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Post by timmiles on Dec 23, 2017 20:44:32 GMT -7
Hi all,
I have developed a hum on my telecaster and ES335 over the last week. My amp is left at my mother in laws house since I live in an apartment so I play through the amp on weekends. This week, I plug in as I do every weekend with the same Mogami gold instrument cable and same DR Z amp and immediately notice a hum on my ES335 that goes away when I touch the strings, humbucker metal cover AND even goes away when I touch the jack on the cable or the amp metal toggle on/off switch. The same problem happens with my telecaster too! Though doesn't seem as loud and prominent as on my 335.. Neither guitar had this problem last weekend...
If I unplug the guitar and cable completely, the amp is silent. If I plug in the cable and amp only with no guitar, the hum is there and disappears when I touch the amp toggle or the black part of the input jack.
I don't have a good quality second lead here so can't try another lead to see if this is the cause, (though I did try a cheapo lead that I found and the same problem happened with this one) but what might be the cause of this? There is a Christmas tree in the house, but unplugging this does not resolve the problem, nor does moving to different outlets. One thing I would note is that almost all of the neighbours on the street have Christmas lights on their homes right now, could this possibly be the cause? Or would it have to be something within this house or the wiring itself? Just looking for some suggestions! I am concerned that it could be the amp but not sure how this could have happened when the amp has been sitting there untouched all week. Thanks.
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Post by Jaguarguy (Mike) on Dec 23, 2017 21:11:56 GMT -7
You might want to try cleaning the input with some Dexoit 5 cleaner. Spray some on the jack and work it in and out a couple of times to see if that helps.
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Post by headshrinker (Marc) on Dec 23, 2017 21:13:01 GMT -7
Sounds like a grounding issue to me. Are you sure the outlets in the house are grounded? Just because they are three pronged, doesn't mean they are grounded. If it had been only one guitar I would suspect the guitar. With both it sounds like the outlet.
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Post by timmiles on Dec 23, 2017 21:31:57 GMT -7
Thanks for the responses! Gibson and Fender both do it. Gibson is more prominent with its humbucks for the hum than the Fender but both have the issue. It has developed over the last week, this issue didn't exist before so I don't think it is the guitars. I found an old fender amp belonging to my brother in law, plugged it in and same issue, loud hum that dissapears when you touch the metal parts or the jack. Perhaps this is a grounding issue in the house. Could the neighbours Christmas lights be doing this?
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Post by timmiles on Dec 23, 2017 21:33:27 GMT -7
I would also note that I have tried the amp in about 4-5 of the outlets in the house, all have the same result.
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Post by headshrinker (Marc) on Dec 23, 2017 21:43:17 GMT -7
Don't know about the Christmas lights. Wouldn't think so, but who knows. If there are enough of them and some are blinking, maybe. Did it do it at that house before the lights? If not, maybe it is the lights. As for the house, if it's older then none of the outlets may be grounded properly. You can buy a three prong circuit tester at Walmart or any hardware carrying place for around $6.00. I carry one in with my gig stuff. We've played in several places where the grounds were not connected or the outlets are reversed wired and it lets you know what's going on when weird electrical things happen. You just plug it in and various lights come on to tell you the problem.
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Post by timmiles on Dec 23, 2017 21:49:43 GMT -7
Never had this issue before, not before the lights. At first, I thought that it may have been my Gibson ES335 but when I tested the Telecaster, same problem! It isn't quite as loud on the Tele as it is the Gibson but it is still obvious and didn't happen before. The house was built in the 70's and the wiring hasn't been redone since then. I am not convinced it has good wiring. But, just seems odd that it would happen all of a sudden. Might just get that circuit tester and try it out! Thank you for that suggestion.
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Post by headshrinker (Marc) on Dec 23, 2017 22:33:14 GMT -7
I think you can rule out an amp problem, since two different amps did it. Also a guitar problem, since two different ones did it with two different types of pickups. Likely not a cable problem, since two did it also, but one was of poor quality. I would think a house built in the 70's if it has three pronged plugs in it would have them grounded, but maybe not. Does the bathroom happen to have ground fault plug in it? If so, they are more often grounded even when the rest of the house isn't, but not always. Might try it there. After that, I would start suspecting the lights, since it didn't do it before. Still wouldn't hurt to have one of those testers around. Our drummer is an electrician and swears by them. They can keep you from getting a jolt at a gig, if you play the kind of places we do.
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Post by timmiles on Dec 23, 2017 23:10:22 GMT -7
Thanks for your detailed responses, I truly appreciate it. It definitely seems strange. Could we rule out the guitars by the simple fact that the amp does when the guitars are unplugged and cables are plugged in only? If it just has a cable in, I can still remove the hum by touching the metal park of the cable jack or amp on toggle knob too. The second amp that I used was an old fender solid state amp but it definitely still had the hum. The Gibson's hum is extremely loud compared to my Teles though. Maybe I need to take my amp back to my apartment complex and try it out there, I know they have new wiring. Will try the bathroom. Thanks so much Happy Christmas to you.
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Post by pcns on Dec 24, 2017 5:06:03 GMT -7
Taking the amp to your appartment is a good idea. Its the only other variable you havent tested.
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Post by John on Dec 24, 2017 5:25:36 GMT -7
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Post by doctorice on Dec 24, 2017 6:17:20 GMT -7
I've recently started getting a lot of AC hum in my little music closet. Never had the problem before. Outlets are grounded properly and I use devices to filter RFI. I haven't completely confirmed it, but the culprit for me likely is fluorescent lights in another part of the basement. I think the starters are deteriorating. Dimmer switches are also suspect. (I have those as well, but they are not causing my problem.)
And absolutely get one of those testers. I keep one in my toolbox and another in my gig bag. I always test the power at any new-to-use venue.
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Post by timmiles on Dec 24, 2017 12:01:44 GMT -7
I've recently started getting a lot of AC hum in my little music closet. Never had the problem before. Outlets are grounded properly and I use devices to filter RFI. I haven't completely confirmed it, but the culprit for me likely is fluorescent lights in another part of the basement. I think the starters are deteriorating. Dimmer switches are also suspect. (I have those as well, but they are not causing my problem.) And absolutely get one of those testers. I keep one in my toolbox and another in my gig bag. I always test the power at any new-to-use venue. Interesting, is this the same noise that I am getting that stops when you make contact with the strings/metal components? Or is this the single coil noise of lights? I get both and put the latter down to being normal. But my ES-335 is especially noisy and sensitive to a hum that stops when I touch metal components.
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Post by headshrinker (Marc) on Dec 24, 2017 13:14:55 GMT -7
My guess is that the increased noise of the 335 over the Tele has more to do with the fact that the humbuckers in the 335 are sending out a hotter signal than the single coils of the Tele.
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Post by zpilot on Dec 24, 2017 14:45:05 GMT -7
Do you have any dimmers on the same circuit as the AC outlets?
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Post by timmiles on Dec 24, 2017 16:47:01 GMT -7
Do you have any dimmers on the same circuit as the AC outlets? Not that I am aware of. It is interesting, I took the 335 to a guitar center today. Gave it to the tech who plugged it in and no hum. I went and plugged it into a vox ac30 and low and behold, there was that hum again! So the guy brought the AC 30 back to his work station, plugged in back in and no hum. It was difficult to hear in there with all those ACDC riffs going off around the store BUT at least I know that it did the same thing on a completely different amp and cable at a GC. Which leads me to believe it is not my cable or amp and either the guitar OR what the amp is plugged into. It is just strange that my tele is doing it too... but also that I always use this outlet and never had a problem before. A mystery indeed.
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Post by doctorice on Dec 25, 2017 6:54:06 GMT -7
I've recently started getting a lot of AC hum in my little music closet. Never had the problem before. Outlets are grounded properly and I use devices to filter RFI. I haven't completely confirmed it, but the culprit for me likely is fluorescent lights in another part of the basement. I think the starters are deteriorating. Dimmer switches are also suspect. (I have those as well, but they are not causing my problem.) And absolutely get one of those testers. I keep one in my toolbox and another in my gig bag. I always test the power at any new-to-use venue. Interesting, is this the same noise that I am getting that stops when you make contact with the strings/metal components? Or is this the single coil noise of lights? I get both and put the latter down to being normal. But my ES-335 is especially noisy and sensitive to a hum that stops when I touch metal components. The noise I'm getting also has some sensitivity to contact, but not a lot. One interesting aspect is that the noise recedes, but doesn't go away, when I put my P-90 Collings on both pickups and have both volume controls near the same setting. Diverging brings more noise, as does running either pickup on its own. When I return from my holiday travels, I'm going to try to track it down as it is most annoying
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Post by zpilot on Dec 25, 2017 17:45:23 GMT -7
Interesting, is this the same noise that I am getting that stops when you make contact with the strings/metal components? Or is this the single coil noise of lights? I get both and put the latter down to being normal. But my ES-335 is especially noisy and sensitive to a hum that stops when I touch metal components. The noise I'm getting also has some sensitivity to contact, but not a lot. One interesting aspect is that the noise recedes, but doesn't go away, when I put my P-90 Collings on both pickups and have both volume controls near the same setting. Diverging brings more noise, as does running either pickup on its own. When I return from my holiday travels, I'm going to try to track it down as it is most annoying That is because one of the pickups is reverse wound. When you are using both pickups equally that cancels hum like an HB pickup. As you roll off either one of them naturally the humbucking effect lessens. Folks don't get that effect with Strat reverse wound pickups because they normally don't have individual volume controls.
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Post by timmiles on Dec 26, 2017 14:38:28 GMT -7
Tried again at my apartment: No hum! seems it is my mother in law's house wiring. Which is a separate concern..
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