Help with a Telecaster buzz.

[B Mannix]

New guy here.... I am not very knowledgeable with guitars. My Uncle has been a Luthier for quite a few decades. He gave up Acoustic guitar building when he lost his sight. He moved into town here about 10 years ago, and I have helped him with him building electric guitars since then. ( I am his eyes...) Mostly I am doing the soldering work. I am quite competent in electrical/soldering. I have been doing it for decades. I have heard from him this is my last build many times over... Haha

Ok for the questions...

We/he built a Telecaster with standard wiring and an import switch. The pickups are Fender deluxe drive Telecaster pickups. Single coil. We used a small battery amp with headphones. There is a hum or buzz when the neck or bridge pickups are switched on. But when both are turned on (switch middle position) the buzz is not there. When we touched the bridge or strings there was not a noticeable difference in the buzz.

He told me he hooked the guitar up to a tube amp with a speaker, the buzz was still there but not quite as bad. He said when he touched either pickup or the strings there was a very slight reduction of hum, barely noticeable.

He also has another Telecaster with similar pickups and similar import switch. It also seems to have a similar buzz/hum. I think he didn't remember it having it.

I went over the wiring several times and everything looks very good. Bridge grounded, but did not check with a meter. (I did not have with me at the time.)

I have done some looking and heard of grounded shielding (tape) in the cavities or even using shielded wires for the pickups. Is this a normal thing in the single coil pickups? Do I have a chance of clearing this up? Or am I chasing ghosts? The noise is noticeable but not really bad, but for someone like him, who I would call a very good musician, he picks it right up.

 

[Boreas]

Welcome aboard!

SCs are noisy. In the middle position, you can often get noise canceling (like a humbucker) if there is a phase issue. If indeed it is wired correctly, you may want to reverse the leads on one of the pickups and see what happens with the phasing.

Most likely, if it is wired correctly, it would likely benefit from shielding with foil tape and shielded wires.

Pix of the eiring and pickups are always helpful.

 

[B Mannix]

I am going by memory... It has been a couple days. IIRC I had a white and a blue wire from the neck? pickup. And a yellow and a blue wire from the bridge pickup. The wiring chart off the net showed a white and black wire on the neck pickup and a yellow and black from the bridge pickup. So I took a guess at the yellow and whites were positive and the blues were the negative.

I can maybe grab a picture of the wiring, but it may be a week. I am a bit busy and he is across town.

If I reverse the leads on one of the pickups, What should that do? As far as what kind of sound changes?

Also the hum/buzz is there when the strings are silent. Like I mentioned it is not horrible, just noticeable.

Thanks

 

[AAT65]

Welcome on board B!!
What you describe sounds quite normal to me! As @Boreas says single-coil pickups are inherently noisy - they act as antennas - and will pick up interference from mains, lighting dimmers, radios etc.
If the level of hum drops in the middle position that’s a sign that the pickups are “RWRP” - reverse-wound, reverse-polarity - which means the string signal adds in the two coils while the noise picked up (partially) cancels. So unless it sounds thin and weedy in middle position I would not bother with swapping pickup leads (which is non-trivial because both pickups are quite likely to have one end connected to the metalwork).
You might be able to reduce the noise by adding screening to the cavities, putting conductive foil on the back of the pickguard, and screening the cables (you can buy braided metal sleeving to run unscreened cables through). All the screening you add must be grounded or if just becomes additional antennas and it mustn’t short out the signal accidentally! But I wouldn’t expect pristine silence from a single-coil-equipped guitar.

 

[Boreas]

If I reverse the leads on one of the pickups, What should that do? As far as what kind of sound changes?

It reverses phase on that pickup. It should make no discernible differince in position 1 or 3. But it will effect position 2 - making it louder/clearer or quieter/weaker. You want the louder/clearer wiring. But if indeed it is wired the way you mentioned, it should be OK and you are likely just dealing with normal SC noise. Sometimes being out of phase can increase background noise. Shielding can take care of additional noise into the rest of the circuit, but the SCs will still create some noise. But some are better than others, depending on construction. If the player is particularly sensitive to this, you may want to consider "noiseless" Tele pickups.

Make sure your output jack connections are good and there is good contact with your output cable. Try another cable.

And don't forget, if you are testing in a "noisy" environment you will get more noise! Move the amp/guitar to another room and see if it gets better or worse.

 

[B Mannix]

Thanks for all your help... Now that he has been playing it for a couple days, he said it sounds reasonable. I think it is the normal pickup noise. More than he was used to with the double coils.