amp hum/buzz, single coils, and grounding

[Gerry Hayes Haze Guitars]

Hey Ben
Shielding might help. I’ve seen it work wonders but I’ve also seen it make only minimal difference. The control cavity on a Tele isn’t too fiddly to shield so it might be worth a try. Is the bridge pickup doing the same?

[Ben Schmaus Bench Zen]

Hey Gerry. Yeah, the bridge pickup does the same although maybe not quite as loud. Still very noticeable though. The pickups aren’t RWRP. So the middle position, unfortunately, isn’t hum cancelling.

Not sure if this might be a factor, but I broke the neck pickup coil wire around the eyelet for the hot connection and had to carefully unwrap a turn of coil wire, wrap several loops through the eyelet and resolder (and wax). But I get normal 7.6 kohms resistance reading from the neck pickup and it sounds fine when playing.

Just seems like it’s a bit more buzzy than other single coil guitars and it’s kind of annoying me given that all the ground connections are solid.

[Ben Schmaus Bench Zen]

Oh, and this is a thinline tele (but without an f-hole). So the only parts I could easily shield would be the neck pickup cavity and pickguard.

[Gerry Hayes Haze Guitars]

Ok. Thinline makes things a bit less straightforward. I don’t know how much time you’re happy to put into this guitar but, if you wanted to try, you could consider replacing the pickup hook-ups and all the internal wires with shielded cables. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass. Depending on your willingness to continue, you can shield whatever cavities you can too.

Based on the video, your string ground is certainly working ok. Feel free to use a continuity tester to check between the output jack sleeve and all of the component casings to make sure but I suspect they’ll all be fine.

Some pickups are more susceptible to interference, especially at the budget end of the market (not sure what these are, though). If you confirm the soundness of the wiring/ground and you replace the internals with shielded cable, that’s all you’ll be left with besides environment. On this last one, some locations are more interference-noisy than others. I’m guessing that you have other guitars that are not so noisy in this same location and with this same amp setup, though, so this may not be the answer.

[Ben Schmaus Bench Zen]

for reference, here’s a short clip showing continuity between the various metal parts and the sleeve of a plugged in cable.

the neck pickup is a fender vintage 62 and the bridge is a fender yosemite.

i do have a similar noise with strats and even an LP with duncan 59 HBs, albeit to a lesser extent.

IMG_4522.mov 27 MB Quicktime - Click to view

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[Gerry Hayes Haze Guitars]

Hmm. Hard to say with any certainty but maybe the environment is a little noisy there. If you’re up for experimentation, you could try turning off electrical things and see if any makes a difference. Other than that, the shielding and replacing wiring with shielded cables certainly won’t hurt and is worth a try if you’re happy to put the time in.

[Chris Fayland Fayland Guitars]

What does your ground for your bridge look like?

[Ben Schmaus Bench Zen]

Hey Chris. I posted a short continuity testing video as a reply to gerry above that you can d/l (it doesn’t play through the site) and view. It should demonstrate a good connection between the bridge and cable sleeve.

[Ben Schmaus Bench Zen]

there’s a bare wire under the bridge that runs to the control cavity where it’s soldered the the back of a pot.