Humbucker Hum

[jammoore99]

Just put in SD 59's in my 2013 Washburn HB 35 along with new 500K POTS. I play mostly clean, no distortion. When not playing there is a noticeable hum, not loud but noticeable. Anyone have similar experience with these pickups, suggestions to eliminate the hum or, is it something that needs to be lived with?

On another note, while writing this listening to the Dead & Co's Wrigly Field concert June 2019. If anyone's interested here's the link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5MIPP2zUdQ.

Thanks, take care and be safe.

 

[CapnDenny1]

I have very few guitars that are dead silent. Most of them have had the same shielding added and use similar parts. Some pickups do let more noise in than others.

Humbuckers eliminate (reduce) the 60 hz picked up by the coils. But there is also a lot of other places where noise can get into the signal path.

Covers over the humbucker coils can reduce noise as well.

The guitar cord is also a bad place for noise.

My biggest problem is me. My body makes a very good antenna, which in turn makes it a very bad source of noise. I usually ave level of background noise coming from my body. When hold. Guitar up against my body and don’t touch the strings or some other metal, the guitar is pretty noisy. If I hold it a foot or two away, the noise goes way down. It also goes down if I am touching the strings or have my palm on the bridge.

One other thing, make sure you cell phone isn’t causing issues. I keep mine in my shirt pocket.

Perhaps check your wiring? I put new pickups in before and somehow swapped the signal and shield connections to the 1/4” jack in the guitar. It wasn’t as obvious as you would think it would be?

 

[OG_Blues]

I usually ave level of background noise coming from my body.

Capn - Maybe you spent too much time looking at your feet through one of these when you were a kid???
https://www.wired.com/2010/11/vintage-shoe-fitting-x-ray-machines-will-zap-your-feet/

I also have a lot of background noise coming from my body - especially after a big plate of beans.

 

[John-G]

I have very few guitars that are dead silent. Most of them have had the same shielding added and use similar parts. Some pickups do let more noise in than others.

Humbuckers eliminate (reduce) the 60 hz picked up by the coils. But there is also a lot of other places where noise can get into the signal path.

Covers over the humbucker coils can reduce noise as well.

The guitar cord is also a bad place for noise.

My biggest problem is me. My body makes a very good antenna, which in turn makes it a very bad source of noise. I usually ave level of background noise coming from my body. When hold. Guitar up against my body and don’t touch the strings or some other metal, the guitar is pretty noisy. If I hold it a foot or two away, the noise goes way down. It also goes down if I am touching the strings or have my palm on the bridge.

One other thing, make sure you cell phone isn’t causing issues. I keep mine in my shirt pocket.

Perhaps check your wiring? I put new pickups in before and somehow swapped the signal and shield connections to the 1/4” jack in the guitar. It wasn’t as obvious as you would think it would be?

Cap'n -
I've noticed that when using WiFi instead of a cord, there is no noise. But when I do use a cord, I experience the same interferences as you.

 

[CaptainMoto]

Capn - Maybe you spent too much time looking at your feet through one of these when you were a kid???
https://www.wired.com/2010/11/vintage-shoe-fitting-x-ray-machines-will-zap-your-feet/

I also have a lot of background noise coming from my body - especially after a big plate of beans.

Oh man!
Hard to believe us old folks used to use those x-ray machines like gum ball machines.
Wonder what stupid crap we're doing today that we'll look back on with shock.

OOPS!
I think I already know some stupid stuff we're doing, guess we never learn.

 

[CaptainMoto]

Back to the subject at hand..........

The source of noise is so damn hard to zero in on.
I definitely know my phone is a problem.

 

[sdbrit68]

I put p90's in a les paul and zero noise and I always heard those were noisy..............but I also did full tape shielding in mine

could a bad solder joint cause this ?

 

[dvs]

I had that issue after I put vintage noiseless pickups in my Stratocaster. The single-coil buzzing went away with the new pickups, but there was still a hum (likely it had always been there, I just never noticed it through the rest of the noise). I added shielding all around the pickup and control cavities, twisted the pickup wires (don't know if that helped much, but it couldn't hurt and it looked nice), and explicitly grounded everything - for example, the pots were originally grounded to the pickguard shielding by the nut on the shafts being in contact with the foil backing under the pickguard, which was unreliable. A continuity tester is a valuable tool for checking that everything is grounded to the shielding and that the shielding is continuous.

Oh, almost forgot - the humming is gone.

 

[jammoore99]

All - thanks for all the information and advice. I don't use a lot of gain, usually at 2+, in playing with the amp controls in hopes of finding a way to limit the hum, I turned the gain all the way down and the hum went away. I think the problem is solved for now.

 

[Al Holloway]

As has been said may be a cold soldered joint. I normally need to resolder my builds 2-3 times before I am happy. It may be the lighting or mains power. If you turn the gain up and turn through 90 deg (holding the guitar) does the noise get louder and quieter? If so it is picking up interference. Try another room or moving round the room. Wireless routers are bad sources of interference. It is normally more noticable on single coils but can happen on humbuckers. I have a guitar with has a low hum in standard which then gets noticeably louder switching to split coil mode and in split coil if I move the guitar around I can normally find a position where the noise almost disapears (never in a comfortable playing position of course). However once I start playing it isn't an issue. If you watch video's of players used to single coil you will often see them turn the vol to 0 when not playing to get rid of unwanted noise. You can heavily shield the guitar to remove noise but I have heard some players claim it affects the tone of the guitar and they don't like it.

cheers

Al.

 

[matonanjin]

Capn - Maybe you spent too much time looking at your feet through one of these when you were a kid???
https://www.wired.com/2010/11/vintage-shoe-fitting-x-ray-machines-will-zap-your-feet/

Yes, I did.
"If you were buying shoes in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, it's likely that you regularly inserted a tootsie into one of these death-rays." For me it was the 50's. We thought this was the coolest thing. My buddies and I would jump on our bikes and ride to the shoe store, Haney's Shoes, on Maple Street. Just about every day until the owner said "No more". Not that he was concerned about our health. We were just disruptive to the legitimate customers wanting to get a shoe size so they could buy something!

 

[Jay Dee]

Haney's on Maple street...that takes me back

 

[Rancid Rumpboogie]

Wiring guitars can be really frusterbating for sure. I have completely wired many and have had quite a range of problems to sort out, a few that took re-doing the entire wiring job (several times) and being ultra-careful to get rid of hum, and when the problem was solved never did know EXACTLY what caused it, all I know is there was SOMETHING amiss in my original attempt that completely eluded checking everything out by eyeball. Probably some little hair-thin wire missed when twisting the end of a stranded wire for soldering that was making contact where no contact should be ... who knows?

One thing I do know ... a quality set of pickups like SD 59's should not hum at all. Whatever your problem is, it's not the pickups.