hum stops when guitar is moved

[reynardfox]

I've just bought a cheapish strat type/copy guitar which has some nice Wilkinson pickups on it.The only problem is excessive hum in switch 1,3 and 5 position.I've actually played a gig with it so its usable but I would like to sort it out.Has anyone any suggestions before I get my screwdriver to it.Strangely the hum stops when the guitar is on its back and also when its vertical
Loving the forum and the guitarnuts site

[newey]

foxfox-

Hello and Welcome to GNutz2!

Hum is very directional, so it's not surprising that moving the guitar around changes things. Your pickups are acting as antennae; moving the guitar is just like moving the rabbit ears on TVs of old to improve reception (assuming you're old enough to remember rabbit ear antennae).

Shielding can help, as I'm sure you've read about herein.

[Yew]

Yeah, your best bet is to look on the original guitarnuts site (theres a link at the top of the screen) look for "shielding the beast"

[reynardfox]

Sorted it with the help of guitar nutz site,it's amazing what a bit of silver foil will do.I grounded the bridge and vol knob to it.
Talking about volume knobs would it be possible to wire it out completly as I am forever catching it?

[ashcatlt]

Nov 4, 2010 13:22:22 GMT -5 reynardfox said:

Talking about volume knobs would it be possible to wire it out completly as I am forever catching it?

Do you want it completely gone (empty hole) or just deactivated so that accidentally turning it won't mess you up?

Do you mind if it ends up a little brighter?

[newey]

Yeah, I'm forever hitting the Vol on my Strat-type guitars. But I couldn't live without the V pot.

On one I built, I wired the volume pot lefty-style. If it's wide open already, hitting it does nothing- just tries to turn it farther open. If it's turned down a bit, hitting it opens it up instead of shutting it down.

I like this arrangement; I'll probably implement it on my other Strat-ish guitars when I have a reason to unbutton them in the future.

[reynardfox]

I dont want to remove knob completly and leave gaping hole,just unsolder hot wires from it so its bypassed,then solder wires together is this feasable

[gumbo]

Ummm...
Wrap a bit of bare wire around the two offending terminals of the pot, and it's bypassed.....

[ashcatlt]

gumbo - if you mean to jumper the "switch" lug of the pot to the wiper lug, that won't bypass it. It'll turn it into a tone control which silences the guitar when turned all the way down.

Reynardfox - your idea works fine, with two caveats:
1) it'll be a bit brighter without the load from the volume pot. I personally like that sound, but some find it to be too much.

2). It won't ever go all the way off. I don't know if I could live without a kill position for between songs/sets.

#1 can be avoided by moving everythingsldered to the center lug over to join the wire from the switch on that outside lug, leaving the load of the pot, but disabling its variability.

Can't do anything about #2 withou changing something else or adding parts.

[gumbo]

...yep...I reckon yor right...

...gotta stop those late-night posts ;D

[reynardfox]

more treble is good! so I solder the lead from the switch onto the lead going to output jack and thats it?

[ashcatlt]

Yup. Tape it off so it doesn't short.

[sumgai]

renardo,

Or you could just do what I did:



Like you, I was always hitting the Volume knob, and so I moved it down one hole, making the bottom-most Tone control a Master Tone. Then I mounted my Roland GK-2A, and routed the cable through the hole, with a standard grommet to keep the cable's jacket from being cut by the hole's sharp edge.

But before I did the GK-2A trick, I used to use a standard flat-style plug, straight out of the local hardware store. Fit right in, and looked pretty good. Not quite stock, but certainly enough to make people pass by, 'cause it seemed so normal.


And before I forget (again!):

Hi, and to the NutzHouse!


HTH





sumgai