guitar humming

[raymark001]

Hi All,
I have a Fender Telecaster that I run through a Line 6 Flextone III amp direct to my multi-track. No matter how I set it up, I get a variable hum while trying to record, I can get it reduced, but I can't get rid of it. It also happens when I plug the Tele in direct to the recorder bypassing the amp, although its not as bad that way. Is there any kind of converter/filter I can use inline to eliminate the hum altogether? Many thanks in advance for any and all replies.

Ray

 

[mattdee1]

Unfortunately hum is a necessary evil with single coil pickups.

The only thing you can really do is move around until you find a position where the hum is minimized. Others may have different opinions, but I can't see any kind of filter successfully removing the hum without the overall result suffering.

YMMV, but I find that my strat hum is easier to manage when mic'ing my amp rather than going in direct.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Yeah, 60-cycle hum is one of the known evils of singlecoil pickups.

It should be much less of an issue with clean or low-gain sounds, so it's only once your preamp gain comes up a fair amount that you should be hearing much of anything. If you're getting lots of hum with a clean tone, and you're using a LCD and not CDT monitor, then that might be a grounding issue and not your pickups, but barring that...

Your best bet is probably just to take matt's advice and live with it. That said, there are a number of "noiseless" singlecoils on the market. I'm not really up on my Tele pickups, but someone might be able to recommend you a few. I've got a set of Gold Lace Sensors in my strat, and they're dead quiet for tracking.

Meanwhile, a lot of well-known Tele players, Danny Gatton most famously, have gone the "blade" mini humbucker route, to great effect - Gatton's signature tone was the result of a set of custom-wound singlecoil sized Joe Barden humbuckers. They're pricey, but Barden still sells them, and they certainly might be worth a look.

 

[Lt. Bob]

you might be able to dramatically reduce the hum by shielding the git properly with some copper tape or conductive paint.

I have a strat that's been shielded correctly and it has much less hum than my other single coil gits although there is still a little bit.

 

[raymark001]

Unfortunately hum is a necessary evil with single coil pickups.

The only thing you can really do is move around until you find a position where the hum is minimized. Others may have different opinions, but I can't see any kind of filter successfully removing the hum without the overall result suffering.

YMMV, but I find that my strat hum is easier to manage when mic'ing my amp rather than going in direct.

I appreciate your reply, I was thinking that might be one of my cheaper & easier options. Thanks!

 

[raymark001]

That's great information! I will look into the different pickups Thanks!

 

[darrin_h2000]

Fluorescent lighting is a source of hum too...before you start routing your prised 52 tele...be sure to consider stacked style pickups so they act like humbuckers but still fit the holes and look like your orignal ones.

Fender makes these and they preserve that 52 tele tone.