Les Paul hum

[73goldtop]

I know this has been discussed to death but I'm having a hum issue with my Goldtop. I've noticed many people get this problem after changing electronics and pickups. About three years ago, I changed out the pots and pickups on my 73. That's when the hum started. I had my wiring checked by a tech and he reflowed a couple of solder joints but that was it. The problem remained and I set the guitar aside. Recently, I thought about selling it so I put the original T-tops and 300k pots back in. I also put covers back on as that is how it came from the factory. I was hoping these changes would take care of the hum as it didn't have the problem prior to changing pots and pups three years ago. However, the guitar still has a hum issue. I put a meter on all the grounds and they all read 0 no matter where I take a reading. That includes the switch, the bridge an the jack. There's no bleed from any hot wire and all the pots function as they should. When I touch any metal part on the guitar, the hum disappears. I'm told that means the grounding is good. If I sit the guitar next to the amp, the hum is only slightly louder than my Epi Les Paul which hasn't been touched. Well within acceptable limits. But when I strap on the Epi, the very slight hum does not get worse. When I strap on the Goldtop, the hum gets much worse. According to what I've read, that means I have a shield issue. My Epi has no special shielding and doesn't have a hum problem but my Goldtop does. Prior to changing pups and pots, it had no hum issue either. So my question is, how can changing or modifying electronics on a guitar suddenly cause a shielding issue? If ground issues, bad electronics, cold soldered joints are ruled out, what could cause this? Put back to its original trim, the guitar sounds so good, I've decided to keep it but the excessive hum is very annoying. It always left my Epi in the dust regarding playability but now also does so in tonality as well. Thoughts?

[73goldtop]

I think sometimes that is just the way it is. I had a LP Studio. I bought the body and neck (yes together as one item, and yes, I was asked once if I actually bought the body separate and neck separate and glued them together myself, no) and then bought all the rest of the parts and assembled it. I first had SD Slash pups in it, then Rio Grande Texas/BBQ then Lindy Fralin Pure PAF's and finally when I sold it I bought a set of inexpensive Dimarzio 36th Ann. PAF's. All of them had hum. I did not change all the sets of pups because I though that was the problem(they are humbucker for Pete's sake they are supposed to be damn quiet). The SD's I hated. The Rio's I put in a LP Classic and love those pups. The Fralin's I put in an SG Std, love those as well and the DM's cause they were inexpensive and I was selling it. I am no stranger to wiring guitars and have changed pups and modded many of my guitars and have wired at least 15 guitars from scratch. I must have soldered and unsoldered that guitar at least a dozen times and could not get the hum to go away. When I had the Lindy's in it I even called Lindy and talked to him personally and told him my story and he was baffled. Like you I ohmed out all my connections(and did it many times trying to find a problem). When I touched the strings plugged in to my amp the guitar would have no hum like it should. The hum was not overly loud, but alot louder than any of other guitars with hums in them. To this day I am baffled.

 

Well that's not very comforting. It's just strange that a guitar that once had no issue now does. And now it does with the original parts re-installed. Actually, The neck pots are still the 500k pots I put in 3 years ago. They function as they should so I assume they are not the problem. Someone please chime in if a properly functioning pot can still produce unwanted hum. It's not so bad as to make the guitar unplayable but it's my opinion that humbucker based guitars should not be as noisy as single coils. It's also strange that the cheap electronics in my Epi are extremely quiet. That alone would preclude me from ever changing anything on it. The Goldtop sounds fabulous. That's why this issue is so annoying. Guess I'll just have to keep my hands on the strings or turn down a volume pot between songs.

[tokairic]

I have just sorted out a hum on a generic Les Paul after changing the pots, caps etc for better items with coil tap etc. The buzz stopped if I touched anything metal on the guitar (strings, bridge, humbucker cover etc) The earths were all connected to each other and showed continuity using a meter - however I remelted all the solder joints on the earth leads (on the pot cases and everywhere else an earth was soldered) and also added a second earth lead from the jack to a volume pot case (even though the jack earth lead (shielding) was soldered to the 3way switch earth.

Then no more buzz! Can only assume that I had a poor solder joint somewhere or the jack earth was improved by fitting the shorter lead directly to a volume pot.

Also dont forget that the bridge needs earthing into the circuit also.

 

No guitar with Humbuckers should hum - thats why the pups were designed........saying 'maybe thats just how it is' is for SSS strat players.......

 

That left the field clear to change the pickups. Swapped out the original Chinese pups for some Entwistle HV58 Zebra Humbuckers and to my ears they are the Knees of the Bee. Whats more they are a quarter of the price of some of the 'big name' pups. I did use a treble bleed cap on the volume pots to get the clean highs with the volume turned down. Yes it is possible to play a guitar with the volume under ten (just some info for the metal shredders out there). Personally I like good clean sounds with maybe a bit of reverb -You have to play well to play clean as all your mistakes are obvious, loud distortion can easily disguise poor playing.

[Jimi Mac]

Hard to say...

 

These questions are going to sound remedial and stupid, but...

 

Have you tried other cords? Are the cord jacks tight/secure?

 

Have you tried different amps? Could the issue be in an amp jack or an amp itself if you are always using the same amp?

 

Do you have any inline effects, even with "true bypass" that could be causing this and are the cord jacks on all of any pedals you are using tight/secure?

 

Do you have any other electronic device on nearby the amp or guitar when you are plugging in could possibly be causing some EMI that that one guitar is more sensitive-to and amplifying it more than other guitars due to wiring/componentry etc?

 

Other than that I'm sure there are folks on here with a lot more knowledge and understanding than myself that might suggest better help than I can...

[73goldtop]

I can not speak for the guy having the problem, but he said it does it on his '73 Goldtop, but not on his less expensive Epi. I would assume with his problem he is having he would be unplugging the Epi and then plugging in the Goldtop with the same gear and then hear the buzz, as to do a side by side comparison.

 

You are right. I did just that. I also used another amp with the same result. In both cases, I plugged straight in, no pedals. It's definitely a guitar issue.

[cjmwrx]

It is possible the bridge ground is no longer making contact with the bridge posts. I had a LP Studio back in the day that was humming. I pulled the bridge stud bushings and noticed the bridge ground was not even in the hole. I pushed it back through from the control cavity, and pressed the bushing back in making sure the bridge ground contacted the bushing. After that, the hum went away.

 

Could be worth a shot.

[Markini]

I have a Yamaha acoustic electric, I know its not a LP. But that guitar will hum and buzz on one amp and not on another amp. The amps are fine all the other electrics and acoustics work through them.

 

On my 1st electric guitar build (strat) I had terrible humming the same symptons it would hum and buzz until you touched the guitar then it got quiet.

 

I had too take the pick guard off twice and I eventually ended up re-soldering every connection, finally ended up being a cold solder joint on jack, even though I was getting zero ohms.

 

 

 

[dbrian66]

I am a car mechanic. When checking connections in the automotive world, you can have a bad connection ohm out at 0. The problem is, as soon as you put a load on it, the connection opens. The amps that the multimeter put out to check the circuit are so minimal that even a bad connection will carry it. There is a tool i have that will load a circuit while you are checking ohms for this very problem. i also have a strat at home with same humming prob. After reading all this, that tool popped into my head. I'm going to take it home this weekend and try it.

[73goldtop]

It is possible the bridge ground is no longer making contact with the bridge posts. I had a LP Studio back in the day that was humming. I pulled the bridge stud bushings and noticed the bridge ground was not even in the hole. I pushed it back through from the control cavity, and pressed the bushing back in making sure the bridge ground contacted the bushing. After that, the hum went away.

 

Could be worth a shot.

 

According to my meter, I have complete continuity (meter reads 0hms) at the bridge ground.

[73goldtop]

I am a car mechanic. When checking connections in the automotive world, you can have a bad connection ohm out at 0. The problem is, as soon as you put a load on it, the connection opens. The amps that the multimeter put out to check the circuit are so minimal that even a bad connection will carry it. There is a tool i have that will load a circuit while you are checking ohms for this very problem. i also have a strat at home with same humming prob. After reading all this, that tool popped into my head. I'm going to take it home this weekend and try it.

 

The interesting thing is that if I get right next to the amp, the buzz practically disappears. At that point it picks up transformer hum but that is a much lower in frequency. All my guitars will do that. Same thing happens if I bend down and place the guitar very close to my board. You think it would be the opposite. The one last thing I can do is to desolder, clean and re-solder all the ground connections. If that doesn't work, I don't know what else I can do.

[Eracer_Team]

if you wanted to eliminate the pot's and caps.. you could solder the pickup one at a time to the output jack (remember to connect the ground though) and that will put the pickups straight out and see if they hum

[73goldtop]

if you wanted to eliminate the pot's and caps.. you could solder the pickup one at a time to the output jack (remember to connect the ground though) and that will put the pickups straight out and see if they hum

 

It's done it with two sets of pups so I doubt they are the issue. I just got done pulling each pot, cleaning off the old solder and re-soldering the entire cavity. Once again I get strong continuity at each ground no matter where I place the probes. When I de-soldered the pots , I checked the bridge ground between just the wire in the cavity and the bridge and got a reading of 0. The end result of all this work is no change. The original pups and pots are back in and the guitar sounds beautiful. I've come to the conclusion that whatever is causing the buzz, it's not a ground issue. All pots work as they should. Funny thing is, plugged in and sitting on a stand, there is no buzz. As soon as I pick it up, the buzz starts. On a Par with your average single coil guitar. Maybe adding shielding would help but the thought of pulling everything out yet again is not something I want to do anytime soon. Guess I'll just have to live with it. Based on the research I've done on this, it looks like I'm not the only one that has had to deal with this kind of thing.

[73goldtop]

It's done it with two sets of pups so I doubt they are the issue. I just got done pulling each pot, cleaning off the old solder and re-soldering the entire cavity. Once again I get strong continuity at each ground no matter where I place the probes. When I de-soldered the pots , I checked the bridge ground between just the wire in the cavity and the bridge and got a reading of 0. The end result of all this work is no change. The original pups and pots are back in and the guitar sounds beautiful. I've come to the conclusion that whatever is causing the buzz, it's not a ground issue. All pots work as they should. Funny thing is, plugged in and sitting on a stand, there is no buzz. As soon as I pick it up, the buzz starts. On a Par with your average single coil guitar. Maybe adding shielding would help but the thought of pulling everything out yet again is not something I want to do anytime soon. Guess I'll just have to live with it. Based on the research I've done on this, it looks like I'm not the only one that has had to deal with this kind of thing.

 

I noticed the guitar picking up clicking sound. Like a ticking clock. I hear it in my Strat also. Turns out its picking up my solar system converter. The system may also be the source of the hum. I'll have to check that out. For those interested, here are some pics of the guitar. My '73

[73goldtop]

I noticed the guitar picking up clicking sound. Like a ticking clock. I hear it in my Strat also. Turns out its picking up my solar system converter. The system may also be the source of the hum. I'll have to check that out. For those interested, here are some pics of the guitar. My '73

 

Mystery solved! It is my solar system after all. I shut down the system and the hum disappeared on the Goldtop. My body picks up emi and rf from the system and sends it into the pickups. What threw me off was the fact that my cheap Epi doesn't seem to be affected by it. My Strat picks it up but you expect it from that guitar. Actually, the Goldtop is slightly noisier than the Strat. Anyway, I feel much better now that I know there's is nothing really wrong with my Goldtop. No doubt it would benefit from a proper shielding but I'm not going to tackle it and I really don't have the funds to pay someone else at this time. Guess I could always tape a ground wire from my belly button to the bridge when I play it. :)

[73goldtop]

Double post, sorry

[Eracer_Team]

Right when people think 'hum-bucker' they think no hum

 

what it really means is hum reduced.

my house is very noisey and all my guitars and amps hum, as soon as i brought them to a different house or work, no hum

[capmaster]

Mystery solved! It is my solar system after all. I shut down the system and the hum disappeared on the Goldtop. My body picks up emi and rf from the system and sends it into the pickups. What threw me off was the fact that my cheap Epi doesn't seem to be affected by it. My Strat picks it up but you expect it from that guitar. Actually, the Goldtop is slightly noisier than the Strat. Anyway, I feel much better now that I know there's is nothing really wrong with my Goldtop. No doubt it would benefit from a proper shielding but I'm not going to tackle it and I really don't have the funds to pay someone else at this time. Guess I could always tape a ground wire from my belly button to the bridge when I play it. :)

Guess they didn't take solar systems into account in 1973...

 

All kidding aside, nowadays electronics may include new problems. Since my web and phone connections run through a wireless transceiver box, some guitars suffer from interferences similar to those caused by cell phones. Some guitars are more susceptible for that, others less.

 

The transceiver is at about 2.5m respectively 8ft 4" away from me when I'm practicing at home. The active circuit of my Les Paul Alex Lifeson Axcess picks up radio interference through the magnetics only, not through the piezos. The two of my modded Fender FR Strats using piezos and circuits of same make are much quieter. Their Fender Noiseless magnetic pickups seem to cancel out the interference more effectively. I think this is due to their stacked design working better at small distances to the radio source.

[deeman]

When you said solar system i thought you were talking about outer space being in your house...or a model of the solar system at the very least. Boy do i feel dumb!

[Sgt.]

I know this has been discussed to death but I'm having a hum issue with my Goldtop. I've noticed many people get this problem after changing electronics and pickups. About three years ago, I changed out the pots and pickups on my 73. That's when the hum started. I had my wiring checked by a tech and he reflowed a couple of solder joints but that was it. The problem remained and I set the guitar aside. Recently, I thought about selling it so I put the original T-tops and 300k pots back in. I also put covers back on as that is how it came from the factory. I was hoping these changes would take care of the hum as it didn't have the problem prior to changing pots and pups three years ago. However, the guitar still has a hum issue. I put a meter on all the grounds and they all read 0 no matter where I take a reading. That includes the switch, the bridge an the jack. There's no bleed from any hot wire and all the pots function as they should. When I touch any metal part on the guitar, the hum disappears. I'm told that means the grounding is good. If I sit the guitar next to the amp, the hum is only slightly louder than my Epi Les Paul which hasn't been touched. Well within acceptable limits. But when I strap on the Epi, the very slight hum does not get worse. When I strap on the Goldtop, the hum gets much worse. According to what I've read, that means I have a shield issue. My Epi has no special shielding and doesn't have a hum problem but my Goldtop does. Prior to changing pups and pots, it had no hum issue either. So my question is, how can changing or modifying electronics on a guitar suddenly cause a shielding issue? If ground issues, bad electronics, cold soldered joints are ruled out, what could cause this? Put back to its original trim, the guitar sounds so good, I've decided to keep it but the excessive hum is very annoying. It always left my Epi in the dust regarding playability but now also does so in tonality as well. Thoughts?

yeah i recognize this hum problem ... have it with a 2011 lp studio. My conclusion is that the BB Pro's are hot and that's it, live with it. The hum disappears when the tone is rolled off and intensifies when they're rolled up. Some suggest lower value tone pots or higher value caps. I think for me it's the pickups that are hot and noisy and the noise is just amplified when the amp is turned louder. nuts. believe me i've tried to get to the bottom of this because humbuckers are supposed to buck hum, right? replaced electronics with 500k pots (vol were 300k and tone 500k) change caps (same value though). no change. it's not ground, ground is sound. it's not amp, tried with different amps, same conclusion. it's not pedals, cables, or proximity to other appliances. rrrrrrrrrrr

[73goldtop]

Guess they didn't take solar systems into account in 1973...

 

All kidding aside, nowadays electronics may include new problems. Since my web and phone connections run through a wireless transceiver box, some guitars suffer from interferences similar to those caused by cell phones. Some guitars are more susceptible for that, others less.

 

The transceiver is at about 2.5m respectively 8ft 4" away from me when I'm practicing at home. The active circuit of my Les Paul Alex Lifeson Axcess picks up radio interference through the magnetics only, not through the piezos. The two of my modded Fender FR Strats using piezos and circuits of same make are much quieter. Their Fender Noiseless magnetic pickups seem to cancel out the interference more effectively. I think this is due to their stacked design working better at small distances to the radio source.

 

It's a learning curve for sure. Sometimes you have to throw out conventional wisdom when dealing with this stuff.

[73goldtop]

When you said solar system i thought you were talking about outer space being in your house...or a model of the solar system at the very least. Boy do i feel dumb!

 

LOL! Sometimes I feel there's outer space in my house but that's usually after several shots of Jameson. : -)

[73goldtop]

yeah i recognize this hum problem ... have it with a 2011 lp studio. My conclusion is that the BB Pro's are hot and that's it, live with it. The hum disappears when the tone is rolled off and intensifies when they're rolled up. Some suggest lower value tone pots or higher value caps. I think for me it's the pickups that are hot and noisy and the noise is just amplified when the amp is turned louder. nuts. believe me i've tried to get to the bottom of this because humbuckers are supposed to buck hum, right? replaced electronics with 500k pots (vol were 300k and tone 500k) change caps (same value though). no change. it's not ground, ground is sound. it's not amp, tried with different amps, same conclusion. it's not pedals, cables, or proximity to other appliances. rrrrrrrrrrr

 

I don't think hot pups are the issue either. The T-tops in the guitar are in the 7.5k range. Not at all hot. I've come to the conclusion that some guitars are just more susceptible to hum than others.The guitar hummed just as bad with 500k pots as 300k pots. and it hummed with properly grounded electronics. A pain to be sure!

[Sgt.]

yeah i recognize this hum problem ... have it with a 2011 lp studio. My conclusion is that the BB Pro's are hot and that's it, live with it. The hum disappears when the tone is rolled off and intensifies when they're rolled up. Some suggest lower value tone pots or higher value caps. I think for me it's the pickups that are hot and noisy and the noise is just amplified when the amp is turned louder. nuts. believe me i've tried to get to the bottom of this because humbuckers are supposed to buck hum, right? replaced electronics with 500k pots (vol were 300k and tone 500k) change caps (same value though). no change. it's not ground, ground is sound. it's not amp, tried with different amps, same conclusion. it's not pedals, cables, or proximity to other appliances. rrrrrrrrrrr

there's lots of peaved peeps out there with humming humbuckers. Lollar blog discusses it and suggests that the pickups are 'new' and you are listening more closely for imperfections (in other words we that hear the humming buckers are crazy)My link. It does discuss the 120 cycle hum that affect both single coil and humbuckers.

There's lots of peeps with humming humbuckers just giving up and deciding that some guitars do do this and there's some that don't ... go buy one that doesn't.