Fender Strat

[gwayms]

I have a American Strat and a cheaper Strat, how can i stop the hum/buzz on the individual pickup selections. On the cheaper strat it has 5 selections and the American has 3.

[Musiclab]

usually the positions between the pickups [neck and middle, middle and bridge] are humbucking. If you need to use single pickups you can try sheilding the guitar also turning in the roon will usually get you a fairly quiet spot. If all that fails sheild the guitar and get some joe barden pickups

[Geoff_T]

Originally posted by gwayms
I have a American Strat and a cheaper Strat, how can i stop the hum/buzz on the individual pickup selections. On the cheaper strat it has 5 selections and the American has 3.

Hi

Just a thought... does the room have lamp dimmers?

They are an evil source of buzzing and you are using a very effective inductive pick up

[Tim Halligan]

[i]Originally posted by Geoff_T
Hi

Just a thought... does the room have lamp dimmers?

They are an evil source of buzzing and you are using a very effective inductive pick up

...as are flourescent tubes, and computer monitors.

Harpooning all of the above should help a lot in losing the buzz (sorry Tim F), as will your own orientation in the room.

YMMV
Cheers,
Tim

[gwayms]

Maybe it is the computer monitor, that is what I do the recording on and I am pretty close to it.

[SMA]

I shielded the pickguard of my Mexi-Strat with metalic duct tape and the hum is pretty much gone.

[excellrec]

I shielded the pickguard of my Mexi-Strat with metalic duct tape and the hum is pretty much gone.

you just pulled the pick guard off and covered the underside with metallic ductape? and that got rid of the buzz completely? sounds to easy.

[bitrot]

may I suggest a more thorough treatise on the matter

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php

[ROBB007]

I had the same problem.The solution was to put Fender noiseless pick-ups in my Tele and My strat ...They sound just the same but dead quite in any***mode***that really is the only serious way to ditch the noise.

[Jim Williams]

Those single coils are going to pick up not only 60,120, 183 hz hum but also EMI buzz. Shielding the coils all the way around will get rid of that buzz when you take your hands off the strings.

Hum is a different beast. Either a stacked hum canceller strat pickup or a circuit can remove it. I like the sound of DiMarzio's '54's as they have that alnico bite and are dead quiet. They are about 5~6 db lower in output so they don't drive amps well.

I use old vintage pickups in my Tele's. I got rid of the buzz with extensive shielding and got rid of the hum with a dummy coil wired to a trimable hum cancelling circuit. This way I got a -80 db noise spec. Old sound, no noise, happy player!

Jim Williams
Audio Upgrades