Official Luthiers Forum!

Ok you electric-minded folks...if a strat hums only on the bridge pickup (ie, not any other single pickup), and the hum stops on say the middle and bridge pickup, do I suspect a misdirected wire, a bad ground, or is that just the nature of the Fender single coil pickup? It seems that there's a problem if only one pickup hums...but maybe I'm just wrong? Thanks!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

God, I haven't posted here in a while!
laerry, it could be many things. What kind of pickups do you have? Are they all the same type? is there anything different about the humming pickup? Some pickups just hum more than others, but if all three are the same type of pickup then something isn't right- maybe a defective pickup, or something wrong in the wiring...The wiring is where I would start looking first. try connecting the humming pickup directly to the jack, by-passing all of the wiring. If it still hums then, it's the pickup.

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Hey- sorry about mis-spelling your name! I forgot about the missing Edit button!

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Mark Swanson
Swanson Guitars
http://www.MarkSwansonMusic.com

Totally normal. Traditional single coil pickups hum. Because they don't know the words...

If the middle pickup is wound RWRP...reverse wound, reverse polarity (magnetic, that is), then positions 2 and 4 on a 5 way switch will be hum-canceling, and positions 1, 3, & 5 will have some AC magnetically induced hum.   

BTW, the "between" positions on old time Fender Strats without the RWRP setup are NOT out of phase. What you hear there is mostly the resistive loading of the pickups on one another.

[QUOTE=Mark Swanson] God, I haven't posted here in a while!
[/QUOTE]

Mark, we accept your apology. I don't know anything about hummers.

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http://www.dickeyguitars.com

If the neck alone and the middle alone do not "hum" in the same way as the bridge, then you most likely have a grounding problem with the bridge pickup - possibly due to a cold solder joint.  Noise due to poor grounding is usually called "buzz" because it's so annoying.

-Ben

There are two sources and entry points for noise in mag pickup electrics. Electrostatic noise can be 99% cured by proper shielding and grounding of all components, cavities, and by grounding the bridge and strings.   Electromagnetic noise can only be effectively dealt with using some sort of humbucking or hum cancelling coil arrangement.   

If the noise gets worse when you take your hands off the strings and/or gets better when you touch the bridge or the jack when the guitar is plugged in, you've got the electrostatic kind of noise which is more characterized as a buzzing.

If you have the kind of noise that gets better or worse as you turn the guitar one way or another near the transformers in an amp or with fluorescent lights, etc., you've got a humbucking issue, and the only remedy is to use low hum pickups, many of which are available.

Humbucking, hum shielded, or hum canceling pickups do not sound exactly the same as classic single coil pickups, hence the dilemma. That's how it goes.