet like your situation, but I am standing on a plastic sheet that's made for office chairs to roll easier, which is on top of a wood floor, so this static angle could be an interesting thing to troubleshoot. Maybe I need to get a small throw carpet to stand on? Or maybe stand on dryer sheets??
I went back and spent some time trying to figure where my noise was coming from. All I was able to isolate so far is that it only happens when I use amp emulation pedals. If I plug straight in or don't use an amp simulator, there really isn't that much audible noise at all to start with for me. I believe the amp emulations I have may be significantly compressing and raising the signal without any gating or filtering to deal with any noise in the line.
Also, I'm not standing on carpet like your situation, but I am standing on a plastic sheet that's made for office chairs to roll easier, which is on top of a wood floor, so this static angle could be an interesting thing to troubleshoot. Maybe I need to get a small throw carpet to stand on? Or maybe stand on dryer sheets??
ThreeChordWonder
New member
Well. I fitted my shielded switch leads to my Epi LP and my P90 thinline yesterday.
I'm happy to report that first impressions are that the hum from the LP has diminished significantly. It hasn't gone away completely, but first impression was that it's been reduced to the level where it's indistinguishable from the normal hiss I get from my particular Origin50. The 15-inch or so long wires between the switch and the control cavity are no longer anle to pick up JazzFM, it seems.
BB - Try grounding that plastic mat. Put a small alligator clip on a corner and run a wire to your amp's ground, a power strip ground, or some other piece of equipment with a ground wire running to the wall socket. For safety's sake, and unless you really REALLY know what you're doing, DO NOT use a 3-prong plug into a wall socket directly.
I'm happy to report that first impressions are that the hum from the LP has diminished significantly. It hasn't gone away completely, but first impression was that it's been reduced to the level where it's indistinguishable from the normal hiss I get from my particular Origin50. The 15-inch or so long wires between the switch and the control cavity are no longer anle to pick up JazzFM, it seems.
BB - Try grounding that plastic mat. Put a small alligator clip on a corner and run a wire to your amp's ground, a power strip ground, or some other piece of equipment with a ground wire running to the wall socket. For safety's sake, and unless you really REALLY know what you're doing, DO NOT use a 3-prong plug into a wall socket directly.
