Single Coil 60 Cycle Hum

[damian]

Any tips on solving it, resolving it ??? Shielding, if so, how much and where ??? Anyone use any of the Fender or Lace Sensor "no hum" pickups ???

 

P-90s ???? Tele replacement "no hum" pickups ??? Etc etc. ??? :unsure: :-k :-k ......

[SG Jones]

A noise gate, a filtered power supply in your pedal board, and a power conditioner for your amps and rack gear. Turn off any neon lights that are nearby.

[Tman5293]

There is a reason Seth Lover invented the humbucker.................................

 

just sayin'

[Silenced Fred]

There is a reason Seth Lover invented the humbucker.................................

 

just sayin'

 

because he hated tone.

 

personally, a nice little hum makes me happy. if it gets out of control, it usually isn't the guitar, its power at the venue or wherever you are playing

[Jantha]

...personally, a nice little hum makes me happy.

 

And here I thought I was the only one. :lol:

[damian]

There is a reason Seth Lover invented the humbucker.................................

 

just sayin'

 

There's also a reason Steve Jobs invented the APPLE computer....just sayin'............. [flapper] ......

[damian]

Hmmmmm.........or should I say Hummmmmm......... :unsure: .......Some of the so-called "no hum" replacement PUs seem to be HBs...... .....

[FirstMeasure]

I have Lace and Vintage Noiseless. They are Quiet as can be. The Vintage Noiseless do a good job of capturing single coil sound without noise. Perhaps not as dead quiet as some true Humbuckers, but quiet.

 

Lace Silver and Golds sound very nice and are extremely quiet, they have a very Fender Single Coil sound, but to my ear they have thier own voice. A very nice voice, but not "Pure Fender Tone". They are, however, as quite as a Humbucker.

 

After dealing with 60 cycle hum for years, as the only guitar I owned for 15 years was my Fender Strat, quiet was nice. That said, I love the sound of my noisy standard Pick Ups on my Buddy Guy Strat. Just harder to deal with when recording or near any sort of Neon light.

[FirstMeasure]

because he hated tone.

 

personally, a nice little hum makes me happy. if it gets out of control, it usually isn't the guitar, its power at the venue or wherever you are playing

I just Love a poorly grounded venue.

[damian]

I have Lace and Vintage Noiseless. They are Quiet as can be. The Vintage Noiseless do a good job of capturing single coil sound without noise. Perhaps not as dead quiet as some true Humbuckers, but quiet.

 

Lace Silver and Golds sound very nice and are extremely quiet, they have a very Fender Single Coil sound, but to my ear they have thier own voice. A very nice voice, but not "Pure Fender Tone". They are, however, as quite as a Humbucker.

 

After dealing with 60 cycle hum for years, as the only guitar I owned for 15 years was my Fender Strat, quiet was nice. That said, I love the sound of my noisy standard Pick Ups on my Buddy Guy Strat. Just harder to deal with when recording or near any sort of Neon light.

 

First Measure, so the Lace and Vintage Noiseless are HBs then ??? I don't mind the 60 hum on my demos, but on 'pro' tracks it won't do....That said,

 

I don't mind using Strats on position 2 & 4......Was wondering about "shielding" as well.....Maybe I'll try stacked singles in a Tele, but, will that kill the Tele sound ??

 

I do filter my power, but, well, it's not a $2000.00 filtering system.....A noise gate might do it, never been a big fan of them though.....

[damian]

I layer up to 16 guitar tracks on a single song, so I can't have noise building up on any tracks......

[milod]

Assuming the polarity is okay...

 

I recall in the olden days using a silver paint that had enough metal to shield the stuff in a single coil environment.

 

Some guys as I recall used some aluminum foil blued into the routed-out parts of solidbodies and on the back of pick guards, too, as a shield that then was grounded. But then, we're talking 40 years ago. I did some of that for cheapie single coil imports to convert them into playable pieces back then.

 

Funny thing is I can't recall that much complaint on the hum from Gibson single coils, but by the time I was really at it, it was mostly HB.

 

Funny thing though, I used a number of add-on single coils to various archtops and flattops and never had a problem with the hum.

 

m

[FirstMeasure]

First Measure, so the Lace and Vintage Noiseless are HBs then ??? I don't mind the 60 hum on my demos, but on 'pro' tracks it won't do....That said,

 

I don't mind using Strats on position 2 & 4......Was wondering about "shielding" as well.....Maybe I'll try stacked singles in a Tele, but, will that kill the Tele sound ??

 

I do filter my power, but, well, it's not a $2000.00 filtering system.....A noise gate might do it, never been a big fan of them though.....

Yeah, not sure how they do it in the Vinatage Noiseless, but the way I understand the Lace Sensors to be set up, they are wound on both sides of a bar magnet in opposite directions.

 

Stacking Tele PU's would be and interesting experiment. If the magnetic field stays the same "Size" it should still sound like a Tele . I'd like to hear Searcy sound off on this topic.

 

{edit} The Vintage Noiseless don't have any 60 cycle hum of of thier own, that I've detected, but they pick up interference worse than the Lace or typical humbucker.

[Silenced Fred]

And here I thought I was the only one. :lol:

 

you aren't alone

[damian]

First Measure, seems like the V.N. must be true singles then.....Interesting....I just saw Fender has "super 55 split coils"....

 

Interesting.....Gotsta find out how they work....

 

Milod ; I don't think ANY single coils would DARE mess with you !!!!!!

[stein]

While there are some nice sounding pups that are alternatives, there really is nothing that compares to the sound of the actual single coils. Stacked humbuckers, especially, don't have the good stuff that I like to hear when I want the Fender sound.

 

Playing out or live there is no where to run, and usually have to resort to hitting the volume or position 2 or 4 (with a reverse wound) between songs, but recording in your own studio, you have big big advantage in the you can control your environment.

 

Fender Strat and tele pups are not as noisy as a lot, and depending on which way you point the guitar, they can be dead quiet. Almost like getting reception on rabbit ears. USUALLY, you can find a position/direction to sit that is quiet enough.

 

I would try that before resorting to other measures that are going to compromise the tone you are after. But, knowing you, I think you might have enough axes to have them set up with different pups for different uses.

[milod]

<grin>

 

Naaah. But I'm serious about the shielding. And grounding the shielding and even amp polarity. I'm not so certain that even skinny PUP wires don't play a role inside a guitar that's not well shielded.

 

Amp polarity. <grin> Back in the old days I remember only too well zapping myself on a mike running to an amp plugged in with different polarity from the guitar.

 

Ouch.

 

m

[Shnate McDuanus]

There is a reason Seth Lover invented the humbucker.................................

 

just sayin'

 

This used to be my way of thinking.

 

Then I borrowed my dad's Tele. I LOVE the single-coil sound--for certain applications, of course--and there are certain things that a single-coil pickup can do that a humbucker can't. Horses for courses.

 

The one thing I will say about recording is that, back in the day, recording artists who needed the single-coil tone (think pre-Lace Sensor Dave Gilmour, among others) recorded without worrying about the hum and, believe it or not, the recordings sounded awesome. Damian: try recording with the hum first and then, if you don't like it, look at noiseless options. I can guarantee that there are awesome alternatives out there.

 

God my posts read intelligently when I'm not drunk. I should try this sobriety thing more often.

[damian]

Thanks XDemon...........

 

I'll do some research, see how they did it in the old days......

[stein]

This used to be my way of thinking.

 

Then I borrowed my dad's Tele. I LOVE the single-coil sound--for certain applications, of course--and there are certain things that a single-coil pickup can do that a humbucker can't. Horses for courses.

 

The one thing I will say about recording is that, back in the day, recording artists who needed the single-coil tone (think pre-Lace Sensor Dave Gilmour, among others) recorded without worrying about the hum and, believe it or not, the recordings sounded awesome. Damian: try recording with the hum first and then, if you don't like it, look at noiseless options. I can guarantee that there are awesome alternatives out there.

 

God my posts read intelligently when I'm not drunk. I should try this sobriety thing more often.

Holy ****, this IS actually intelligent and well put.

[Guest Farnsburger]

Single coil pickups hum because they don't know the words.

[damian]

Single coil pickups hum because they don't know the words.

 

:unsure: [lol] .........

[Shnate McDuanus]

Single coil pickups hum because they don't know the words.

 

 

I guess I might be a single-coil pickup, then...

[damian]

I'm hoping Searcy can explain how Fender N3 PUs work, and how Fender 'Super 55 split coils' work...... :-k ....

[Bender 4 Life]

I get a good bit of relief from the hum by getting behind my amp.....helps feedback too......

 

the N3 Noiseless set, and the Vintage Noiseless set from Fender are both good........as are the GFS Neo-Vin sets.

 

for P-90s, the Soapbar 180s are great replacements, as are the ever popular mini-humbuckers too