Noise when not touching strings

[ferrass]

Hi guys, i've got a issue with noise liku a hum when not touching the strings or any metal part on my tele. Gets specialy loud when i turn the volume a little bit down... and when i touch the shielding paint inside the control cavity it stops as well as any metal part. How should i solve this problem?

I've checked every solder conection and it seems fine, and since it started doing this without touching a thing i'me confused.

Any hints? Tks!

 

[Weazel]

Sounds pretty normal to me. The guitar is properly shielded. Check other sources for noise, fluorescent lights, bad circuits etc.
Check your rig in descent grounded environment (bathroom) and question the quality of the cord.

 

[Beachbum]

I know zip about electronics so all I can do is pass on the experiences I've had with that issue. It's a ground fault problem either in the electrical wiring of the building or your guitar. Newer buildings usually have a metal rod imbedded in the earth for that purpose. Many older buildings don't have it. Some guitars require two grounds, one to the bridge and one to the body (Strats etc.) so I would check that as well.

Ground faults can sometimes be very difficult to trace. I had the problem for several years on my Gibson ES 137 after a tech screwed up the wiring installing a kill switch. Two subsequent techs couldn't fix the problem eithter. Hopefully there is a more cost effective way to fix your ground fault but if all else fails perhaps one of these will help. I bought it recently to get rid of the 60 cycle hum on my Teles, which it did, and to my surprise it also cured the ground fault buzz problem on my Gibson.

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[tommyd73069]

Don't make yourself nuts over this

In my practice space/man cave I have florescent lighting, computer monitors and other sources for radio frequency (RF) interference. I also pick up some hum from a couple of my chords. Any and all exposed metal becomes an antennea for RF.

If yours is like mine, it's really annoying when practicing or playing in a quieter setting. Once the volumes are up, I don't notice it. It's normal 60-hertz hum that comes from 60-hertz AC wiring in your house and everything that runs on 110v.

Trying plugging your amp into a different outlet, moving around the room, turning off other electronics. Don't use extension chords that are shared with other electronics. They are all on a common ground through the chord and will bleed hum into the sound chain.

The reason it goes away when you touch anything metal is because you provide a new ground path that is separate from the wiring in your house. Everything that is plugged into the wall in your house is on the same common ground path. Ground is ground. The grounds are all tied together in the fuse panel. There isn't a way to isolate your amp from this loop without plugging it into a different ground source, like the house next door. To test this. Touch anything metallic on your amp and see if the hum goes away. Then touch something metallic that's plugged into the same outlet. Then touch something plugged into a different outlet. Try touching the screw that holds the cover on the outlet. The hum will probably go away each time. It doesn't mean your house wiring is bad. On the contrary, it means it's all sharing a common ground and has continuity.

I'm an engineer, this drove me nuts for a month or more. Shielding tape, changing pots, caps, wiring. Rewired the guitar completely, built a Faraday cage to isolate it and still had the hum. It's just a function of single coil pickups and the modern age of RF bleed out we live in.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

perfectly normal for a given single coil guitar operating results, which will vary according to the modulation and amp used, and venue electrical system and environment.

 

[Beachbum]

^^ I have to respectfully disagree. That is the take on it that you hear from those who have resigned themselves to the problem or (like the two techs I went to) couldn't fix it. I have 15 guitars that I play through 4 different amps, yet only one guitar has that problem. I don't define that as normal. It doesn't bother some players and for them that's fine. For others it's intolerable and for them a ground fault is a ground fault and can and should be resolved.

 

[Rob DiStefano]

^^ I have to respectfully disagree. That is the take on it that you hear from those who have resigned themselves to the problem or (like the two techs I went to) couldn't fix it. I have 15 guitars yet only one has that problem. I don't define that as normal. A ground fault is a ground fault and can and should be resolved.

read again more carefully what i typed above. there are mitigating factors that will define the degree of humbuzz. all are perfectly "normal". can the humbuzz be quieted? yep.

 

[tommyd73069]

^^ I have to respectfully disagree. That is the take on it that you hear from those who have resigned themselves to the problem or (like the two techs I went to) couldn't fix it. I have 15 guitars that I play through 4 different amps, yet only one guitar has that problem. I don't define that as normal. A ground fault is a ground fault and can and should be resolved.

If you can get 14 out of 15 single-coil teles or strats to play through 4 different amps and not have any 60 cycle hum, I am all ears.

So what was it that you did, that nobody else can do? Share.

 

[Beachbum]

read again more carefully what i typed above. there are mitigating factors that will define the degree of humbuzz. all are perfectly "normal". can the humbuzz be quieted? yep.

Understood. My only qualifier with your statement was the word "normal". No reflection on you but I heard that said so many times by so called experts
(one of whom caused the problem in the first place) that I got tired of hearing it. My only point is that it is not "normal", it's a problem, and under any circumstances their are ways to fix it.

 

[sjruvolo]

I have to agree that it is normal with single coil PUPS. The difference may be the hotter PUPS tend to hum more. Texas Specials for example, hum alot.

 

[Beachbum]

If you can get 14 out of 15 single-coil teles or strats to play through 4 different amps and not have any 60 cycle hum, I am all ears.

So what was it that you did, that nobody else can do? Share.

Well, first we've been talking about ground fault problems not 60 cycle hum. They are two different things. Secondly only 7 of my 15 guitars are single coil Strats and Teles. Third, only 1 guitar had a ground fault buzz when not touching the metal parts and that one is a Gibson. Fourth, (as far as 60 cycle hum goes) If you re-read my first post I didn't do anything that anyone else can't do. All I did, once again, was this. It actually does work. I only posted it in connection to the OP's ground fault issue because (for me at least) it also resolved that problem on my Gibson.


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[Scantron08]

Yep, totally normal for S/C guitars, aka "60 cycle hum" in the U.S. Degree does depend in large part on age and kind of wiring in the house/club/church you're playing in, as well as the type of lighting.

 

[Beachbum]

I really believe that you guys are confusing the words "Common" meaning "happens often" and "Normal" meaning "that's the way it should be accepted". They are not the same thing at all. Try to remember, the OP didn't ask about 60 cycle hum, he asked about a ground fault problem (ie., buzzes when not touching the metal parts of the guitar).

Edit: Hello? From what the OP has described, it's not a lighting issue, it's not an RF issue, it's not being caused by aliens from the planet Volgar. It's somewhere in the hard wire circuit!

 

[mPetetele]

Just my 2 cents-i get noise if my TV is on and also if my cell phone is by-if i touch the switch it seems to go away but the noise is there.Look at your cables and what is around you.I had a metal table in the way and when i moved it the noise was gone.

 

[tommyd73069]

never mind

 

[dsutton24]

perfectly normal for a given single coil guitar operating results, which will vary according to the modulation and amp used, and venue electrical system and environment.

Rob's right about this. A single coil pickup equipped guitar in a quiet environment without a ton of gain between the guitar and amp does not have to be a buzz machine. I don't know why so many people think single coils have to buzz. They don't. I don't even shield my guitars, and don't have a problem.

The other thing so many people overlook is that not all hum / buzz is caused by grounding issues. It can just as easily be signal path issues, or it might be any one or a combination of the sixty seven effects pedals between the guitar and amp, and in the efx loop.

 

[ferrass]

I know its kinda "normal" to have this noise coming from single coils like it has been said but still my two strats don't have this sound in the same room same amp, same cables same pedals... and this one is quite impossible to pass on without being mad about it... note that the 60 cycle hum is there when i touch the metal parts but when i don't it gets a more trebly hum and more volume on that volume. So i'm not being to picky with this! ahahah

I took the amp to downstairs and just plugged in the amp directly, much less noise but here my strats sound dead quiet and this one still has this sound. Even in hum cancelling position.

Pu's are the '51 nocaster and that thing about the grounding spots trough modern guitars is right but i did all that and the guitar has been good for about a year (as far as i recall) and now this... Mine is a 2011 mim fsr but i did remove some of those ground spots like the control cavity where i did grounded all together so no need for that one. Is it a possible issue that i grounded the bridge alone in the pickup cavity and still need to make a connection to the back of a tone/volume pot?

 

[Scantron08]

I really believe that you guys are confusing the words "Common" meaning "happens often" and "Normal" meaning "that's the way it should be accepted".

Normal-

Synonyms
adjective. regular - standard - ordinary - common - usual
Dictionary.com

 

[Sherlock Tones]

Please excuse my total electrical ignorance, btw, but that's why I'm joining in. I can hear TWO hums from my Tele. Like the OP, it's louder when I am not touching the strings, then when I do there is still a noticeable hum but a lot quieter.

I live in NZ, which is 240V. Does this mean I don't have 60-cycle issues? From what I've read in this thread, the louder buzz is a 'ground fault' - in the guitar? And the quieter one is the 'bleed' interference a few people have referred to? Will that magic box fix both?

 

[tommyd73069]

You may be on to something with that last sentence. I had a persistent hum in my LP kit build. I blamed it on cheap Chinese pickups. It was my wiring layout.

I got to looking at how Gibson wired a Les Paul in the 80s and 90s. They brought everything to a single ground point and then attached the ground wire from the output jack to that point. With the single shielded wire they used, it makes a clean installation, too. Gibson mounted the pots on a metal plate and grounded everything to the plate.

I didn't have the metal plate, but I followed their wiring, otherwise. The only need to daisy-chain the ground is from pot-to-pot. Every other ground tied to the same point, directly. It fixed the hum in the Chinese pickups...don't get me wrong, they still sucked but they didn't hum...something's wrong with that sentence....