Steel guitar humm while recording

Mark Adkins · Post by **Mark Adkins** » 7 Jan 2017 8:51 am

HELP,, I have a Emmons Legrande, and it is very quiet live onstage wuth the original pups, but when trying to record direct to interface/pc, I get a very bad hum on steel, impossible to record direct,(my preferred method).. without that lousy hum.. Have tried different cords, different volume pedal, (Hilton and stock Emmons peday), moving steel away from pc monitor, to no avail.. Would changing pick ups out to e66's be a solution to hum??
Thanks in advance

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 7 Jan 2017 8:54 am

You need to go to a double coil, humbucker pickup.
I would assume you have a single coil pickup in the guitar now.

Mark Adkins · Post by **Mark Adkins** » 7 Jan 2017 9:00 am

Thanks for reply,,, I had a p/p with e66 pups and they were very quiet

Cartwright Thompson · Post by **Cartwright Thompson** » 7 Jan 2017 9:24 am

Sometimes repositioning the guitar in relationship to the recording device helps.
In other words, rotate it until hum is minimized.

ajm · Post by **ajm** » 7 Jan 2017 9:53 am

This same subject/post is also running in the Pedal Steel section.
It might be better to post future responses over there.
Just a suggestion/thought.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 7 Jan 2017 10:04 am

It could also be a grounding loop issue. Take a single wire clip it to the interface ground ( or screw) then touch the other end to several other ground locations, amp, guitar , your body etc...

Lights, dimmers, receptacles etc can also contribute.

Have you ever recorded direct before with NO hum, same guitar,. same room, same interface ? Same AC receptacle ?

It's probably NOT the single coil especially if it is quiet on gigs. I record direct with ONLY single coils , Legrande and Push Pulls as do countless others.

A few years back I bought an amp from a guy at his home, the amp hummed like crazy, he discounted it big time so I would buy it, I took a chance. When I got it home it was quiet as a church mouse, the hum was from his home wiring.

Don't just assume it's the guitar.

Howard Parker · Post by **Howard Parker** » 7 Jan 2017 10:07 am

May want to take this over to the "Recording" sub-forum.

It might well be an interface incompatibility issue.

h

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 7 Jan 2017 10:14 am

Indeed. Since it's quiet through the amp, the problem is either in the interface, or between guitar and interface or interface and computer.
Does the noise persist with other guitars?

Mark Adkins · Post by **Mark Adkins** » 7 Jan 2017 10:30 am

Thanks for all the replies, think I will try new e66 pick ups, Have had good luck with them on my p/ps' in the past

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 7 Jan 2017 10:51 am

$2.00 says that won't fix it.

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 7 Jan 2017 12:48 pm

DO not change the pickup until you confirm that the Single Coil is the cause !

Bobby D. Jones · Post by **Bobby D. Jones** » 7 Jan 2017 8:52 pm

I have had problems with humming on stage. Take one of those 2 flat 1 round to 2 flat adapters plugs and just reverse the polarity to the amp. If the amp. don't a polarity switch on it. I would take a heavy extension cord to the studio, go to another room and plug extension chord and bring into studio. If some one wired a fitting reversing the wires the feed back will get you. I played on a stage one night that had a light flicker every little bit. I plugged into a receptacle on stage. The light flickered and my Tube-Flex locked up and had to be returned to Peavey for service. Be careful.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 29 Jan 2017 2:25 pm

I was having that trouble at every studio I went to. Turned out to be my new electronic pedal. Plugged in the '72 Shobud pedal and that cleared it up completely.

Ray DeVoe · Post by **Ray DeVoe** » 29 Jan 2017 4:09 pm

Hi Mark

Just a thought. Do you have the hum when there is no guitar plugged into the interface.?

Are you using balanced cables between the interface and whatever powered speakers you are using for monitors?

Carl Mesrobian · Post by **Carl Mesrobian** » 29 Jan 2017 4:55 pm

Tony Prior wrote:It could also be a grounding loop issue. Take a single wire clip it to the interface ground ( or screw) then touch the other end to several other ground locations, amp, guitar , your body etc...

Lights, dimmers, receptacles etc can also contribute.

Have you ever recorded direct before with NO hum, same guitar,. same room, same interface ? Same AC receptacle ?

It's probably NOT the single coil especially if it is quiet on gigs. I record direct with ONLY single coils , Legrande and Push Pulls as do countless others.

A few years back I bought an amp from a guy at his home, the amp hummed like crazy, he discounted it big time so I would buy it, I took a chance. When I got it home it was quiet as a church mouse, the hum was from his home wiring.

Don't just assume it's the guitar.

John Billings · Post by **John Billings** » 29 Jan 2017 5:45 pm

I have never had a problem with single coil guitars! Only with that one volume pedal.

Bob Hoffnar · Post by **Bob Hoffnar** » 30 Jan 2017 5:29 am

If it is just normal 60hrz single coil hum it shouldn't be an impossible problem. There are some great plug ins for reducing noise after the fact available now.

It sounds like maybe something is wrong though. Try plugging other instruments into the interface and try plugging your steel into other systems to see what is going on.

Also for direct sound I have had the most luck using a Sarno V8 before the interface. Maybe try some sort of pre amp before your interface.

Tim Whitlock · Post by **Tim Whitlock** » 30 Jan 2017 10:21 am

Is the phantom power switched on, in your interface?

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Steel guitar humm while recording

Steel guitar humm while recording

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Steel guitar hum while recording