Help with hissing

[Stuart.Scholes]

Hi all,

I'm a guitarist with a problem. My guitar makes the most dreadful hissing noise. I've run various tests to try to isolate the cause, as follows:

Guitar: Ibanez S370 with standard pickups (bridge humbucker, middle single coil, neck humbucker)

Have tried each pickup position and the difference is negligable.

Have tried the tone and volume controls: when either pot is closed I get 'normal' amp hiss, but open either pot slightly and it seems even worse. When fully open then I get less hiss than midway, but still way too much.

Have tested all connections inside to see that they are firmly and securely soldered.

Have run a cable across jack socket terminals to be sure it isn't that.

Have tried different leads and different amps, to no avail.

My conclusions are that possibly my pots are a bit old and need replacing, or maybe that something is not grounded properly. The hiss I get is almost as bad as if you hold the lead with your fingers, and nearly drowns the guitar when I have distortion on as well.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Stuart

 

[stevieb]

Failing pots usually produce scratchy noise when being turned. I would suspect the simplest part of your signal chain- the cable from guitar to amp. Those things take a lot of abuse- flexing at ends, getting stepped on, dropped, etc. They are also the cheapest and easiest to replace, and even if that does not prove to be the problem, you can always use a spare.

If the hiss goes away when you touch a metal part of your guitar- bridge, tailpiece, etc. than you are probably having grounding problems. Easy and cheap to fix, too, you gotta take the pickguard or back pot cover off. While in there, get some heavy aluminum foil or copper foil and shield the entire cavity. That's a total PITA, but often helps.

 

[Stuart.Scholes]

I fairly much figured that about the pots (i.e. scratchy), and have checked the leads. I'll have to try lining it with foil then.

Thank you.

 

[ocnor]

The hiss I get is almost as bad as if you hold the lead with your fingers

I'm confused here about the sound that you are trying to describe. Point to the picture that most closely resembles the sound.

OR

 

[Stuart.Scholes]

Probably more like the snake. If I play the guitar then the hiss dies, but as the not decays the hiss comes back proportionally.

 

[ggunn]

Probably more like the snake. If I play the guitar then the hiss dies, but as the not decays the hiss comes back proportionally.

Most often the noise that comes from bad shielding/cables, etc. is hum or buzz, not hiss (the bee, not the snake).

 

[ocnor]

Record a sample of the noise and post it so that we can actually hear it for ourselves. It would be much easier than trying to guess from a vague description.

 

[starbuck26]

If the noise disappears when you roll back the guitar's volume knob, the culprit is your gain setting on the amp. It's likely too high.

 

[Stuart.Scholes]

Thanks for your responses and apologies for the late reply. I'm certain that it's a problem with sheilding or earth. I've taken the back off and pulled the electronics out and fiddled around. Every time I touch a metal component, e.g. pot, tremelo springs then the hiss increases even more. If I short out the terminals on the socket though then almost all the hiss goes away, leaving me with only the noise from the amp and lead, which is MUCH quieter.

I have two amps that I'm using - Park G10 and Fender Frontman Reverb, but the noise is the same if I line-in to my BOSS recorder too. I don't really know how to describe it. I'll record some samples later and post back, but if anyone has any suggestions in the meantime I'd be grateful as it's now got to the point where I barely want to pick up my guitar because of it.