Noiseless Pickups

Yeah I agree, actually, it's just that ...well...I am anal about tone and haven't played live in years, so I want it to go well (without noise, etc).
Anyway, I will put them in middle position and suck up that it's not my favorite sound. Rolling off the treble helps with that position and will have to do. Thanks!
 
I blame the rise of Home Recording and the stupidly cheap (relative to tape) and fabulous quality, especially low noise, of modern interfaces!

Peeps were quite happy down at the Mucky Duck with their Marshalls or Fenders and their buzzy Strats for donkeys! Drummer rarely shut TFup and the boozed punters made a background drone that hid the git/amp's shortcomings.

THEN! Gitists Fred get hiself a F'rite and marvels at the inky black silent background UNTIL he pugs in his guitar!

Dave.
 
I blame the rise of Home Recording and the stupidly cheap (relative to tape) and fabulous quality, especially low noise, of modern interfaces!

Hm, I don't know about that. I love the sound of tape and still use it.
I think noisy pickups are just annoying, so if better technology replaces them it's worth looking at. The issue is I'm not sure I want to drop $250 on noiseless pickups if they sound sterile or suck the tone/character out of the standard ones. It's an expensive experiment, so I figured I'd ask opinions. Improving technology is a good thing if it doesn't sacrifice something important.
 
Hm, I don't know about that. I love the sound of tape and still use it.
I think noisy pickups are just annoying, so if better technology replaces them it's worth looking at. The issue is I'm not sure I want to drop $250 on noiseless pickups if they sound sterile or suck the tone/character out of the standard ones. It's an expensive experiment, so I figured I'd ask opinions. Improving technology is a good thing if it doesn't sacrifice something important.


Well, I certainly did not want to start a cow about tape! I come from a recording culture that wants the recording medium to NOT "have a sound"!

My tests of a few years ago gave me a noise floor for a Mex Strat* of about -70dBFS at optimum orientation (hanging upside down 4 feet off the floor in the corner. I jest, but ykwimean!) Only a very good tape deck at 15ips will get there without NR.

*I have recently "done a number" on son's old Strat and screened the ***T out of it. Must repeat the test especially since the NI KA6 is about 6dB better for noise than the old 2496+mixer rig.

Just re-read. My point about tape was that you would have had to spend a heck of a lot more than the $150 for a decent AI to get within 30dB of the noise spec of digital with tape. People like "the sound" of tape because of its shortcomings.

Dave.
 
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I'm going to be playing live soon... I've read that noiseless pickups suck tone. Is there truth to this? ...

If you are playing bars and pubs then your sole purpose of being there is to sell beer. Rest easy in the fact that nobody is listening to you; people are wanting to get drunk or get laid... or both.

Just get out there and enjoy it for what it is... and make some money while you're at it.
 
Two kind of noise are affecting electric guitars: 50/60Hz hum and EMI/RFI noise (interference).
If we are talking about hum-free single coil format (Strat, Tele, P90, etc., and not only) and the same time about authentic single coil sounding pickups - there are only Kinman zero-hum pickups. Kinmans are simply perfect authentic sounding, perfect balanced, no hum, and made in the very best quality. I can say - there are Kinman pickups, and all other "noiseless pickups"...
Other talk is about right guitar's shielding-grounding against EMI/RFI noise. The best solution is wood cavities shielding with conductive paint, and plastic parts - pick-guard and cavity covers shielding with aluminium or copper foil. All possible metal parts of guitar must be grounded (including screws, neck plate, truss rod, etc.). Most of all factory made guitars are wrong shielded, and 99.9% of them are wrong grounded, because shield grounds and signal grounds must be separated and connected only at the output jack. Even better is to use TRS stereo jack (with separated grounds - signal ground on the "ring" contact) on guitar, and special (TRS plug - symmetric cable - TS plug) guitar cable - until first input device (connecting grounds together only at TS plug end). Use the ferrite bead (EMI/RFI filter) at the TS (amp/pedal) end of guitar cable for additional protection of you electronic circuits from EMI/RFI noise.
 
As others have said. Don't worry about it and turn down your guitar between songs.

That said, I have a 2017 Tele with N4s - super, super quiet.
 
So I re-soldered the pots and it seems much quieter now. This is an AVRI Fender so a big surprising.
Would an iffy joint lead to those symptoms of noise?
 
So I re-soldered the pots and it seems much quieter now. This is an AVRI Fender so a big surprising.
Would an iffy joint lead to those symptoms of noise?

Yes. And is probably the MAJOR cause of all emi/rfi leakage at any point in the chain. Amps are especially bad at this. Modern tube amps (mass produced ones especially) with PCB's that are solder dipped will have poor conductance at some point in their lives. This leads to the increase of noise in a venue(for example) with 'iffy' electrical systems at the stage....perhaps reversed polarity plugs...perhaps a circuit on the same phase as the bar equipment ie: drink mixers/refrigeration equipment/blenders/etc. It doesn't have to be the same circuit but if it's on the same phase all of that stuff will induce noise through any electronic gear on the same phase.

There's nothing you can do about a venue except make sure all your gear is grounded properly and your guitars are shielded. Also....when playing single coils learn to find the sweet spot on the stage and play from there.

I have zero problem with the the N4/N3 noiseless pickups in Strats and Teles. Maybe you can tell the difference in a studio setting between these and vintage P/U's but in a noisy bar you cannot.
 
Cavedog. I don't know about the US but in the EU all electronic equipment has to meet very stringent standards for EMI ingress and egress. This can be a protracted and expensive business for new designs.

I can assure you that "our" amplifiers met the standards. I never in 3 years had a complaint of RFI trouble, not even with amplifiers with IC front ends! I did have a guy with a problem but it turned out he lived only a few 100 yards from some hush-hush naval transmitting ***t. Nothing was going to keep THAT out!

It is not possible to reverse a mains plug in UK unless you chop off the moulded one and fit another, wrongly.

Dave.
 
I'm aware of standards being met in manufacturing. My point being that (and this is quite a few years of experience) that after extended use and all the abuse that comes from moving gear from place to place, that amps can begin to exhibit noise and interference from hinky solder joints that they wouldn't have had, had they been in the bedroom or stationary all their lives. Even hand wired ,point-to-point amps, will eventually show where the bad solder joints are through lots of use. And in my experience, MOST of the problems in guitars/amps/audio gear in general are from poor solder joints which under certain circumstances will create other much more devastating conditions for the piece of gear. Heat related failures especially.
 
I'm aware of standards being met in manufacturing. My point being that (and this is quite a few years of experience) that after extended use and all the abuse that comes from moving gear from place to place, that amps can begin to exhibit noise and interference from hinky solder joints that they wouldn't have had, had they been in the bedroom or stationary all their lives. Even hand wired ,point-to-point amps, will eventually show where the bad solder joints are through lots of use. And in my experience, MOST of the problems in guitars/amps/audio gear in general are from poor solder joints which under certain circumstances will create other much more devastating conditions for the piece of gear. Heat related failures especially.

Ah! Gotcha. Well, "we" test and try to anticipate future problems and build to as "beefier" standard as the price points allow*. Mind you, if you want to "field test" any bit of electronic gear, give it to a guitar "rock god"!

*I doubt for instance that "our" PCBs suffer much from "drys" they are AS well soldered as the stuff I saw in the PC Network industry and that carried a 15 yr warranty! But as our technical director was wont to say. "The trouble with valve amps is the fekkin' VALVES!"

I used to rig 1/2 power constant on/of function tests and it was always a valve or fuse that stopped the test. Usually a valve THEN a fuse.

Dave.
 
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