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Topic: Noisy, buzzy pickups |
Steve Gorman
From:
Gilroy California
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Posted 9 Mar 2009 4:02 pm |
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| I recently dug out an old homemade solid body electric guitar, raised the action on it, and this thing honks as a lap steel - very fat tone. The humbucker pickups came out of a Yamaha electric about 20 years ago. The problem is the noise - sometimes it is quiet and other times it buzzes like a nuclear reactor. It is simply wired, pickups to two volume pots and one tone pot, no switches. Any suggestions on what I need to do to get this thing to quiet down? Is there a simple schematic or a way to wire this to get the full sound without all the noise? Or maybe a good place to find some answers? |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 9 Mar 2009 7:56 pm
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When you say 'buzz' I'm going to assume you mean ground hum and not an actual buzzing. It sounds like a faulty ground somewhere is all. Do you get the hum when both pickups are engaged, or just one? Find the offender, then check out the grounding--you might have a cold solder joint.
_________________
Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Ulric Utsi-Åhlin
From:
Sweden
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Posted 10 Mar 2009 5:46 am
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When You touch any part of the instrument w/ correct
ground reference(most likely the strings) the hum
should decrease,if it increases,the "hot" connection
is in contact w/ ground ; apart from this primary
check,look for faulty PU´s,pots etc ; outside inter-
ference could be a problem,dimmers,PC screens,power
wiring etc ; some PU´s,like P-90´s,have a solid
history of picking up on aforementioned trouble spots
and all true single coil PU´s will hum under some
conditions.McUtsi |
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Ulric Utsi-Åhlin
From:
Sweden
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Posted 10 Mar 2009 5:49 am
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OK,I just noticed Your guitar sports humbucking PU´s,
sorry,but I don´t regret a word,just disregard the
single coil rap...McUtsi |
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Steve Gorman
From:
Gilroy California
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Posted 10 Mar 2009 6:37 am
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Thanks Mike and Ulric.
The buzz comes when my hand contacts the pickup mounting screw, (either pickup) so I guess I just need to ground those better. If I just let the guitar sit there, without any contact, it is quiet but when my hand touches any metal part of the pickup (mounting screw) it gets noisy.
By the way, Mike I checked out your Slippery Elm at your site, sounds great. |
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