Noiseless pickups installed, but my Strat is still noisy.

[jspax7]

I just replaced 2 of the Lace sensors in my Strat with Area 61's. Bridge is a Duncan jb jr. They sound great, but I'm still getting noise.

My Bluesbird with Duncan 59's is very quiet, even with the bright switch on my amp.

The Strat is buzzing, in all positions, and gets worse with the bright switch. I expected these to be as quiet as a full sized humbucker.

Anyone else experience noise with these? Suggestions?

[murkat]

you have a bad ground somewhere. pic?

[landru64]

they should be dead quiet. is the guitar shielded? even then, i would look for either a defective pickup and/or a wiring defect.

[jspax7]

No digital camera, sorry. The pickguard was pre wired by Aamps with Lace pickups. I replaced each pickup, one at a time, and wired them the same way.

Grounding as follows;
All pickup ground wires are soldered to the back of the volume pot. A ground wire is running from the back of the volume pot to each tone pot. Another ground wire is running from the back of the volume pot to the body. (screwed into the painted cavity.) The volume pot is grounded to the trem with yet another ground wire. These last 2 wires were stock. I wired them to the volume control, as that is how they were done before.

I have heard that ground loops can be a problem. If so, how do I remedy this?

[Jim Collins]

You won't get a ground loop in a guitar with passive electronics.

Make sure the wires to the guitar's jack are not reversed. The ground wire should go to the ring. This is a very common error.

[jspax7]

I went through the entire guitar again last night. Rewired all of the connections, checked the ground wires, ... everything.

Same thing. Moved my amp to another room. Still noisy. Not just the Strat, but my Bluesbird too. New Fulltone guitar cable.

I'm beginning to think that the power in my home, or in this area is contaminated.

For the last year I've been playing mostly at home. I've had problems with my amp, (tone, line voltage, noise) and now this.

I've played out a few times, and my rig sounds better everywhere else. I'm using a Furman voltage regulator, (AR-1215) a Power Factor Pro, and still getting noise. Extremely frustrating.

I'm taking all of my gear to my teaching studio tomorrow to conduct a test.

Anybody else experiencing noise issues like this? Causes? Solutions?

[supergenius365]

I had this problem in my new construction home. I had noiseless pickups. I had the entire cavity shielded. Still, lots of noise.

Turns out none of the outlets in my house were grounded. As soon as I grounded the one in my room, the buzzing stopped. Ended up doing all of them in the entire house. I F'IN LOVE NEW CONSTRUCTION!

[jspax7]

Originally Posted by supergenius365

I had this problem in my new construction home. I had noiseless pickups. I had the entire cavity shielded. Still, lots of noise.

Turns out none of the outlets in my house were grounded. As soon as I grounded the one in my room, the buzzing stopped. Ended up doing all of them in the entire house. I F'IN LOVE NEW CONSTRUCTION!

Thanks supergenious. I have my suspicions about the wiring here, as well as outside interference. (satellite dish, wireless Internet, dirty power, etc) All of my gear is supposed to be quiet, but for the last year the only thing consistent has been inconsistency. I've used voltage regulators, power conditioners, preamp and power tubes, and still can't figure it out.

This also coincides with not doing as much live playing, so I'm hearing everything, and I'm extremely picky about my sound. As I was telling a friend tonight,"something has got to give, or something has got to go."

I'm taking my Fuchs ODS to a local shop that is now a dealer, for a little "side by side" comparison. They also have Strats with Dimarzio VV pickups, so the Strat is going along for the ride. If it's my gear, it will be fixed, or it will go. If it's my house, I'm calling an electrician.



To quote an old movie; "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.