How have you rectified the annoying 60Hz hum in your strat?

strdsk · Post by **strdsk** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 12:41 pm

Hey all,
I love the way a Strat plays! But I hate single coil hum! I've used stacked pick-ups and like them fine, but any other methods out there you can walk me through that rids the axe of this hum? I've read about dummy coils, etc.. What's your story? Best...JD!

themagicmanmdt · Post by **themagicmanmdt** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 3:02 pm

Treat it like a Jazzmaster!

Like here:

http://www.gilmourish.com/?page_id=259

Get an anodized pickguard, completely shield the entire cavity, make sure you're getting ground conduction on EVERY piece of foil tape you use.

Be warned - the guitar does get a little more 'hi-fi' especially in the treble, now that you're not loosing stray capacitance due to good shielding.

It's like going from an unshielded mic cable to a good braided shield one. Much better!

The tone will change, though, but unless you love the hum and love the dirt the guitar picks up, shield it with aluminum tape (like they use for ducts, you can get it at home depot) and get an anodized pickguard.

kayagum · Post by **kayagum** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 6:00 pm

You can try Kinman or Lindy Fralin Split Blade pickups.

Theater stage tech- surprisingly the Boss Noise Suppressor does quite well. EH makes a Hum Eliminator that I haven't tried yet.

strdsk · Post by **strdsk** » Thu Aug 18, 2011 11:28 pm

Thanks for these tips guys! Keep em' comin'! Best...JD!

Nick Sevilla · Post by **Nick Sevilla** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 6:27 am

I have three strats :

#1 - White. Using Eric Clapton electronics. These are custom "noiseless" pickups "Lace Sensors" and uses the TBX tone control, as well as a volume boost preamplifier to distort the guitar amplifiers' input stage from the guitar. No noise. Some bozo got rid of their Eric Clapton signature guitars' innards, much to my benefit. They are apparently not sold by themselves.

#2 - Custom paint job. This one has Suhr Landau pickups. Nothing else has been done to the electronics of this one. This one has a TINY amount of hum, when engaging only one pickup, and also when turning the amp up A LOT.
http://www.suhrguitars.com/pickups.aspx

#3 - Red standard strat. Made in Mexico. That's right biatch. Actually ALL my strats are made south of the border. They all play very well. This one is stock. And it also only hums when playing REALLY LOUD on a single pickup.

One thing : I do not have any fluorescent lights in my studio, nor anything that induces a strong magnetic field either.

Cheers

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:20 am

All of my Fender Tele's and Strats have custom on-board preamps and hum cancelling circuits. Those are made from a dummy coil using Jap Fender strat pickups with the ceramic magnet and pole pieces removed.

The coils are wax dipped and fully shielded with copper foil. It's mounted inside under the pickguard mounted with surgical hose for mechanical damping.

The circuit has 2 inputs, one for the pickups, one for the dummy coil. That is conditioned with filters and is phase reversed and fed into the active preamp's inverting input for hum cancellation. There are 2 trimpots, one for gain, the other for hum null.

I am able to get up to an 80 db S/N ratio with that design, quieter than most humbuckers. The rest of the guitar's innards are shielded with copper foil and the bridge is wired with a .022 cap to prevent death from bad grounding.

This is especially satisfing using quality guitars and original vintage pickups, all of that tone, none of the noise = me happy. The other advantage is that extra hot yet clean output drives amps like a booster, the preamps will even drive headphones for silent practice and the low output impedance prevents any long cable losses.

frans_13 · Post by **frans_13** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 8:55 am

Star-grounding a guitar. Each ground connection (pickups, pots, caps,....)gets it's on leg towards the output.
It's not my idea, John Watkinson from Resolution mag UK turned me on to this.
Proper shielding inside the guitar also helps.

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:32 am

Screening a guitar with single coil pickups will reduce or even eliminate the high frequency buzz noise. However, none of those techniques will affect the hum pickup as that is directional low frequency AC line noise, 50/60 hz and it's harmonics of 120, 183 and 250 hz. The buzz noises kick in around 500 hz and up. Those are non-directional so hum cancelling does not reduce it as it's not common mode noise like the hum is.

strdsk · Post by **strdsk** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 10:52 am

Hey Jim,
If I were to mail you a loaded pick guard (3 single coils on a strat) what would you charge for this mod? Would it be more cost effective than loading the axe with 3 Seymour Duncan Classic stacks? Best...JD!

apropos of nothing · Post by **apropos of nothing** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:06 pm

Turn off your computer monitor and/or stand across the room and off-axis to the crazy EMF coming off of your computer and signal processors.

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:05 pm

I have the Lace sensors in my Strat, the "silver" ones (basic single coil sound) in neck and middle, and the "red" (high output humbucker sound) in the bridge. But this guitar came with the Laces in the first place, after trying out a couple other pickups I just ended up with a slightly rejiggered set of the Laces.

strdsk · Post by **strdsk** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:38 pm

So you recommend the Laces then Scott? I love my Duncans, but they're costly for what they are. I get Dimarzios at cost, but hate em'. The Laces can be had cheap on E-Bay. I love the single coil sound itself...humbuckers get too beefy. But the noise that comes with the singles drives me out of my shit. Was hoping some sort of clever "solder a cap in the path" answer was out there. Guess not though...

Scodiddly · Post by **Scodiddly** » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:52 pm

I'd rather have a guitar that sounds pretty good and always works.

Though I'll admit to being pretty damn fussy about acoustic guitars.

Judas Jetski · Post by **Judas Jetski** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 5:10 am

Hey, would any of these tricks work on a J-bass? When we had it in for servicing, we had them shield the crap out of it, but it still hums. They didn't wire the pickups out of phase, though, 'cause we didn't want to mess with the tone.

Now HMMMMMM we HMMMMMMMMMM really wish HMMMMMMMMMMMMM we HMMM had HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

Jim Williams · Post by **Jim Williams** » Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:34 am

Many years ago DiMarzio made a Jazz bass pickup that had two 2 string coils butted up next to each other, sort of P-Bass like but they fit into the standard Jazz pickup covers. That made them hum cancelling and very quiet. It avoided the lower outputs from using stacked coil designs and preserved the tops well.

I have a custom made Bartolini Jazz bridge pickup in my Koa P-Bass, it's resonant peak is set to 15k hz so it has a wide bandwidth and it's very quiet. I waited over a year to get that made back in 1981. I'd expect that to be much longer now.

Message Board

How have you rectified the annoying 60Hz hum in your strat?

How have you rectified the annoying 60Hz hum in your strat?

Who is online