microphonic, improper grounding, or just a bad pickup?

[imChinOaChickeN]

I really need some help with my tele right now. I have a Highway One Telecaster thats just really awesome in both sound and feel. My only gripe is the single coil hum when use higher gain levels so i opted for a set of stacked Fender SCN Noiseless pickups to replace the stock set. After installing everything according to the diagram that was included with the pickups, I started to notice some problems from the bridge pickup when used at those higher gain levels..

1) single-coil hum. its as if I never changed pickups in the first place. The hum does seem to go away when the tone control is turned down. Some of it even dampens just slightly when i touch the bridge, control plate, jack..

2) microphonics. at those gain levels, every noise i make on the guitar seems to be amplified. everything from simply touching the guitar to switching pickups. its only noticeable at those levels and even then its not very loud but it is noticeable, especially touching the bridge. It was also a lot louder before I put the strings on. I also get a lot of feedback that just uncontrollably/randomly happens when im not even touching the strings.

maybe its a combination of bad grounding and a microphonic pickup?

I did some messing around and found out that without the bridgeplate, the pickup is totally silent when I touch the ground lead that was meant for the bridge. once the bridge was put back on, it went back to the way it was and stayed that way even if i touched any of the metal parts.
I also noticed that the ground leads that run from the bottom of the control cavity and the jack were connected to the tone pot but in every diagram I saw, it was connected to the vol pot. I did try to move it over but to no avail.


I have my wiring set up according to the scn diagram..
Neck PU
black>vol
green>vol
white>switch
Bridge PU
black>bridge>vol
green>vol
yellow>switch
[there were a total of three connectors on the black lead, one long enough for the vol pot, one for the bridge, and the last on was the same length as the bridge one but was just a plain wire. I cut this off since I didnt know where to connect it to ]
original black ground leads
i moved them from the tone pot to the vol pot with no real change

the cable connectors are properly connected according to a SD tele wiring diagram i found.



The neck pickup has been perfect though, totally quiet and controllable at any gain level.

I really want to see these pickups work and would hate to have to exchange them. They actually sound fantastic with my setup and for that sound im looking for, especially the neck pickup which is totally quiet.
any help is appreciated!
=]

[RDC!]

Originally Posted by imChinOaChickeN

I really need some help with my tele right now. I have a Highway One Telecaster thats just really awesome in both sound and feel. My only gripe is the single coil hum when use higher gain levels so i opted for a set of stacked Fender SCN Noiseless pickups to replace the stock set. After installing everything according to the diagram that was included with the pickups, I started to notice some problems from the bridge pickup when used at those higher gain levels..

1) single-coil hum. its as if I never changed pickups in the first place. The hum does seem to go away when the tone control is turned down. Some of it even dampens just slightly when i touch the bridge, control plate, jack..

2) microphonics. at those gain levels, every noise i make on the guitar seems to be amplified. everything from simply touching the guitar to switching pickups. its only noticeable at those levels and even then its not very loud but it is noticeable, especially touching the bridge. It was also a lot louder before I put the strings on. I also get a lot of feedback that just uncontrollably/randomly happens when im not even touching the strings.

maybe its a combination of bad grounding and a microphonic pickup?

I did some messing around and found out that without the bridgeplate, the pickup is totally silent when I touch the ground lead that was meant for the bridge. once the bridge was put back on, it went back to the way it was and stayed that way even if i touched any of the metal parts.
I also noticed that the ground leads that run from the bottom of the control cavity and the jack were connected to the tone pot but in every diagram I saw, it was connected to the vol pot. I did try to move it over but to no avail.


I have my wiring set up according to the scn diagram..
Neck PU
black>vol
green>vol
white>switch
Bridge PU
black>bridge>vol
green>vol
yellow>switch
[there were a total of three connectors on the black lead, one long enough for the vol pot, one for the bridge, and the last on was the same length as the bridge one but was just a plain wire. I cut this off since I didnt know where to connect it to ]
original black ground leads
i moved them from the tone pot to the vol pot with no real change

the cable connectors are properly connected according to a SD tele wiring diagram i found.



The neck pickup has been perfect though, totally quiet and controllable at any gain level.

I really want to see these pickups work and would hate to have to exchange them. They actually sound fantastic with my setup and for that sound im looking for, especially the neck pickup which is totally quiet.
any help is appreciated!
=]

Hi,
Telecaster Bridge Pickups are naturally more microphonic than other styles of guitar pickups. That said the SCN Noiseless Tele Bridge pickup is VERY noisy. They are microphonic and don't cancel all of the 60 cycle hum that single coil pickups are known for. Your wiring is probably fine and it is not that specific pickup that is faulty. I tried 4 different pickups in the same customer's guitar with the same results. After researching and talking to Fender Tech support I found that there is no fix. (Fender told me that they never heard of such a problem.) I found out that the maker of the pickup blames the extra sensitivity of the pickup on the Ferrous Material that the Bridge plate is made from. Ie. change the bridge to Aluminum and tada fixed. Of course the problem with that is why should I change the guitar to fix the problem with the pickup design!

The "nature of the beast" of that specific pickup is that it sounds good clean but any gain and WEEHEHEHEEEE! Noise! The only way to get rid of the hum is a true Humbucking pickup. Active ones are even Quieter. But the problem there is that then the guitar is not a TELE anymore. My opinion is to use a classic tele pickup for the tele sound (deal with the noise) and if you want noiseless than you need to put in a rail type humbucker (Dimarzio, Duncan, Ect.) But like I said it will not sound like a Tele.

Rest assured that you have done in nothing wrong in your installation those pickups are just not as advertised "Noiseless".

[J S Moore]

I will bet you that bare wire should have been grounded. See if you can attach another piece of wire to it and ground it to that back of the pot and then see if that makes a difference to the hum.

The microphonics could be a bad solder joint as well, or the result of a lot of gain. Any pickup will feed back at some point with enough gain or sound pressure.