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Twisting the wires

I had a thought about twisting the wires inside the git. I was delivering a gift build to my friend, we played it a bit with a portable amp, and there was a LOT of hum from the multiple overhead fluorescent lights in his store. this moring it occurred to me that copper phone lines and computer CAT5 cable twist the conductors around each other to reduce noise. It ought to work inside a git.

The blue arrows are the "induced" current flow in the wire loops from fluorescent light EM Noise, the yellow arrows are the charge flowing in the conductors, each loop opposes the next, much like a hum-bucker.

Anyone try this and found if it makes a difference?

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Permalink Reply by the anonymous pick on May 20, 2016 at 1:29am

yup . a few folks on here have done the twisted wire method , but more-so in advance , so it would be hard for them to answer if it made a difference or not . i do believe i have heard one or 2 people say the twisted wire method worked for them (or at-least hushed the buzz a bit ) as a remedy after the fact . others just mention it in a list of remedies in buzz bitch posts . i , myself have never tried it , luckily i haven't had the need to .

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Permalink Reply by Iain T.S. on June 5, 2016 at 1:50am

i don't twist because i use shielded wire, twisting that is impossible. also, shielded/coaxial wire deals with both electro magnetic as electro static hum.

I salvage coaxial cable from old tv, SCART, antenna and computer cables, which basically exists out of one or more coaxial wires bonded together.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on June 5, 2016 at 7:42am

The coaxial doesn't need twisting because it's already shielded with the ground wire twisted around or surrounding the positive wire inside. Regular straight wires need twisting(ground and positive together to simulate shielding.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on May 20, 2016 at 6:36am

Like Wayfinder, I twist every set of pickup wires (piezo to pot. Pot to jack). I also encase the twisted wires in 1/4" shrink wrap just to make a neat appearing harness.

There seem to be so many sources of hum (external such as lights, cheap or poorly shielded audio cables and internal such as bad pots or poor solder joints), that it seems smart to do anything you can (in advance) to reduce or eliminate hum. Twisted wires takes only seconds, so if it helps great. If not, it isn't going to hurt.

As an aside, I've made up a few very basic piezo harnesses with only the audio jack and the piezo. These, too I twist.The interesting thing is that these "basic" harnesses always seem to have practically zero hum from the git-go. Makes me wonder if all that wire running from piezo to pot to jack starts to create (or pick up) some of the hum we hear. Just a thought.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on May 20, 2016 at 11:17am

Aluminum foil and duct tape are the two key ingredients for a good project.....

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on May 20, 2016 at 11:30am

Hey. We're

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Permalink Reply by Cause the Blue rat on May 21, 2016 at 1:10am

Nay, Tom T lost his train of thought and wandered off again. Happens to the best of us. Get a song in your head and drift away. Ooo that's a good song! Think I'll g

: )

Foil is great. I've even seen shielding tape. I've known people who have shielded the cavities around each pickup and the controls to get rid of RMF hum.

Ya, those florescent lights suck. Glad to see those things are disappearing.

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Permalink Reply by Tom T on May 21, 2016 at 6:23am

I had a thought.......I'm sure I did (maybe).

Anyway, as I was saying......

If it can't be fixed with duct tape and foil, the chewing gum isn't going to help (or something like that).

And yes, florescent lights suck for pickup hum.

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Permalink Reply by Iain T.S. on May 24, 2016 at 5:24am

i've got a hub cab banjo with a pickup wich had a little humming, i had straigt wires. i read this and tried it out and it works a little bit. most hum is cached by the metal from the hub cap its made of

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Permalink Reply by JL on May 26, 2016 at 4:02am

Vanish for the most part

well that's what a good sniper in a ghillie suit tries to do...

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Permalink Reply by Iain T.S. on June 5, 2016 at 1:37am

Hahaha, no the most of the hum comes from the single coil pickup, i have repaced it with a humbucker, and i put in a coaxial (shielded) wire, no more hum for that banjo any more. My other instruments still hum a little, because of the lack of humbucking pickups.

I have experimented with some wires today, coaxial/shielded wires seem to have less hum than twisted wires, straight wires have most hum.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on May 25, 2016 at 7:20am

If your using a single coil pickup or piezo, you won't be able to get rid of all the hum. Definitely ground the hub cap like Wayfinder said, ground the strings too and the electronics(pots & pickups).