Dot pickup hum

[rufiopan]

I just got an epi dot the other day. When I first got it, I didn't notice any perceivable hum. However, tonight I was playing it and noticed a bit of hum, it gets slightly louder on the dirty channel but is noticeable on clean. It goes away when I turn the volume off, and is the same on multiple amps, in multiple places in the house. It does not go away when I touch the strings.

 

Its been a while since I've even owned an electric, honestly. My last one was a Gibson SG Special, which was great, until it started to do the same thing. Pretty soon it was unbearable. I hope that I don't experience the same problem with this guitar, as I've been in love with it (everything but the crooked tuners).

 

Help!

[animalfarm]

A DOT, eh? Make pulling the control cover for a quick visual

inspection impossible! First thought is Grounding problem...

 

Are you using the thin git cable that came with the guitar, or a

decent, thick shielded cable? Thin cable make Git go HUMMMMMMM!!!!!

 

Is the plug-in jack loose and can spin around? This would eventually cause

one/both of the two wires to fray or break with intermittent contact.

 

Do these while git plugged in to amp:

*Still hums when you touch strings - how about when you touch

pup covers, the metal ring of 3-way switch, or touch the metal

ring of plug-in jack? If humming stops, bridge/tailpiece ground wire is at fault.

 

*If humming still present, gently push plugged in git cable to one side of

plug-in jack. The bent "tab" on the jack not only connects the "HOT" output

to the git cable, but also "pushes" the round plug barrel against the inside

sleeve of the jack, providing ground. A weak or slightly bent "tab" means a

cr@ppy ground connection. If Hum goes away... then "Bob's yer Uncle", as our

Australian members would say.

 

IF humming STILL present -

Read the following thread about similar problem, but in an LP vice a DOT...

May provide insight, then post back with what you did to check and what you

found/heard. The more detail, the better.

 

http://forums.epiphone.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=15211

[rufiopan]

Well my only concern is that it's not too loud. Like is any amount of hum normal and acceptable? I mean obviously with some newer pups there is like zero hum, but it does sound pretty much like most guitars I've heard I guess haha. But definitely less is more here and anything I can do to improve it I will. I'm working today but will post as soon as I've had a chance to tinker with it. And yeah, its def nothing like any other guitar as far as home improvement, haha. I'd need to be a bomb expert to fix anything in this thing.

[mud guy]

Does the humming only happen when your hands are not touching the guitar strings/bridge? I think you need to have a hand in contact with the bridge to kill hum, and make the ground connection. It's like that on my dot and on les pauls I've played.

 

-cal

[Legs]

I just got an epi dot the other day. When I first got it' date=' I didn't notice any perceivable hum. However, tonight I was playing it and noticed a bit of hum, it gets slightly louder on the dirty channel but is noticeable on clean. It goes away when I turn the volume off, and is the same on multiple amps, in multiple places in the house. It does not go away when I touch the strings.

 

Its been a while since I've even owned an electric, honestly. My last one was a Gibson SG Special, which was great, until it started to do the same thing. Pretty soon it was unbearable. I hope that I don't experience the same problem with this guitar, as I've been in love with it (everything but the crooked tuners).

 

Help![/quote']

Isuggest that you get a better cable. No molded plugs. Spend a few buckeroos!

 

legs

[rufiopan]

i'm not that much of a rookie. i am definitely not using the cable that came with the guitar haha. just your run of the mill fifteen dollar cable. i'm planning on getting some monsters my next order with some other accessories i need. still haven't had a chance to get home...but i'm saying most guitars, even with humbuckers, produce some amount of hum, correct?? or incorrect?? idk, like i said, it's been a while since i've had played a straight signal through an amp too. i'm used to playing lots of effects without an amp with an effects loop, lots of noise, garageband equipment, etc.

 

thanks, i'm no guitar tech.

[Legs]

I'm not trying to talk this to death.

 

Check your internal wiring. See that everything is soldered firmly.

 

Are you using good short cables or back-back plugs? Cleaner cables and should make your hum go away.With good cables and wiring there should be little hum ( that's why they were called humbuckers when God made them) to go after sqeally telecasters/broadcasters[blink]

roaring silence!

Legs

 

I've seen tremendous veteran players with shitty cables and connections. Sometimes my self!

[rufiopan]

well i read through about half of that thread while i had the chance, i got to run again, but had to take a sec to check this stuff out cause its bugging me. the only thing that made some sense was the grounded vs ungrounded plug section.

 

i came home, plugged it in, and there is now only intermittent hum. it changed a little while moving my position relative to the amp. it sounds pretty much like its just humming out of the dirty channel now, which obviously some hum is bound to happen. so i'm thinking that maybe it's interference or something? cable is brand new. hums more out of bridge than neck pup but i assume that's normal too. the only thing is that rolling the volume and tone selectors also effects the volume of the slight humming, and not proportionally? it kind of gets louder around eight then tapers back off at ten. everything seems to look just fine inside, after all its brand new.

 

maybe i'm just being paranoid and it's interference while walking around and the rest is just from the overdrive channel on the amp? i mean its very low relative to the volume of the amp. the other amp is louder, but its louder without an instrument feeding it any signal, just sitting there turned on.

 

thanks for the help guys, maybe i'm looking too far into it.

 

 

i'll finish that thread tonight animalfarm, thanks i just figured i'd catch up while i had a sec. none of the other things you mentioned had any effect.

[StewartB]

If Hum goes away... then "Bob's yer Uncle", as our

Australian members would say.

 

Hey, how did you know I have an uncle Bob??

 

Stewart B (from Oz)

[rufiopan]

alright, i thought that i had this figured out, but i guess not. i think maybe its just interference, and maybe i am rookie, cause its starting to make me feel like one, but this is what happened:

 

i took the guitar and amp out of my room w/ tv, computer, etc. (which i had turned all off, only to the slight improvement of the obvious tv hum) and brought them to the attic. i stood in a circle and spun around in a circle. at two points about 180 apart from each other, the guitar was next to silent. at the opposite points it was loudest. i didn't have a strap on, so the cord was under as little stress as possible while doing so.

 

could it still be the cord? or some other interference? there is alot of metal in the attic, but all the plugs are grounded, and no real wiring in the real part of the attic where i was standing. its all in a room to the side. idk. that and the intonation is all messed up on the treble strings from putting 11s instead of the 9s (felt like 8s) or whatever was on there before. waiting for a tuner to be able to fix it.

[obe-wan]

Gday mate, a friend of mine had the same problem with his Epi Les Paul. It ended up being a combination of things. He completely re-wired the guitar, swapped all the pots, jack, switch and pickups and it was better, but still there. It ended up being mostly dodgy power points in his house! Bad earths.

 

Hearing that its happened with multible amps and two different guitars makes me think its more likely the earth in your house that may be suspect. Have you tried taking your gear around to a friends house and see what the hum is like there? When running through the clean channel on my amp I get the slightest amount of hum, which goes away completely when I touch the bridge or the stop tail piece. So my guitar may have a slight earth problem too, but its not enough for me to bother with.

As you probably know high gain will increase the hum not matter how good your gear is.

 

Hope this helps, Good Luck.

 

Cheers, Scott.

[rufiopan]

well actually, it didn't happen with two guitars, but did with two amps in three different positions in the house. really, since i got rid of all the interference problems i could, there is only minimal hum like you said on clean. dirty, it hums more, obviously, and more the more i turn up the volume or gain, but some positions with relatively low gain and volume seems to be too much. like just annoying, not totally unbearable, but still. its brand new. what really makes me wonder is that it changes when i move around like that; its not a stable amount of hum. but it also makes me wonder if its the guitar at all because of that. i haven't been able to take it to a friends yet, no.

[obe-wan]

If you could get hold of another guitar that you knew was fine electrically you could stand in the spot that is the worst for your guitar, then swap guitars and see if the other guitar is humming too? Just a thought. Process of elimination.

 

Cheers, Scott

[rufiopan]

so anyway. nobody seems too interested in this thread anymore. but if someone could at least tell me, if i get one of those meters you guys are talking about, and test the guitar with it, it will tell me whether any issues are coming from the guitar or elsewhere, right? and would be the appropriate way to test the guitar for all possibilities? if it is something listed in the other thread, just let me know and i'll read it there while i'm doing it. thanks.

[Gordy01]

Take your gear next door, or over to your buddy's place. Try it there.

If you still have noise it isn' the ground in your house.

[animalfarm]

:- [biggrin] We're not forgetting about you, sometimes

folks fix their problems then forget to come back and tell us "IT'S FIXED!",

THAT's what the "BUMP" is for, to bring a topic back to the top of the list

for further consideration.

 

Just for verification, the Hum is more of a "background" hum, rather than an "in your face"

LOUD hum? AND, is this happening with BOTH pups, or just one in particular?

 

I just got an epi dot the other day. When I first got it' date=' I didn't notice any perceivable hum. However, tonight I was playing it and noticed a bit of hum, it gets slightly louder on the dirty channel but is noticeable on clean. [b']It goes away when I turn the volume off, and is the same on multiple amps, in multiple places in the house. It does not go away when I touch the strings. [/b]

 

:-k

 

]i stood in a circle and spun around in a circle[/b]. at two points about 180 apart from each other' date=' the guitar was next to silent. at the opposite points it was loudest. i didn't have a strap on, so the cord was under as little stress as possible while doing so.[/quote']

 

:- WOW! I know a couple of players who could use some of that stuff! Is it legal?

 

 

Take your gear next door' date=' or over to your buddy's place. Try it there.

If you still have noise it isn' the ground in your house.[/quote']

 

This is where the process of elimination begins. I have heard that the DOT style

of guitar will have some inherent hum based on the way it's made. I do not own

one, so I cannot verify this fact.

 

Back on topic -

You're looking at 3 possible causes:

1. The guitar itself.

2. The guitar cord.

3. The ground circuitry in the home.

 

A. The easiest check would be to "borrow" a guitar cord, plug up, see if

problem still exists. Based on what I've read in your posts, it appears the

hum will still be present, but STRANGE things have been known to happen,

especially while spinning in circles - Woo-Woo-Woo!!! (Think 3 Stooges/Curly).

If hum still present, cord is now eliminated...

 

B. Take guitar/amp to location away from your home, hopefully with 2 different

cords to double-check. Plug up, see if hum is still there. If it IS, the grounding

circuitry of your home is now eliminated.

 

C. The GUITAR itself. (do DOTs have inherent hum? DOT owners, please weigh

in on this). You've told me three things that caught my attention -

 

1. The hum STOPS when you turn down volume. This kills the OUTPUT of the

guitar. No output, no signal to amp, no hum. Hmmmmmm....

 

2. Hum does not stop when you touch strings. This would normally send me

looking for a bridge/tailpiece wire break. This is an area where having a Multimeter

and the ability to take resistance/continuity readings would be instantly useful.

Would allow you to verify ground on 3 way switch, pups, pots, bridge. I just grabbed

mine, set it to lowest resistance setting, touched one lead tip in round barrel of plug-in

jack of git, then touched the other to metal ring of 3-way, pup adjustment screws (which

are mechanically connected to baseplate of pickups), bridge, and metal nuts for pots on

top of git - all connected/grounded together.

 

I used to have a 70-series FLUKE ($$) I used at work, but for general Git work

I grabbed a couple of $2.99 CEN-TECH multimeters from Harbor Freight (the purists

on the forum will have a cow on that!). They do what I need - take resistance, AC and

DC voltage readings.

 

3. Turning while holding plugged-in guitar causes Hum to vary in intensity.

This changes the position of the internal guitar wiring, and possibly the cord position

in relation to external electrical signals in your home. The wires in your Git and cord

can act as an "antenna", picking up "outside signals".

I again have to ask the DOT owners here on the forum - Do DOTs have an inherent hum???

 

We haven't forgotten about you. Troubleshooting using "out of body/remote viewing"

techniques is difficult, so you'll have to do the legwork for us!

 

[obe-wan]

 

(do DOTs have inherent hum? DOT owners' date=' please weigh

in on this).

 

[/quote']

 

My Dot hums ever so slightly. Not enough for me to go chasing it though.....

 

Cheers, Scott.

[animalfarm]

My Dot hums ever so slightly. Not enough for me to go chasing it though.....

Cheers' date=' Scott.[/quote']

 

Well, one reply is better than none. All I could find that directly

addressed the question was on the "UG" Forum:

 

"...some people say that putting some foam rubber inside the guitar

can help to stop unwanted feedback, is that true?"

 

"... the Dot and Sheraton are both semi-hollow, think thats why it feedbacks".

 

OK, rufio - ball is back in your court, it seems...

[rdsmith3]

hum is different from feedback, right?

 

I have a Dot, and I do not notice much of a hum, but I never have the opportunity to turn up my amp very loud.

[rufiopan]

hey guys thanks for all the replies! sorry it took me so long this time...been working out of town. but yea the hum is there, and isnt so bad, i mean its just the drive from the overdrive channel. i finally had time to really check it out today and this is what i noticed.

 

it sounds more like feedback, like a ringing. but the thing is is that it kind of blends with the hum, its kind of strange. it doesn't quite sound like feedback i'm used to hearing. but, my house is pretty old, and i think that it's the grounding in the house. i moved all over the place, then finally took it out on the front porch, and it seemed to only do it strongly while facing the house! or the power lines outside. then i got to thinking, because the electronics are all exposed through the f-hole, that would make for alot more interference being picked up, right???

 

i haven't had a chance to take it to a buddy's, i was like just walking out the door to go there and he said his roommate's girl was puking so i figured i'd be considerate. but his house is probably as old as mine. anyway, if that doesn't work i guess i'll drop forty bucks on a monster rock cable with the 24 gold k connectors. i've been wanting one forever anyway.

 

if anyone has any additional thoughts based on these details, let me know.

 

thanks again.

[rufiopan]

aaaaah and damn i was just at walmart and was going to get a mm, but i'll pick one up next time. probably check it with that if taking it elsewhere doesn't work. and, while having the git outside, it did still do it, just didn't seem quite as annoying.

[rufiopan]

and yeah both pups.

[rufiopan]

and, the hum, at certain times, seems pretty normal. but to answer your question a little better, mixed with the feedback noise it is pretty in your face. when it kind of seems to be suffering from interference, it's inbetween. not mild, not totally in your face, but relatively annoying.

[rufiopan]

now its making some weird like clicking sound!!! its in a rhythm, like someone is tapping eighth notes at 100bpm. i don't know what the hell is going on. it sounds like its getting worse. i'm going to buy the mm right now.

[Bender 4 Life]

I haven't seen it mentioned where you live, but if you're in Europe, Australia, or South America, the differences in power outputs from the main transformer, to the line, to the wallplug (not to mention substandard "earth" grounding) can and do make some amps, AND some guitars literally go crazy........or just annoy their owner to pieces.

 

I've read story after story in which (especially) Europeans and Aussies have spent days hunting the phantom hum, only having to have the input/output voltage in their amps/guitars addressed, usually by a mfgs. swap from the American sales model to the European/Asian sales model of the same product.

 

It may well just be a matter of location.