Guitar electronics issue??

  • Thread starter Thread starter elenore19
  • Start date Start date
elenore19

elenore19

Slowing becoming un-noob.
Alright, so I played the other day with some people...Alright, there's that.

My amp was having more hum than usual. So whenever I put my hand on any of my knobs or switch..(I have 2 knobs, 1 switch...that is too sexual to not say anything....The hum would go away instantly. Or if I turned my volume knob all the way down.


So any suggestions? theories?
 
sounds like bad earth ... good fun tracking it down though !!!
 
Yep.... did you plug your amp into an outlet different than you normally do? That was probably it.
 
I did. And it does the same thing where I usually plug it in as well. So bad ground in Both places? I just didn't realize it where I usually plug in because I don't turn my amp up that loud to realize it. But it does it.

So yeah.

Any other ideas?
 
elenore19 said:
I did. And it does the same thing where I usually plug it in as well. So bad ground in Both places? I just didn't realize it where I usually plug in because I don't turn my amp up that loud to realize it. But it does it.

So yeah.

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

Try plugging in another guitar and cord, eliminate those first, since that would be easiest. Your problem is almost certainly a bad ground.... just hope it's not your new amp.
 
eyema_believer said:
Try plugging in another guitar and cord, eliminate those first, since that would be easiest. Your problem is almost certainly a bad ground.... just hope it's not your new amp.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you'd think...
I only have one guitar.
I only have one power cable.

The amp isn't new. Well I've had it for like 9 months.

mshilarious said:
Yes. It's not a bad ground. It's induced interference from some external source. Find the source by turning crap off until it goes away.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I figure it's probably my guitar. But what would it be?
 
Hmmm, interesting. Some other random thoughts:

- Cell phones off vs on
- fluorescent lights?
- A PC nearby
- Humid day - floor slightly damp?
- Did you do any guitar setup (change strings/etc)?
- Someone else have new gear?
- Electrical work done on the facility?
- Microwave added to the circuit somewhere?
- Try someone else's cable or spend $5 for a cheap cable from RatShack just to do a test with
- If it has a trem with springs/claw: re-solder the ground to claw connection. I've seen a bunch of those with a "cold solder" joint and I'm surprised they didn't just pop off by looking at them.

But you didn't mention - single/humbucker?
 
Fusioninspace said:
Hmmm, interesting. Some other random thoughts:

- Cell phones off vs on
- fluorescent lights?
- A PC nearby
- Humid day - floor slightly damp?
- Did you do any guitar setup (change strings/etc)?
- Someone else have new gear?
- Electrical work done on the facility?
- Microwave added to the circuit somewhere?
- Try someone else's cable or spend $5 for a cheap cable from RatShack just to do a test with
- If it has a trem with springs/claw: re-solder the ground to claw connection. I've seen a bunch of those with a "cold solder" joint and I'm surprised they didn't just pop off by looking at them.

But you didn't mention - single/humbucker?
Click to expand...

Humbucker/Single.
A seymour duncan humbucker in the bridge, and then a P90 in humbucker form in the neck position.

I think this problem has been there for a long while, I just haven't really payed attention to it. Not sure how long. So that doesn't really help me much. I figure it's the wiring job because I did it myself when I upgraded the pups. I'll try out some things though and get back to ya.
 
Sounds like it is probably normal, and you were just in a noisier environment than you are used to.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Light said:
Sounds like it is probably normal, and you were just in a noisier environment than you are used to.



Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Click to expand...
I really don't think so though. It happens most of the time, wherever I'm plugged in.
 
If there were a grounding problem it could be with your house wiring, especially if it is an older home.

Does the problem exist when nothing is plugged into the amp?

Does touching the strings make it go away when the guitar is plugged in?
 
shielding, anyone?

all passive pickups have more (or less) "noise" (60-cycle hum) that they pick up from the surrounding interference. humbuckers eliminate most of it (if properly wired) in the dual-coil mode (but not in single).

touching any grounded part on the guitar (strings/bridge/controls) GROUNDS the player (who is the biggest antenna near the guitar magnifying the interference). that's with correct wiring.

shielding the cavity (and for me, pickups, i love those metal covers, they're not just pretty, they're shields, dontcha know :rolleyes: ) may help reduce the hum quite a bit. My Dream 180's are almost equally quiet in single-coil mode as they are in dual.

then again, areas with more interference will give you more hum than areas with less interference, regardless of shielding.

I am not a "pro", so if I'm wrong or missed something, I don't mind standing corrected. But that's been my experience.
 
Maybe harmonics from a cell phone tower, maybe? Those towers are popping up all over the place these days....
There are new signals being broadcast on frequencies all over-it could be the problem.
 
Milnoque said:
If there were a grounding problem it could be with your house wiring, especially if it is an older home.

Does the problem exist when nothing is plugged into the amp?

Does touching the strings make it go away when the guitar is plugged in?
Click to expand...
Touching the strings does nothing. Has to be a knob, or the metal part on the cable, or the metal part of the switch. Also touching any metallic part on the pups.
Gear_Junky said:
shielding, anyone?

all passive pickups have more (or less) "noise" (60-cycle hum) that they pick up from the surrounding interference. humbuckers eliminate most of it (if properly wired) in the dual-coil mode (but not in single).

touching any grounded part on the guitar (strings/bridge/controls) GROUNDS the player (who is the biggest antenna near the guitar magnifying the interference). that's with correct wiring.

shielding the cavity (and for me, pickups, i love those metal covers, they're not just pretty, they're shields, dontcha know :rolleyes: ) may help reduce the hum quite a bit. My Dream 180's are almost equally quiet in single-coil mode as they are in dual.

then again, areas with more interference will give you more hum than areas with less interference, regardless of shielding.

I am not a "pro", so if I'm wrong or missed something, I don't mind standing corrected. But that's been my experience.
Click to expand...
Touching the strings doesn't do anything for the hum. As mentioned above.
Where would I go about looking for these shields?
 
When you soldered the ground wires to the back of the pot(s) (assuming you did it that way), how good of a connection did you make? I've been doing my own electronics for a few years now, and for some reason I always had the hardest time making that solder joint. As my skills have (slowly) improved, I've been able to reduce/eliminate hum in some earlier masterpieces of mine by solder-sucking up the mess that I made and starting over.
 
antichef said:
When you soldered the ground wires to the back of the pot(s) (assuming you did it that way), how good of a connection did you make? I've been doing my own electronics for a few years now, and for some reason I always had the hardest time making that solder joint. As my skills have (slowly) improved, I've been able to reduce/eliminate hum in some earlier masterpieces of mine by solder-sucking up the mess that I made and starting over.
Click to expand...

I have no idea. It has been hmm...I'd say 2 years since I've upgraded the pups on this guitar. But could that be the problem? I don't have any type of soldering device here at school with me, but I can definitely attempt to fix it this weekend when I go home. I don't remember really doing anything with soldering against the pots...but maybe I don't know what pots are...
I just soldered the humbuckers to the switch, I believe. But you'd know better than me.
 
gear_junky hit it i think.

sounds like the ground to the bridge has been interrupted. check for the wire that runs to the bridge and make sure its got a good connection at the ground.

later...
 
e-man said:
gear_junky hit it i think.

sounds like the ground to the bridge has been interrupted. check for the wire that runs to the bridge and make sure its got a good connection at the ground.

later...
Click to expand...

My money is on antichef;)
 
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