The Steel Guitar Forum

Hey guys, looking for some advice. I have a Carter Starter that's is almost too noisy to record well. Is this normal for a cheap guitar? Is it possible to fix it or would it be better to replace it? I'm kind of stuck with this guitar for now, so a reasonable cheap fix would be better than a newer guitar for now. Thanks again
Rick

People have said that the starter sounds good, they have not mentioned any large amount of noise. However, what kind of noise is it?
1) If it is an ac hum, it could be a bad connection, or bad ground.
2) If it is scatchy/staticy, also a possible bad connection, or if the signal goes through a switch, dirty contacts.
3) Maybe even the signal cord you are using....problem is that anything in the signal path could be at fault, you just have to check.

Hope you find the problem.....Pat.

It seems to be AC hum. Tried all the regular troubleshooting. Getting to be too bad to do any recording with it...

Single coil pickups will pick up EMI (electro-magnetic interference) from many sources. Among the worst offenders are: fluorescent and neon lights, TV sets, computers and monitors, lamp dimmer switches, and small heaters. Try moving the guitar to a different area, or even just turning it in a different direction. Sometimes, that will help. Also, you can get ground-loop hum sometimes when several pieces of electronic equipment are hooked together (amps, processors, pedals, and preamps). Generally, the more stuff you have in the signal chain, the more chance there is for noise or incompatibility. You could also try reversing the pickup wires, as sometimes that will help reduce noise and hum. And also, make sure that the changer of the guitar is grounded to the guitar output jack.

But if you've tried all that, and the hum is still bad, the usual solution is installing a humbucking pickup in the guitar.

Not worth modifying. Time to upgrade?

As far as I know, Starters shipped from the factory with a humbucker. I haven't seen too many for sale on here where the owner swapped the pickup, so maybe yours is a humbucker?

If it is and you're getting noise, check the solder connections. And verify that it's the guitar that's introducing the noise rather than something else in the signal chain.

Carter Starters shipped with a couple of different pups. Mine had a single coil.

What Donny said...

I used to play (my Starter) at a venue with 60Hz noise so bad that I had to duck the volume pedal anytime I didn't have some strong string vibration going. Long sustain was impossible. This venue had most of the noise sources Donny mentioned, but I never could isolate/eliminate the specific culprit(s) causing my grief. Using the same rig at other venues = no noise problems.

Eventually, I replaced the CS single coil pup with a George L and this solved the problem at the previously noisy location. I like the tone better too.

Bob Sykes wrote:Carter Starters shipped with a couple of different pups. Mine had a single coil.

Got it. I was an early adopter of that guitar and at first, they only offered the humbucker. And based on comments here, it looks like they should have stuck with it.

Pretty sure mine came with a single coil. I didn’t have any issues with it. Don’t recall seeing many posts regarding problems with either pup on Carter Starters.

That was mine