Ok I know this has been argued about almost as much as how to set up Strat pups. I have that common and annoying problem of the buzz that only stops when I touch my strings (on a 5120). Part of it is my house being a noise trap and poorly grounded. On solid bodied humbucker and single coil guitars I have fixed it with sheilding adding sheilded wiring running to the output jack and re-doing grounds. My Tele I have made near silent this way, and greatly improved other guitars. Now I know it will never go away completely due to the physics of humbuckers, but any suggestions on improving this annoyance in a hollow body? Rob
Age old Ground hum question
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- Rated: 17 ↑
Aug 22, 2008 7:59 a.m. NavyChief:
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Aug 22, 2008 9:51 a.m. GentlBen:
Somebody please answer this one! I have the same problem with my DeArmond 2K's.
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Aug 22, 2008 10:20 a.m. Wishinfora(nother)Falcon:
Is the ground wire soldered to the pup cover? Stock, they often are not. Try that. Just run a jumper wire from the ground to the cover
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Aug 22, 2008 11:14 a.m. NavyChief:
Ok I'll check that should I run the ground series from one cover to the next or parallel a seperate wire for each? Rob
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Aug 22, 2008 12:47 p.m. Wishinfora(nother)Falcon:
It doesn't really matter as long as each cover runs to ground. It's easier to run one to the other. Good Luck
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Aug 22, 2008 12:50 p.m. NavyChief:
Cool Thanks, Oh I almost forgot, I read one article that said if the cover is grounded to a leg of the base plate it will work as well. Rob
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Aug 22, 2008 2:25 p.m. Wishinfora(nother)Falcon:
As long as it all runs to ground.
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Aug 22, 2008 2:40 p.m. NavyChief:
yep sounds logical, I am more familiar with single coils, is the metal plate the pole pices run through grounded? Rob
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Aug 22, 2008 4:12 p.m. Wishinfora(nother)Falcon:
I'm not sure (I don't have a 5120)but I would think everything metal should run to ground in some fashion or another.
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Aug 22, 2008 5:33 p.m. NavyChief:
I read out the adjustment screws they read a solid ground, the pup covers do not. I tried an experiment with the metal tape and no joy, it looks though like the covers are solidly soldered to the base plates though, interesting....I will experiment. The tape I think does not supply a good enough ground ie like a cold solder joint. I kinda thought that I still get about 3-5 ohms to ground, where all other petal parts are at about .03 ohms. I love this stuff, well I hate the hum but I love 'lectrics, guess that's why I am an electrician! Rob
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Aug 22, 2008 8:03 p.m. Wishinfora(nother)Falcon:
Cool Man! Have fun with it. I'm no electrician but I built a couple of effects pedals and did some mods and have enjoyed every bit of it. It's all fun: playing, electronics, woodworking. It's a complete package
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Aug 22, 2008 11:15 p.m. tartan phantom:
Rob, a buzz or hum that goes away when you touch the strings usually indicates insufficient bridge/tailpiece ground. Make sure that the tailpiece groundwire is making good contact at both ends.
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Aug 23, 2008 12:14 a.m. Matt:
All good points and grounding the pick up covers is definitely something I'll do, but just to play the devil's advocate, when you are playing, you are touching the strings... so what't's the big deal?
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Aug 23, 2008 1:21 a.m. tommy59:
NavyChief said: the buzz that only stops when I touch my strings. . .
tartan phantom said: . . . usually indicates insufficient bridge/tailpiece ground
t-phan is right. The strings need to be grounded. Period. Grounding the pickup covers may be helpful with other sources of hum (such as a house with grounding issues), but the specific problem you mentioned will not go away until you fix the string grounding.
BTW, humbuckers were designed specifically to "buck the hum" produced by stuff like flourescent lights, etc. All things being equal, they should be quieter than single coils in troublesome electromagnetic environments.
Good luck, Chief.
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Aug 23, 2008 12:03 p.m. NavyChief:
I read out the bridge to grouund and get abot.02 ohms. pretty decent contimuity, the pup covers were reading about 75 neck 112 ohms bridge, I got them down to about 5 with the metal tape trick, I will dive into it more one of these days when I feel like opening it up and have the strings off again, is it possible even with such good continuity my bruidge/Bigsby still is not grounded well enough? Rob
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Aug 23, 2008 11:41 p.m. NavyChief:
So I soldered on a ground wire from each pup cover to the master volume pot case, made apretty big dent in the noise, I may do more poking around for cold solder joints and the like, but it is better at least! Rob
