Cancelling Single Coil Hum

[Ted]

Hello Experts,

I've been contemplating using Noiseless Single Coils, but I haven't yet been able to try them in person--Only Videos. I like the tone I get out of my stock MIM Strat and MIJ Strat, but I would like to get more snarl. Therefore I was thinking Fender's Texas Special PUPs.

I have also started reading about Music Man's silent circuit.

I was wondering; How did SRV and others keep things quite both live and recorded?

Ted U

[gtone]

That copper foil tape did such a nice job with the static and microphonics on my SG's, thinking a good shielding job through all cavities, covers and pickguards would reap some big rewards with 60 cycle hum also. Worth a shot for the price of a couple of rolls...

[zenmindbeginner]

An aluminum pickguard shield and shielding paint on the cavities (paint does a much better job than the tape, but tape is way better than nothing) ... twisted pickup pairs together and added sheathing on legs of capacitors (keeps them covered and offers a little bit of shielding protection to a vulnerable area) is what I did to create a very quiet wiring job on my strat project last Spring.

Texas Special pickups also have this weird contradiction of having a nice healthy output, tons of mids and are (by single coil standards) very quiet.

Positions 2 and 4 are dead quiet... plus they have more quack and spank even though I LOVE the bridge on it's own.

[velorush]

The Strat now owned by Punkavenger was (is) incredibly quiet. Texas Specials with two important modifications under the pickguard:

1. shielded the entire control cavity with thick copper sheeting from Monte Allums.

2. got rid of the stock ground loop wired into every Strat from the factory. Consider this: you only need, but more importantly, only want one way for signal to get to ground. Anything else is a hum antenna. Star grounding for the pickups and pots; electrically isolate the pots from the shielding (or the shield becomes another route to ground). Conversely, I suppose you could use the shield as the ground and eliminate the ground wires, pot to pot.

Thing is, after I finished the guitar was far less noisy, but the tone was greatly improved, as well. I am convinced the hum was cancelling out or at least skewing some of the more pleasant overtones of the pickups/guitar.

Oh, and +1 to ZMB: with the second tone knob moved to the bridge pickup, best, most useable, Strat bridge pickup sound I have ever heard. With the tone knob around 7 it was like a nice old PAF - no kidding.

[guitararmy]

I've installed Bill Lawrence noiseless single coils (Wilde Pickups) in a strat and a tele with good results. Quiet even with distortion, and with more midrange than stock pu's.

I've used the L-280/290 in the strat and the L-298/300 in the tele....

I also like the DiMarzio Virtual Vintage pu's, but the Bill Lawrence pu's are almost half the price...

[geoff_hartwell]

I am not a pickup expert by any stretch, but you might want to check out the EHX Hum Debugger.

I ran a jam at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago and the first guys to plug strats into the house deluxes were overwhelmed by serious buzz, I mean extreme. I asked the house engineer what was up and he said that the stage was built over a huge power-thingy for the eleveted train or something. He grabs two of the humdebuggers and plugged them in right before each amp and the noise immediately disappeared - GONE, it was amazing. I was so stunned, I had to turn them off and on again, and it was a comical difference. I asked him how it worked and he said, "total fuckin mystery". Haha.

Might be worth a shot. Best of luck, GH

[burningyen]

I like the DiMarzio Area and Virtual Vintage pickups. Shielding usually does more for RF hiss than it does for 60Hz hum.

[FrankieIII]

[atquinn]

Suhr doesn't sell those anymore; they developed their own in-house system that isn't available aftermarket yet. But Fralin sells them and the guy that invented them, Ilitch Chiliachki, sells them, as well as other systems for various sorts of guitars (Specials and Teles), http://www.ilitchelectronics.com/index.htm

-

Austin

[FrankieIII]

Thanks Austin. Yeah, I noticed it wasn't listed on his site anymore. They pop up on eBay. One just sold used for $175 and here's another used one in black available now. eBay item number: 370621549380:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Musical-Instruments-Gear-/619/i.html?_nkw=suhr+BPSSC&rt=nc

[Ted]

I like the DiMarzio Area and Virtual Vintage pickups. Shielding usually does more for RF hiss than it does for 60Hz hum.

Ben, what is RF hiss?

[FrankieIII]

radio frequency...

[Ted]

radio frequency...

Thanks FrankieIII.

[Ted]

I am not a pickup expert by any stretch, but you might want to check out the EHX Hum Debugger.

I ran a jam at Buddy Guy's Legends in Chicago and the first guys to plug strats into the house deluxes were overwhelmed by serious buzz, I mean extreme. I asked the house engineer what was up and he said that the stage was built over a huge power-thingy for the eleveted train or something. He grabs two of the humdebuggers and plugged them in right before each amp and the noise immediately disappeared - GONE, it was amazing. I was so stunned, I had to turn them off and on again, and it was a comical difference. I asked him how it worked and he said, "total fuckin mystery". Haha.

Might be worth a shot. Best of luck, GH

Thanks for the heads up Geoff! I finally got a chance to study up on the Hum Debugger. In the videos it didn't seem to affect the Tone very much while stopping the hum. I'm going to start a thread on The HBugger and see what others experience with it are.

Ted

[jaberwock]

Shielding paint versus copper foil................ anyone got any opinions ?

Jaberwock

[veatch]

Foil can be easily removed if you want to return the guitar to its original state. Conductive paint is a bit better on the shielding (not much, but a wee bit...) and does look nicer.

I put paint in the cavities, and if the cover is not aluminum, put foil on the inside of the cover. I got pics of a Dean Caddy i did this to if'n yer interested in pics...

Note either way, if you plan on shielding the pup cavities, you'll need to send a ground wire to the cavity.

Oh - and watch your fingers if you use the foil - stinkin' stuff is sharp on the edges...

[jaberwock]

Oh - and watch your fingers if you use the foil - stinkin' stuff is sharp on the edges...

Yeah, I've got some really nasty cuts doing that; but I've always wondered with the adhesive backing how do two pieces of overlapping foil make electrical contact, or should you use solder to make a joint ?

[burningyen]

Shielding paint versus copper foil................ anyone got any opinions ?

Some good info in this thread.

Yeah, I've got some really nasty cuts doing that; but I've always wondered with the adhesive backing how do two pieces of overlapping foil make electrical contact, or should you use solder to make a joint ?

If you're using the right stuff, the adhesive itself is conductive. You should be able to find out by googling the stuff you're using.