Here is a problem I have had MAINLY in my house. The pickups BUZZ!! What I mean by BUZZ is that when I have the volume cranking on the guitar and I am not playing anything I hear a "Electricity like" sound coming from the amp thru the speakers. This is alot more prominent with a distorted setup. I barely notice it on Acoustic mode. I have heard several things that may be causing it. But no matter where I am at in the house it seems to ALWAYS be there. The main response I get is bad wiring in the house. It is only heard thru my guitar pickups. Its VERY loud and annoying. Heres the weird part... When I face different directions, it seems to go away, but not entirely. Is this just due to some kind of electrical disturbance in my house? I like to record things but this pickup electrical buzz is KILLING ME! It sorta sounds like a transformer or something with running electricity. In other places I have played, this problem is not evident at ALL. I know that computer monitors *CRT's* or TV's *CRT* will interfere with guitar pickups, but no matter where I am in this house it seems to be a problem.... Am I being fried from bad wiring? or what?!??! I have even tried plugging my equipment into a line conditioner, but this seems to be a issue I have had with my pickups... on ANY guitar I play here. If any of you have any help on this and a way to solve it that would be great!! I love playing OUT of this house because its DEAD silent when I am not playing anything at full volume. Sigh.. Thanks for any help.


Joe








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I was going to say initially, that if you have single coil pickups, it would be the cause. But now that I think about it, I had the same problem here. We had a bad ground in a few outlets in our living room, and that was causing nasty hum in any amplifier we used. I would imagine it's the same for you, though really it can be any one of several things.

The more I keep hearing about it... it's the ground... I have horrible beyond belief grounds in my plugs..... I'm moving.. LOL thats all there is to it... no machines to fix this prob? I suppose not; since the pickups are... Essentially PICKING it up. lol. ....

joe








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Well I'm sure it would be a pain in the ass, but having the house re-wired would be best, plus it would hepl if you ever tried to sell it. Unless you rent, then get ahold of that landlord and tell him to get his ass in gear, haha.

ha! Landlord... More like slumlord. I live in a SHITTY apartment. Its Horrible. Like everything is bad.... I dont know where to start, other than how bad it sucks. I really need to move. But hey if theres any option I'd be glad to try them out!


Joe








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Before you do anything else, it's worth checking whether the ground wire has come loose in your guitar. It should connect from the lump of solder on the body of the volume control to the bridge / trem claw. I had a similar problem a few years back, and this simple solution fixed it. But yeah, definitely get your wiring checked (or move somewhere with good wiring!)








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The thing is though, the ground wire coming off the guitar doesn't ALWAYS cause noise... it makes it more prone to it, but not always. My proof? I played four shows in a row with the ground wire disconnected from my strat and noticed nothing.

Beesides, he said that it doesn't do it when he's outside of his house. Sounds like home electrical problems.

here i got a good idea!
eiether move into an empty(or half empty) room and turn off everything except your amp
your fan, lights, disconnect everything you can and then try or just try buying new cables and stay a bit away from your amp
btw. also i found this out myself a while ago, if your playing metal turn your gain like at 5-6ish and turn your volume up this made mine stop buzzing a bit and it sounds way better

Hey dude I'm an electrician and this is most likely a simple fix, when they were trimming out your house they probably forgot to throw the ground wire on some recepticals, its simple just open them up, either the green or non insulated wire is the ground, make sure it is screwed to the box its in (unless its a plastic box) and make a little loop in it on the end with some pliers or some shit and screw it to the green ground screw on the bottom of the receptical. If the ground wire is too short you can go get some 12 or 14 gauge solid wire and some green wire nuts, or some crimps and slap a new longer wire on the old one. When you are doing this be very careful with the ground wire if it is non-insulated, if it touches the silver or gold screws where the other wires are, it WILL blow the fuck up in your face, just make sure your wearing rubber soled shoes and try to only touch one thing at a time. Besides 110 volts isnt that much power, not a big shock, unless you have a heart condition...if so dont touch anything lol. Or you could just go turn all the breakers off while you are working then its for sure dead. If your recepticals ARE grounded, either the grounds arent made up in the panel or outside at your main disconnect you will need a ground rod driven...I dont suggest doing that....if you drive it and hit something in the ground with it, you will get lit the fuck up. I am having this problem too, except I think its the ground in my pedal, but anyways best of luck to ya

Hmm!! Well I guess I have a weekend project to do! That is the only thing I have not done is look to see if the sockets are grounded. Thanks alot for all the replies! Ill post my results after I check my sockets for a ground connection. Also, if 1 or 2 are not connected in the house, but the rest are, will this affect my pickups? In essence... do all of them need a ground wire, or just the one socket Im using for power.








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Only the one you're using would need it, but it will be better off for your house to have everything grounded!

a neat ground tip that wont help your problem...but is still good to do is to drill a hole in your control cavity so that you can run a screw in to touch one of your bridge studs. if you run a ground wire to this screw , you have just grounded your strings.
its also good to shield your control cavity.
you can get the details at www.torresengineering.com.








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Quote:

its also good to shield your control cavity

Yep, that is an absolute must! As you know, that buzzing noise can either be 60Hz hum from the mains due to ground loops or poor grounding, or it could also be poor grounding on the guitar.

Other causes can be EMI (ElectroMagnetic Interference) from transformers, motors, computer monitors, and I have even heard that overhead power lines can also cause a humming in your system. It's made worse by high gain pedals and/or amps, and wah pedals. As most have surmised, it sounds like either your house wiring or something externally...








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Ya know; this is ALL great info. But it is beyond my belief on how a plug I am not even using can cause interference with my pickups. But i suppose it IS in fact true. Like I said before, I have played in a similar small room and did NOT have this problem. I still have yet to check my ground wires. BUT in the event that I do you can BET I will post my results on here. I'm am very interested on how this works and what the factors are. I have said in my original post that CRT TV's will cause it, and some computers * although I can put my guitar turned up RIGHT ON the case and it did not increase the buzzing.

So far my synopsis on this whole thing is ground wires. I DID say before that I have put all my power thru a line conditioner, and that did NOT help at all. Picture this.. : I am on a heavy distorted mode on my amp. Its buzzing while not playing anything. AND my noise gate is on... I hear a slight buzz sound *like electricity* and when I face different directions it gets WORSE or BETTER depending on where I face in the room. So in essence its not my equipment with the problem. Its basically the pickups PICKING UP interference. So with that being said. The only option I have is checking my plugs for a ground wire? What else is there? I'm really stumped. Ill post my results on this thread as soon as I'm done checking ground wires.. Thank you for all your help so far! if anyone has anything they can add, please do!! Oh and as far as over head lines... There at least 100ft away.


Joe








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Check out my page at -- Http://www.myspace.com/guitarhero1000
My fav indy artist Al Estrada *listen to this! Get hooked!* - http://www.box.net/shared/static/u5oc02w4kg.wma
As Dave Martone would say - "Stay weird!"

i forgot to mention this before , but you can also shield your pickups.

the torres engineering site has info on it.








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