Telecaster Buzzing Unless I Touch the Strings

My tele has always buzzed loudly until I touch the strings or any place metal on the guitar. I can play around it, but it's annoying when I'm not playing between songs. I put some keystones and a 4 way switch in along with new wires, but the buzzing still remains. I play a 94 MIM Tele Top Loader. Any ideas on what the issue could be? Thanks guys.

Ground issue. Retrace all your wiring, something is not right. Bad/cold solder, do you have a ground from your controls to the bridge? Check everything, it's probably going to be something simple. Your wires may not be braided or twisted together to reduce the hum.

Does the 4way work properly? Examine your schematic carefully, are all the wires connected to the proper places? Have you tried different cords to your amp or just plugged straight into your amp. You'll figure it out.

The 4 way sounds great! I'll open her back up and check the joints and ground connections.

ground wire? check bridge pup solder joint for earth.
Good job you cant play guitar without touching the guitar....!

Hmm. I'd say the grounding is fine, as the buzz/hum stops when you're touching metal. I'd check around your room for hum sources such as fluorescent lights, fridges, 'puter screens etc

Everything you have described about your Tele suggests all grounding is OK.

Extraneous noise is supposed to disappear when you touch any grounded metallic parts: your body is acting as a large shield.

The specific reason for grounding the bridge, and thus the strings, is to allow your body to act as a large shield when you are touching the strings.

Here is a test. Plug in your guitar and turn up the amp so that hum is present. Now touch any metallic part of the guitar... strings/bridge, control plate, neck pickup cover( sorry there isn't a metal one on Keystones), jack socket, it doesn't matter.If the hum decreases then all grounding is OK. Why? Because your body is now acting as a large grounded shield.

What you have is a shielding problem.

For me, properly shielding my tele (using copper tape) made a huge difference. I also did some other stuff that probably also helped (soldering the ground wire to the bridge plate, changing a potmeter, bladiblah), but in my mind, the copper tape gets most of the credit.

Had the same issue with a tele and I now do this to all of mine...

Aluminum foil under the pickguard, nothing fancy, but make sure it connects to your control plate. So lay your control plate over the edge of the foil.

Thanks for the help guys! I will try putting some foil under my pickguard and see if that helps.

I'm thinkin' you have some other issues there. Keystones are VERY quiet. You shouldn't have to shield.

You may have something on the positive side of the circuit touching where it shouldn't, or a bad switch, or output jack.

Pull the control plate up/out and see if it still makes the noise.

Also try a different circuit in the house, or try that same set up (amp, cable ect.,) at someone else's house. You may have something in YOUR environment injecting the noise.

I'm thinkin' you have some other issues there. Keystones are VERY quiet. You shouldn't have to shield.

I couldn't disagree more. Keystones are only SLIGHTLY quieter than standard single coils, if at all. The effect he describes can occur even with fully hum-canceling pickups if the guitar has inadequate shielding. In fact, noise which disappears when you touch your strings is the clearest evidence you can get that you need better shielding in your guitar.

This topic has been covered countless time in this forum, and from my personal experience the issue is closed and is no longer worth debating. Go to this page:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/tele.php

He tells you here how to shield a Tele.

^^^^^ Amen, Brother,Amen.

In fact my post #6 is a cut and paste of responses I have made previously on this subject.

Welcome to the world of single-coil pickups.

I couldn't disagree more. Keystones are only SLIGHTLY quieter than standard single coils, if at all.



Well IDK what other pups you have had to compare to but you were lucky then in that they were that quiet.

I'm talking a NORMAL guitar that someone hasn't had to put a hole roll of Reynolds wrap in.

So a "normal" guitar has no shielding? Most manufacturers are using graphite paint in the control and pickup cavities these days. It's easier to apply in a mass production setting than any kind of foil, and if done right is quite effective.

I've made many guitars go from the situation the OP is experiencing to one where buzz is gone by adding shielding. When it comes to single-coil pickups, hum is another issue, but the buzz that goes away when you touch your strings will be dramatically minimized or eliminated altogether by shielding. Simple fact.

Granted a guitar with any shielding would be quiet, with most any single coil for the most part.

I guess instead of normal, I should have said, more-so stock or not modified. I am aware of the carbon based shield painting. The way some of these guys plaster these guitars with shielding is can be pretty interesting.

Why I am surprised in reading is that I have KS's and noticed them being pretty dang quiet. That is is a guitar I have that I have had different pickups in to compare to. It was noticeable.

So I just thought, if the OP has Keystones that are buzzing that bad, something must be wrong there...................wiring wise.

>My tele has always buzzed loudly <

Shielding could be a band aid here. He put KS in and still has bad buzzing................well that's funny, he should have lost some in my book,. that is if everything is RIGHT.

One simple way to ferret out the hum is to get a small alligator clipped wire. Open the guitar up and try bypasing certain key elements. Switches, pus etc... if the hum decreases dramatically it may help you discover the part or wiring problem.

And yes, the room and power and lites can drive you crazy. My family room lites are on a dimmer.. sheesh. Dimmers don't help.

my iphone mains charger makes my strat hum terribly.so worth checking just what is running nearby .

Every building has slightly different levels of ambient electrical noise. My house is particularly bad; I get noise on my guitars at my house that simply doesn't show up anywhere else. HOWEVER, that noise does NOT go down when I put my hands on my strings; my guitars are shielded as well as possible. On the other hand, the OP clearly states that his buzz goes away when he touches his strings. This, my friend, is the CLASSIC symptom of inadequate shielding. That noise may be slightly less with his Keystones than it might be with "standard" single coils. That is neither here nor there. The bottom line is that he can fix this, or get it fixed, rather simply.

Update!!!

Just spent an hour or so lining my pickup cavities, control plate cavity, and pickguard backing with good ol' aluminum foil.

IT WORKED!!!

The foil minimized the hum to the point where it is hardly audible at high amp levels. Around the levels I play, the hum is completely eliminated (and I play pretty loud through a fender blues deville!).

Thank you guys for the help...I guess it was a shielding issue after all.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/556804_555080694591_1432220927_n.jpg

I'm glad you took the time to try. Happy picking.

yeeee haaaaaaa !

:cool: