The Steel Guitar Forum

I have a 79 P/P with the standard Emmons Pick-up is there anyway to get away from the hum in the amp . A friend has a a/p Legrand with the standard Emmons p/u and it does the same thing.I have checked all chord put new volume pot in the pedal. tried different amp's still the same thing any help will be great Jack

Get ready, everyone is going to tell you to buy a "Humbuckin'" pickup. And they are going to be correct. Get a Geo.L. or a Bill Lawrence and you problems are over. If you need one quick, we have them on sale,in stock and ready to ship. This is the move all pro players have had to make to cancell hum.
Bobbe

At 21,000 ohms, that is what my "Hummer" is wound at. It WAS J.D.Manesses' First, But, He "traded" for a different one when we built his D-10, 10/9 when I worked at Emmons. The BEST MOVE I EVER MADE. I always thought that if it were good enough for The Super J.D., then IT WAS GOOD ENOUGH.

If it was good enough for him why did he get rid of it? Possibly it wasn't good enough for him! Now your stuck with it! Ron, get a MSA! It's good enough for Nicarrato, should be good enough for you, no? (Ha!Ha!)
Come and see us again Ron!
Your Buddy,

Jack, there are several things besides single coil pickups that can cause a hum.
If you amp is too close to the pickups try moving it away from that end of the guitar.
If you are using a rack make certain that no speaker cable in touching an AC line. If you are using an effects such as a Profex II make certain that the wall wart is not too close to the pickup end of the guitar, sometimes just turning a power string with wall warts plugged into it can cut or eliminate hum. I have played Emmons with single coils for years and have never found the single coil to be a problem to severe to cope with, but there are a lot of places I have not played so if non of this works for you then Ole' Bobbe definitely has a fix for it.
JR<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Jerry Roller on 24 April 2003 at 09:00 PM.]</p></FONT>

Jack
if you wind up not being happy with the stock single coil pickup, don't forget the Emmons #108 Humbucker. It is the closest pickup in sound to the stock Emmons single coil. "Hi output", great tone, no-hum, and its made by Emmons!

Dave

Jack, make sure the pickup is as close to the strings as it can be. The thickness of a quarter is as close as you can go without having the magnets damp string harmonics and sustain. But when you get to quarter thickness distance you will have the best signal to noise ratio you can get from the pickup. This lets you play with slightly less pedal and amp volume, so the hum is a little quiter (if the hum doesn't respond to pedal or amp volume settings the hum is in the amp, not the pickup). In quiet settings this may still be too much hum for you. Then you gotta get a dual coil "humbucker." Many people prefer the sound of single-coil pickups and the hum is okay for loud live gigging. Some people have two steels, one with a single-coil pickup for loud situations and one with a humbucker for studio and quite situations. Manufacturers have finally recognized this problem and the new MSAs have easily changeable pickups.