Confusing pickup Buzz

sh235

Evening All,

Completely new to these forums today and I've left my little bit on the 'Introduce yourself' page; hopefully I can glean lots from all of you on here.

I have a mildly frustrating problem in the shape of a buzz. I have searched the net far and wide and on here of course but nothing is quite the same so I'm at a bit of a dead end. 

So wanting to blow the cobwebs off my soldering iron I thought Id fit some new pickups to try to freshen up my guitar. 
I installed an EVH franky into the bridge and a '59 into the neck. I've used all new Pots, jack, wire, copper foiled the cavity and drilled bridge and tail piece ground lines 

I get a mild buzz, mainly off the Franky, which goes away when I touch the strings. Now I've also tested continuity and resistance between every single ground point I can think off including strings to amp ground, pot to pot, string to pot, pickup to pot, pickup to jack, string to jack and every single measurement is <1ohm, occasionally 1.5ohms which to me says the solder joints are solid .... and yet there is still a buzz that goes away when I touch a metal part. 

Have I missed something blindingly obvious or could someone shed some light on this for me please?

Sorry for the long first post but thanks for any help in advance!

Simon 

ICBM

If it goes away when you touch the strings or other metal parts, everything is as it should be.

All passive electric guitars do this, and although it can be reduced by shielding it's hard to eliminate it completely, especially on higher-wound pickups without metal covers.

guitarcookie1

ICBM said:

If it goes away when you touch the strings or other metal parts, everything is as it should be.

All passive electric guitars do this, and although it can be reduced by shielding it's hard to eliminate it completely, especially on higher-wound pickups without metal covers.

Might still be worth checking the ground to the bridge/tailpiece? 

Jimbro66

@sh235 what guitar is it? Did you do continuity tests on all the shielding too? Is it shielded cable from both pickups?

ICBM

guitarcookie1 said:

Might still be worth checking the ground to the bridge/tailpiece? 

If the buzz goes away when you touch the strings then you have just checked, and it is grounded correctly.

FriskyDingo

ICBM helped me. I would suggest making sure everything is grounded. I had problems with my tailpiece so place some copper wire in the cavity and touching the bridge.
It never hurts to put some copper tape or shielding paint in the cavity to create a Faraday cage

sh235

Thanks for all the replies!

@ICBM I have done that but unfortunately still the same buzz exists. Coming from EMGs maybe this is something I just wasn't aware off / hadn't don't my research about humbuckers properly.

@Jimbro66 / @guitarcookie1 - The guitar is a ESP LTD 401 and originally didn't come with any kind of bridge for either the bridge or tail piece. I simply drilled a small hole from the cavity into where the metal 'studs' (not sure if thats the right word for it) fit into the wood and just wedged a stripped wire into that. Since having put it all together, the resistance between both the bridge and tailpiece to the sleeve of the jack is <1ohm which I assume means the grounding is ok?

Continuity has also been done yes and again, if I go between any ground point I can think off, including the shielding, to the jack, its all connected. 

@FriskyDingo ;Ill have another look this evening and see what I can find!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

ICBM

sh235 said:

@ICBM I have done that but unfortunately still the same buzz exists. Coming from EMGs maybe this is something I just wasn't aware off / hadn't don't my research about humbuckers properly.

Unfortunately that is probably the conclusion.

EMGs don't do this, by design - they don't even need the strings grounding, as you know. In purely technical terms they're a far superior solution to the problems of electric guitar pickups - except for the one where people don't feel they 'sound right'. It's an annoying fact that it's the very problems of high-impedance passive guitar pickups which gives them the 'organic, interactive with the controls' type of sound that people like.

If the bridge is grounded - it is from your measurement, and you knew that anyway since touching the strings stops the noise - and you've already got as much shielding as you can in the control cavity, and the cable to the pickup is shielded, then the only other way you can really improve things would be to fit a metal pickup cover. This is exactly why Gibson did in the 1950s! But in the late 60s-70s, people discovered that with this as well, they preferred the tone with them removed...

RiftAmps

The buzz is not caused by the guitar, the pickups, or the amp, but you.

YOU are the buzz (or more precisely, your body is acting as an antenna to noise all around you) and your pickups are just 'picking' that up. It's their job.

Touching the strings removes the buzz. Why? Because you're now sending all of that errant noise in your body straight to ground, rather than injecting it into the guitar.

As @ICBM says, it's completely normal and proves that the guitar is wired correctly. You may be able to reduce it by shielding the guitar, but you won't ever remove it entirely.

Jimbro66

Just one more thought @sh235. Is it possible that something like a dimmer switch in your playing location is the source of noise or is it the same wherever you use the guitar?

A few weeks ago I was playing one of my very well shielded Teles through an amp in a spare bedroom. Suddenly I started getting slight but irritating buzzing through the amp. Then it stopped for a while, then started again. I was wondering what was going on when the penny dropped: My missus was turning the dining room light on and off which is immediately below that bedroom and just happens to have a dimmer switch. Just out of curiosity I then plugged in another Tele that I've not yet got round to shielding and got my able assistant to turn on the dining room light. The buzzing was horrific! So yes, shielding certainly works but as has been said above it's almost impossible to get rid of all the noise if using the unshielded pickups that most of us like.

BTW when you shielded the three rear cavities did you apply the foil also to the back of the plastic cover plates and ensure that the foil was in contact with ground?