60 cycle hum conundrum

[G-Rat]

So my girl has this silly old yellow electric guitar that I bought for her a long time ago and was a little neglected cause she likes her acoustic better. I tried. Its a Harmony the guy at the store said is from the sixties and some other guy said looked like a Jaguar copy- I know not, but whatever, backstory not necessary, we pulled it out at a rehearsal and it sounds awesome. It has a really great jangle like no other guitar I have ever heard, but it has pre-humbucker pickups and the hum, while not bothersome live, is reeaaallly apparant when we record it. I don't want to get rid of it totally, cause it is definitely part of the character of the guitar, but what can I do to minimize it, or does anyone know of ways to make the hum integrate into the mix better? I've messed around with the eq a little, but it is definitely trial and error and everything I have done so far has made it sound crappier than it is. any thoughts are greatly appreciated.
Garrett

[jerrymac]

Garrett, a few questions about the hum... does it change when you are near amps, lights, etc? If you stand in one position and turn 360 degrees, does the hum change as you turn? Is it really loud? Or just kinda loud?

Does the hum stop when you touch the strings? If it does, it might be a bad ground. sometimes an alligator clip from the bridge (behind the saddles, obviously) to shell of the guitar cable can fix some grounding problems temporarily while recording. Also, if you can open it up and look at the electronics, you could visually check that the grounds on the potentiometers are all attached to each other (and the ground) .

Other than that, hmmm, you are sure it's not the amp, or the guitar cable?

Lastly, there are ways of shielding the electronics inside the guitar, it's basically a copper foil that you wrap around the electronics in the electronics cavity. The trick is that the copper foil should be attached to the ground and NOT touching or shorting out all the other connections. Some of the copper foil has a paper backing on one side so that it doesn't short everything if it gets loose.

hope this info helps

jerry macdonald

[kayagum]

If you're willing to spend some money, I'd get the Boss Noise Surpressor pedal (NS-2?).

I got one just for this purpose (I have a sweet sounding Strat with Fralin pickups), and it gates the hum well. The gate itself can be tailored to fade gradually, and I found it really easy to adjust.

http://harmony-central.com/Effects/Data ... or-01.html

[G-Rat]

Okay, thanks for the help. The hum definitely follows the guitar from amp to amp, and I have tried different cables with it. It seems to be only one of the pickups that is the major culprit (the one closer to the bridge), seeing as when I turn the control I think is attached to that pickup down, the hum goes by by, as does any nice sound out of the guitar, the other pickup is really dull. I have never opened it, seeing as I am pretty sure I have the power to destroy all naked electronics on sight. If I go into Umanov or Sam Ash, will they laugh at me (the guitar really is kind of silly)? Will they know exactly how to fix it on sight? I really hate going into big guitar stores as I don't know enough to know when I am being messed with. The only little guitar store I know is the one I bought it from, and since he said it was all set up and ready to go when i bought it, I don't know if I believe him either (it was pretty obvious I was in there for the coolest looking electric guitar, not the best quality or best sounding, and I would have abused the situation if I were him, too). The noise reducer pedal seems cool, but I would rather treat the disease than the symptoms. Or if anyone has ever done anything cool sounding with a hum, I'd love to know, cause I am definitely up for experimenting. Thanks again for the help thus far,
Garrett

[kylethompson]

If you happen to be recording to pro tools, get the ray gun plugin. It completely zaps 60hz hum with no or little affect to the audio. Wish I could say the same about its hiss supression.

I have long wanted to invent a balanced guitar input for this reason... Someday.

[Piotr]

You may be living right next to a power transformer...

[kayagum]

If you're hellbent in trying to fix this:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/index.html

Or, try some of the 'noiseless pickups' sites like http://kinman.com or just do a google search on "single coil" pickup hum

Basically, you can try to do some cavity shielding and check your grounding. Good luck!