hush hush telecaster

A

ahuimanu

New member
Hi,

I picked up a MIM telecaster in March (which is a solid instrument for the price) and am really enjoying it while I can. The stock single-coils sound nice enough to me but this guitar is a buzzy and noisy monster.

I have to turn off nearly all the lights to stop the buzz, BUT! I also have to touch the plating that holds the volume and tone knob to silence a particularly higher-pitched buzz. I am not sure if this is an insulation problem or a grounding problem, but I'd like to fix this as it would be near impossible to record under these conditions (got the guit for my home studio).

Do you have any suggestions on how to stop the hum/buzz or could you point me off in the right direction?

J-
 
Take the pickguard off and make sure there is a wire connecting the bridge to the casing of each pot and any ground wires from your pickups. Finally, the wire should connect to the ground wire on the input jack.

That's what most manufacturers try to do. It might also be that you are in a very noisy environment, you body is acting like an antenna, and by touching the strings you are inducing noise into the signal chain. More common with single coil guitars, less common with humbuckers.

Try inserting a noise gate in your chain if nothing else works.

If your using a CRT monitor, either turn it off while recording, or replace it with a flat panel monitor. I just replaced my CRT and now the only thing comming out of my strat is sweet twang!
 
thanks for reply,

I should be clear that the most annoying of the interferance and buzzy/hums are eliminated WHEN I touch the plate holding the volume and tone knobs (This includes touching the knobs themselves).

My house is on the smaller side and my room must accomodate my computers and myself. I turn off all lamps and all monitors and DO have an LCD monitor which only creates a problem if I put the guitar right up to it.

I don't really want to get rid of the stock pups, but do I need to buy some of that sheilding tape or something for the insides?

J-
 
I'm not familiar with shielding tape. I did buy a guitar once that had the entire pickup cavity coated with some sort of graphite based paint. Supposedly it helped to keep the guitar quiet, I don't know how effective this sort of treatment really is.
 
Exactly what KaBudokan said...
I've silenced all my axes with a roll of copper tape and a soldering iron. Guitarnuts is THE place to go.
 
Thanks again all,

I have followed the link and I am checking it out now. I also did a little of my own research and found this guy:

http://www.kinman.com/

The stuff looks cool, but a set of Tele pups is pretty damned close to the cost of my MIM tele!!! Anyone heard of kinman or used the stuff before?

Anyhow, I am not affraid to get in there and get down with a soldering iron (I may not have used one since boyhood), but I have a personal policy to try to let specialists touch my guitar (I am no specialist). I know it is just a cheap MIM, but I am certainly not a rich man (my other axe is an Epi Les Paul - proving that I buy the plain vanilla geetars).

Again I appreciate the help and would welcome any other input. I finally got some sweet tones out of the POD 2.3 and this guit, but the hum/buzz isn't going to be too cool to record.

Cheers,

J-
 
i've got a similar situation......

http://www.ebtechaudio.com/he-2des.htm



this is what i think i'm going to try....
he-2.jpg
 
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