Something I forgot: I get the buzz even with a laptop running on batteries/totally unplugged from the wall.
Yes, you will. This is NOT an earth/ground loop problem, it is straight mains hum pickup amplified digitally TF!
Dave.
Something I forgot: I get the buzz even with a laptop running on batteries/totally unplugged from the wall.
I have done a lot of pickup swapping in my guitars through the years and every time I had a hum problem, that quieted when I touched the strings, ended up being a ground issue. 60 cycle hum (which I think is what he may have ment with "60 htz") hums no matter whether you touch the strings or not. You can pivet around in a complete circle and there be 2 points where the hum is the quietest (polar opposite of each other) and there will be two points where the hum is loudest (also polar opposite of each other.) Also, and hum no matter how slight will be manified 10 fold by any distortion or crunch you add.Nizhny, why did you say "60Hz hum" in your first post? *
The attached spectrum clearly shows a dominant 50Hz component then 100Hz then a mid band mess. The latter is due to the fact that amp sims can use enormous DIGTAL gains without the constraints of hiss and microphony associated with analogue electronics.
No free lunch though because it still amplifies all the crap from the guitar that it picks up from the 'ether' !
Re the hand, hum string thing? I would intuitively think a properly shielded guitar WITH the strings bonded to the bridge AND the bridge bonded to jack earth would not hum differently whether touched or no. IF this is the case I would be suspicious of the quality of the equipment or/and mains earthing?
In the annyloggy amp world you can have an amplifier that has a very respectable signal to noise ration of 50dB below full power (that's bloody good for a valve gitamp!) but switch in the OD channel, if it has one, and this can degrade hugely to worse than 20dB below FP. Fact of electronic life I am afraid. Plug in a guitar and things all go to H in a pram!
* So, where TF ARE you?
Dave.(btw, yes as someone said, most DAWs have a 'visulizer' but they are often not very precise at hum frequencies)
That's really about all you can do short of using a noise gate
I have done a lot of pickup swapping in my guitars through the years and every time I had a hum problem, that quieted when I touched the strings, ended up being a ground issue.
Should have said..In my tests the strings were earthed to the bridge and the bridge connected to the jack earth. In my test it did not matter whether I touched a string or not. Once the 'blip' had subsided, noise read exactly the same.
I also IMPLORE people NOT to tape wire to their bodies NOR touch earthed objects whilst holding a hummy guitar! Certainly don't in UK* 240 volt
Vintage strats were most certainly sheilded. I still have a 1966 and have had experience with scores of them. The shielding on a vintage strat is a thin metal plate, the same size as the pickguard, beneath the pickguard. The pickup screws and pickup switch hold this plate to the bottom of the pickguard. Fender switched to that cheesy tin foil shit that is stuck to the pickguard...probably to cut costs. The thin plate is vastly superior fo the tin foil IMHO. All shielding does is tone down the 60 cycle hum. It does nothing to lower hum from improper grounding.Jimistone, you suprise me being a vintage strat afficionado with your understanding. (Unless I am misinterpreting what you are defining as a "ground issue".
All factory stock vintage strats are NOT shielded and the middle pup is NOT wound to give you noise cancelation in the middle positions. And dependent upon year, sometimes middle positions don't even exist due to having a 3 way instead of 5 way switch.
ALL single coils buzz, or hum or whatever you want to call it.listen to any live Hendrix recording and you can hear it.
ALL strats also have a string ground, and when you are touching the strings the hum decreases. This is normal and the nature of the beast.
I suppose in theory, it should all ground out via the cable shield and the grounding in the amp, but in the real world your body is part of the ground. If that wasn't the case, there would not be a string ground.
On Norlin era Les pauls, they omitted the string ground entirely and shielded the guitar by enclosing the components in those metal cans.
However, despite the pickups being "humbuckers" and the shielding, they still hummed. Installing a proper string ground solved that, but as soon as your hand released from anything metal, the hum returned.
I build and repair guitars for a living and have worked on thousands of electrics and built in excess of 500 instruments ( not counting parts-casters) over my 37 some years of doing this.
It is normal for a guitar to make more noise when you remove your hands.
Shielding helps reduce noise, but not 100%.
The ONLY instruments that I've come across that are truly 'noise free' are those that have active pickups.
To bring up the Norlin Les Paul example again.... I've had clients that gigged with their guitar for years and never noticed it.
Until.......they went into the studio.
In the studio EVERYTHING is magnified.
Most guys never complain about the noises their instruments make untill it's studio time.
In today's age with the home studio, and with super clean digital recording, more noises are more apparent than ever before.
Also, and this is just my opinion, I think we live in a more electrical noisy world. There's a lot of juice flowing around and there's a lot of stuff in the air. I don't know the impact of things like cell towers and wifi, but I'm sure it has some effect. And all these damn "smart" appliances and tvs. Our hardlines and airwaves are polluted.
So as to solutions, shield your guitar, maybe upgrade pickups. (Good pups have a higher signal to noise ratio), clean up the juice in your home with a power conditioner, stay off off lines that are shared with motors. (Fans, fridge, a/c units ets).
As to upgrades on your guitar, everything makes a difference. Good pickups, good quality pots, switches, good caps, as well as wire. I've found the good old 50s style wire with the braided shield to be quieter than the modern foil shield wire. A lot of little things all add up. For strats it's a bit too much to try to rewire with the shielded wire, so copper shielding is a viable option.
Also experiment with times when there is less electrical activity going on.
Also, check your cables and your amp.
A shitty cable can make a hell of a lot of noise as well as a faulty or crap amp.
Ps, an old trick for in the studio. Attach a wire from anything metal on your guitar and tape it to you body. That way when you remove your hand from the strings, the string ground is still active.
Hope some of this helps.
OP: The harsh nature of the sounds is just what you get with an amp sim because of the massive boost. You get something similar with high gain pedals but they usually roll the HF off a bit to cut the edge.
Vintage strats were most certainly sheilded. I still have a 1966 and have had experience with scores of them. The shielding on a vintage strat is a thin metal plate, the same size as the pickguard, beneath the pickguard. The pickup screws and pickup switch hold this plate to the bottom of the pickguard. Fender switched to that cheesy tin foil shit that is stuck to the pickguard...probably to cut costs. The thin plate is vastly superior fo the tin foil IMHO. All shielding does is tone down the 60 cycle hum. It does nothing to lower hum from improper grounding.
Yes....you will have SOME grounding hum and touching the strings will quiet it. But, on a properly grounded strat it is barely audible. On my 1966 strat with vintage...no reverse wound middle pu....it is barely audible if audible at all. It has been my experience, when doing pickup swaps on strats and les pauls, that when there is a highly audible hum that quiets when you touch the strings you have a grounding problem.
Normally a bad solder joint or a damaged wire.
That has been my experience and I stand behind that 100%
Tele is a great design. The control plate acts as a shield. The bridge pickup is encased in the bridge, and the neck pickup is in its own metal case.