But seriously, that's normal with single coil pickups. All: I have a PRS 594 that buzzes, not hums, but buzzes, when I'm not touching any of the metal parts on the guitar. Clear editor. Would you mind explaining to me what a single coil pickup is? Hi all, I have a P-Bass which I have just gutted and stupidly (I know) replaced the electrics in, without taking careful note of how it was wired before. it's all that rage that you hold in during the day...it just gets caught up and you can hear it hum... © 1995-2019 Harmony Central, Inc. All rights reserved. The hum will be exacerbated by various external factors, such as poor household wiring and the presence of fluorescent lighting, but there are mitigating steps you can take to minimize the amount of hum your guitar kicks out. I have had it for about six years and it just started this hum. Many times, someone chimes in with this bit of knowledge: you actually ground your body by touching the strings and that becomes part of the guitar's … Guitar stops buzzing when I touch the strings; Poll Why does a guitar amp buzz stop when you're touching the strings? Thanks for the advice. When I buy a fender I'm gonna ground/shield/set up the {censored} out of it.. You can post now and register later. My amp hum really bad when I put it in over drive Hums reduces to effect 0 when I touch strings(all 6), pick ups or metal part on the bridge that the touches Jack of my cable. Also, you will find that the sound goes diminishes if you turn, or if you reduce the amout of electrical inteference in the area. You never know, it could be that simple. It does not hum when touching any other metal part. How do I stop this? Or just keep a hand on the bridge or strings or tuners. Ive checked all the grounds are connected (with a multimeter) and shielding the control and switch cavity but the sound still persists. kimbercommander, January 2, 2009 in Electric Guitars, I have an esp ltd deluxe ec-1000 with emg 81 pickups in it. I have a b.c.   You cannot paste images directly. The thing is, when I touch the pots and apply a little pressure the humming goes away. Thanks for any help. Your body is grounding the guitar 14 (43.8%) The guitar is grounding your body 5 (15.6%) Touching the strings creates a ground loop 0 (0%) The strings are acting like an antenna I also bought a new guitar cable to see what that would do, but the buzz is still there. The most common source of guitar hum is the pickups. Is there a problem with my guitar/amp? I also noticed that my 3 high string sound like they are playing through a blown speaker on the acoustic simulater on my effects pedal any help would be great thanks. Some people have used a metal clip attached to their pants (touching skin) and then attached to a metal part of the guitar via wire. You've probably got a problem with the ground. Il try playing in different rooms and see if this helps. If you move away from the guitar the field strength decays and the hum dies down. When you touch the strings, if the ground wire is in place, you shunt all that noise to ground, and thus it doesn't get amplified. If you touch the selected pickup and the strings at the same time it does not cancel the hum. If you touch the string and the noise goes crazy, that's grounding. Related Content Adjusting Strat Pickup Height How To Setup Your Electric Guitar Part 1: Adjusting the Truss Rod How To Setup Your Electric Guitar Part 2: Setting Action How To Setup Your Electric Guitar Part 3: Intonation I recently bought the THR10x and when i plugged in my pacifica it gives a fairly loud buzz. × And is there anything I can do to fix it? Paste as plain text instead, × Thanks for the reply. The only things done to the guitar at about the same time as the hum started was swapping the original top hat knobs with speed knobs. I'd check the cable first, EMG's arn't supposed to be earthed/grounded so unless the pickup is broken then it could be amp/cable.   Your previous content has been restored. The guitar is humming pretty loudly, and it gets louder when I touch the strings. When you touch the strings, your body becomes part of the ground. If the floating bridge doesn’t have enough tension and it will go below the horizontal line of the body and the strings will touch the frets which will cause the buzz. When you touch the strings (or chassis), which are grounded, your body is brought to the same potential as ground and the electric field vanishes. Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible. Powered by Invision Community. The common explanation for why noise goes away when you touch the strings or metalwork is that you are adding to the overall amount of screening. The problem is also solved by turning the tone knob all the way down. Guitar: Yamaha Pacifica 112J . Thanks, New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Does anyone know what this is? I do notice the sound goes down if I turn down the 'gain' on the amp. Display as a link instead, × Your telecaster buzzes even when you touch the strings? As previously stated, these two power points may be at widely different ground voltages, so a current can flow between the grounded mic housing and the playe… If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account. with all his bad experiences, I would be shocked to find out that he could fnd a place to get a guitar, amp, and cables without issue... Have you tried a different cable? When you touch the guitar strings with your hand, that provides a low-impedance earth-ground path from your body, through the strings/bridge/tailpiece of your guitar, via the shield of your phone plug, to the chassis of the stage amp, then finally through the power cord to the (hopefully) grounded wall outlet. So guitar makers simply soldered a wire on to the bridge so whenever the guitarist touched the strings, it would remove any noise. When you search various forums on this issue, the first answer is always 'grounding issue'. Ah okay thanks! Press J to jump to the feed. I noticed that there is a Hum that goes away when I touch the strings or any of the metal parts. This is a forum where guitarists, from novice to experienced, can explore the world of guitar through a variety of media and discussion. Our Guitar Workshop is great at fixing these problems and so much more. Start there. I have an HSS Peavey with non-original pickups. This is not about hum, but is an important related issue. Hi, I am learning to play the electric guitar, however the guitar emits a humming or buzzing like sound unless I touch a string or a metal part of the guitar etc. I also need to correct myself above. Pickups are microphonic and therefore prone to radio-frequency interference (Reference 1). I've done a lot of reading of old posts where there were no real definitive solutions for this problem. Nothing you can do. In concerts, electric-guitar players can receive a shock when they touch their guitar strings and a mic simultaneously. It's NOT something wrong with the guitar, and it's NOT something that you need to take to a tech or start chasing around with a soldering iron. rich speed v with stock active pickups run through digitech distortion pedal and sometimes a vox wah-wah and when i touch the strings i hear a buzzing noise and when i lay off it not there and i know its not my amp and pedal because i can run my warlock and my rhodes through its just fine this is my first guitar with active pickups. Usually there is a slight humming if I don't keep my hand on the bass strings (pretty normal considering the pick-ups), except when I use both the neck and middle pick-ups, which I assume is a hum canceling position. Your body is intercepting the RFI/EMI noise otherwise destined for the pick-ups, and that noise is getting dumped to ground through your guitar. Yeah I've got it the other way around.. it only does it when i touch the strings or when i play.   Your link has been automatically embedded. Hi, I am learning to play the electric guitar, however the guitar emits a humming or buzzing like sound unless I touch a string or a metal part of the guitar etc. It is not 60hz hum. It's the way most electric guitars are designed, and it's absolutely normal. By When your guitar gets quieter when you touch metal on it, it is because YOU just became a good shield. You've got a ground problem in your wiring. Or get a noise gate pedal. If the guitar has a lot of single unshielded wire or the entire electronics cavity is not shielded the wires pick up stray frequencies, noise and buzz. I'm brand new here and I suspect that this has been discussed often. × My strat has a slight buzz which goes away when I touch the strings. Cause: If you own an electric guitar with a floating bridge then you need to consider the tension on your bridge. Grounding your strings is essential for having a quieter guitar. Upload or insert images from URL. Ive recently brought my first Gibson ( a Les paul). You probably notice the same effect when moving your hands near an open (live) amp chassis. I'm trying to quiet a hum from my guitar that stops when I touch the input jack. Electric guitars were designed this way because it was discovered early that touching a grounded part of a guitar cuts noise. Buzz will also often be greatly reduced when you touch the strings or any other metal part of the guitar, sometimes accompanied by an audible click, whereas hum will remain unchanged. The two singles together have a fair amount of hum that disappears when I touch the strings, bridge, or jack. Keep you hands on the strings, then if you want to stop for a while you roll off your volume knob to zero so you can take off your hands from the strings. If you have guitar related questions, use the "Search" field or ask the community. I know it is a bad ground somewhere, but I have soldered, unsoldered and re-soldered about 5 times now and it wont go away. I recently replaced my pickups and shielded the cavities. This is the correct way to ground a Gibson Les Paul or Telecaster Deluxe. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Re-strung the guitar, 2 strings in and back comes the hum. Amp: Yamaha THR10x. When a guitar is properly grounded it will do this. I think some shielding and stuff will help, but it's a common issue and it's more noticeable with the amp at higher sensitivity. This seems to also indicate that your ground is fine, otherwise the guitar would not get quiet. Quick video walk through of how to diagnose and fix the problem. Ive got this hum from my bass unless i touch the strings or bridge. It checked it with both my guitar and bass amp to rule out the amp. The hum goes away. Im relieved that there its normal though :D. Grounding "issue". When you touch the strings your body acts as a dampener to the noises. I've just done JohnH's jimmy page wiring on my guitar. You are part of the amplifier grounding system. There is a piece of tinfoil on the back (backrouted strat) that's connected to one of the screws for grounding, but when I touch that the thing goed ballistic.. Just poorly grounded, but it's a cheapo so I'm not doing anything about it.. [Question] Electric guitar hums/buzz's until I touch the strings or metal parts. This occurs when the guitar amp is plugged into an electrical outlet on stage, and the mixing console (to which the mics are grounded) is plugged into a separate outlet across the room.   Pasted as rich text. Things like lights and electronics can worsen this sort of interference in single coils, and changing your positioning can sometimes greatly reduce interference. Il try if the metal clip will fix it :), https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=guitar%2C+shielding+buzz. it only does it when i touch the strings or when i play. On a guitar with low action, tiny changes in your guitar's body can bring a fret in contact with an open string, creating a buzzing sound. Thanks for visiting. If Sweetwater sells it, we can service it! The best place to start if you're new is right below in our "Rules" section. It only hums when you touch the pickups or the pickup adjusting screws. If you’ve ever noticed your guitar’s noise gets quieter when you touch the strings, you might have thought your body grounds your guitar’s parts. © 1995-2019 Harmony Central, Inc. All rights reserved. My guitar hums when plugged in with any gain but the hum is greatly reduced when I'm touching the strings. What I think might give a big clue is it hums when I am not touching any metal on the guitar, but as soon as I touch the strings, metal around input jack, metal on cable plug..etc. I … I have had it for about six years and it just started this hum. I bet Gordon freeman has real hum problems. Even in this position it still hums a little. ground problem x 3...in anything electrical that makes sound,guitars,car audio,home audio,etc....this is 99% of the time the culprit... it's all that rage that you hold in during the day...it just gets caught up and you can hear it hum...my suggestion, play the "spider" riff of the Master of Puppets intro.. it will get rid of that rage, effectively, getting rid of the hum. Obviously I cant record with it unless maybe I wear one of those wrist straps. The buzz goes away when I touch the metal. YOU GROUND OUT THE STRINGS:. Hey guys. How to Get Rid of an Unwanted Guitar Buzzing Noise. Carefully re-strung the rest of the strings and I'm still good - so my conclusion is that such devices are very fussy about how they sit, what they touch etc. This is normal for passive pickups, which rely on a bridge ground. I have an esp ltd deluxe ec-1000 with emg 81 pickups in it. On top of the other suggestions here, you can try orienting yourself and guitar differently in the room. I … Keeping a “Horseshoe” shape, each pot is grounded once. If you absolutely cannot stand it, the option is to switch to active pickups like EMGs that do not use a bridge ground. Btw the guitar that I am using is Yamaha Eg112c. A small wiggle of the saddle and its gone again. I have been trying this, however It is hard to use a pick and switch to the 5th and 6th strings when my hand is on the strings. The cause is not from grounding, it is from lack of shielding. I am have that classic problem of when I do not have my hands on the strings plugged in to my amp I get a hiss and when I touch the strings it goes away. When I touch my strings or anything connected to it the hum goes away.. Shielding goes like this: You create a metal box around your electronics, and connect that metal box to your ground wire. I have checked all the wiring and everything seems to be fine. The buzz disappears when I touch the metal components of the guitar (the bridge, strings, tuners, the mounting screws of … Welcome to r/guitar, a community devoted to the exchange of guitar related information and entertainment. I am a Beginner Electric guitar player so I don t know much about amps, guitar or the cable that connects em.