Single Coils picking up PA Signal

[MrBrightside]

Why are my single coil guitar pickups transmitting the house PA audio through my guitar amp??

I've tested numerous guitars, tube amps and cables (with pedal board as well as straight into the amp) and for whatever reason, my single coil pickups appear to be picking up the audio from the house PA. Even the singers using corded mics can be heard through my amp. This problem surfaced when we moved the band to the other side of the stage (it's a 1000 seat church venue).

What's going on!?!?!?

[Nelson89]

I've always found single coils to be a bit sensitive to interference...a couple of things, gain might be a factor...but the thing thats probably more likely is that its the interference factor...

Personally i use a Musicman Silhouette Special, it has an integrated circuit that cancels that stuff out, which i usually don't use, but some venues the guitar will pick up all kinds of stuff...even rehearsal it will sometimes pick up the PA from the band upstairs, when this happens i just put the noise cancelling circuit into play...generally i can't hear the noise so much while i'm actually playing, so if that doesn't work, i will just play through it and mute the guitar between songs.

Other than that, move your position on stage, if that fails...you might have to resort to using another guitar. While i prefer the bite of the single coil pickups in my Musicman, i still always carry a spare humbucker guitar along for those cases

[jcground]

Process of elimination:

Have you tried another guitar, another cable, changing settings on your amp? (sounds like only one guitar does this)

Does the problem change or go away if you move around with the guitar, or if you move your amp? (sounds like it happens in a particular position)

Are the signals you are picking up wireless, or is it everything that comes through the house PA? (sounds like even corded mics are a problem)

Could be a number of things, but shielding in the guitar or trying a different cable are both things I'd look into. It could be the pickups are contributing too, but I think of single coils producing hum, not picking up other signals. It sounds more like a shielding issue. If it's just one guitar doing this, I'd be more inclined to see how well shielded everything is under the pickguard, rather than focus on the pickups themselves.

[cruisemates]

The cable can be hugely important (it is the antenna) - get a short and highly shielded one.

if it is just your pickup then it is probably old and needs potting.

[bigroy]

I had a tele that would do exactly that, and even feedback whenever it got close to a FOH speaker cable.

Never had another guitar do that. Check and see if you are near a speaker cable.

[MrBrightside]

So, I’m still not sure what device is emitting the house PA signal that my poor single coils are picking up (it’s not the wireless assisted listening system), but I can eliminate the problem if I turn my guitar side to side or orient the guitar body horizontally to the floor. I guess I can either adopt a playing style ala Jeff Healey or I can do some cavity shielding on the guitars…

[Julia343]

I had a JB humbucker that went microphonic and would pick up conversations in the room and those would go out the amp.

If it isn't the pickup it might just be the vibration of the pickup against the guitar body. If it's not a strat type, go to Walgreen's and get some of the dense makeup sponges (your wife probably has some in a drawer). They're a right triangle shape. Remove the pickup. Cut a 1/8" slice off one that's closest in size to the cavity. Put it in the cavity. Put the pickup back in on top of it. If there isn't something wrong with the pickup the microphonic part should go away.

I got that from Seymour Duncan tech support. If it's a Duncan pickup, and after doing this it is still microphonic, they will replace it free.

[MickyZ]

A microphonic pickup was my first thought, too. As I understand it, the pickup windings vibrate to the sounds they detect, and that gets translated into a lo-fi reproduction of those sounds into the amp. I had a friend with a really old (early-50s under-the-bed discovery) tele that went microphonic - we had fun shouting into the pickup and having the amp (in another room) blast out our voices. Pickup replacement may be warranted, or perhaps Julia's trick (above) might work to some degree.

[jiml]

Could be the way the power in the building is wired too. We play an old rickety bar and I get radio, microwave oven and fan noise through my rig (Lollar single coils). The whole place is wired without a solid ground to the panel (old school two prong plugs). I just keep it "in between" with a RWRP middle PU and it cuts the noise down..

[TimmyP]

Is there an induction loop assisted listening system in the room?

[Somniferous]

Could be a microphonic pickup, or interference being induced. I'd double check the grounding of all the plugs everything is plugged into just in case. Shielding the start should help as well.

If you have a long enough cable try adding a single loop of cable going into the amp, or a figure 8 coil. It might get rid of any interference the cable is picking up. I've had this solution work for a similar problem where I was picking up camera inference on a shotgun mic, a small single loop of cable near the mic got rid of the noise.