Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Blind Lemon Cello on October 9, 2016 at 7:45am

I assume you have a multi meter or access to one. You can use it to test your connections and the pickup, pickup could be bad. For a quick test I would by pass volume & tone pots and run pup directly into jack and see what happens. 

Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on October 9, 2016 at 7:53am

Need pics of the solder job and wiring layout too...

I assume your 500 ohm reference really means 500k ohm?

Just for giggles, did you try another instrument cable? I had a cheap one that was not well shielded... it hummed with anything...

Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on October 9, 2016 at 12:07pm

I agree with blind lemon, bypass and disconnect everything and run your pup to the jack. If it still hums reverse the wires. 

Also agree with wayfinder. Try a different cable and a different amp and a different room. If you can, try a different pup.

Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on October 9, 2016 at 12:12pm

On a side note, Is your internal wires using shielded cable? If it's just all plain wires then you might need shielded audio cable.

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on October 18, 2016 at 7:14am

Single coil pickups are going to have a bit of hum , but having a single coil in a box can be a big problem when it comes to shielding. Lining the inside of the box with aluminum tape, copper shielding or shielding paint is sometimes a must. Also the shielding needs to be grounded in most cases.

It's a good idea to use shielded wiring when wiring the git. You can also twist the hot and ground wires together to create your own shielded wire. All solder joints need to be good, guitar cables good, and florescent lighting, dimmer switches, bad house wiring and internal amp problems can be issues.

I once built a box around a pickup inside a hollow guitar out of scraps to get rid of noise problems.

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on October 18, 2016 at 8:15pm

I got a roll of aluminum tape for duct work at the hardware store for about $2.50. Can't solder a ground wire to it, but you can sandwhich a ground wire between the tape and the bridge, a screw or something.

Permalink Reply by darryl kernaghan on October 18, 2016 at 11:14pm

I don't know about in the US, but here you can get copper tape sold as snail repellent in garden stores and hardware stores for about 4 bucks, great for lots of uses on guitars, even induction type pick ups, and solders easily

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on October 19, 2016 at 11:34am

I went to a garden center looking for that snail tape and got weird looks, so I just got the aluminum tape. Would rather have the copper tape or copper cavity shielding since you can solder the ground wire to it, but if your on a budget the aluminum tape will do for cavity shielding. Just have to sandwich the ground wire.

Permalink Reply by Fomhorach on October 19, 2016 at 12:04pm

Perhaps, but when your at the receiving end of a shitty wage in a shitty job with people you have to .. Have to be pleasant to all day and your boss has been busting your balls..  How else can you get some fun?

Snail tape.. I'm sorry sir, could you describe the size of the snails that you wish to measure? Do you wish to secure snails to something sir?

Permalink Reply by Paul Craig on October 19, 2016 at 12:39pm

I used to work in a Alternator/Starter/Generator repair/rebuild shop and a customer called and asked for a price of a Starter. I asked him what car the Starter was for and he replied that it was for a 1980 Green 4 door. At that point I said, Sorry, we're all out of Green 4 door Starters, but we do have some Red 2 door Starters that might fit. My boss looked at me with a very strange look and then shook his head. Some customers can teach us - some can not.