Suhr SSCII owners - how quiet is your guitar? (My new one isn't)

[Arcadia]

Hi all,

So I have this new Suhr Classic S that I bought online. I got it because I can't deal with hum, and I wanted to be able to use my Strat neck pickup. I thought about getting a set of noiseless pickups for my Am Pro Strat, but in the end decided to take a chance and just "upgrade" to a Suhr.

My Strat is SSS, and the hum is what one would expect:
1 loud hum
2 dead quiet
3 loud hum
4 dead quiet
5 loud hum

Positions 1, 3, 5 all have equally loud hum. I know some people don't mind it but I personally find those positions unplayable. I'm pretty new to Strats so it's not something I've learned to grow used to. Humbuckers are quiet. The guitars I've played the most, my classicals, are dead quiet.

Onto the new Suhr, which is HSS:
1 quiet (humbucker)
2 dead quiet
3 low hum
4 low hum
5 dead quiet

I mostly use position 4, but I also like position 5, which I can't use on my Strat. So I was happy that position is really quiet on the Suhr. Unfortunately, position 4 is not. Position 3 is same as 4. It's not as loud as a Strat single coil, maybe half that loud or a bit less, but still enough to mildly annoy me.

It's not a great trade for me to get a quiet position 5 while adding noise to position 4.

I'm really surprised by this, since the neck by itself is so quiet. Considering that it's easy to make position 4 quiet, and position 3 also makes noise, I'm wondering if something might be wrong with the SSCII system/wiring of the middle pickup that is causing the noise.

Very interested in hearing other folks experience with this system. Is your 4 position quiet? I'm actually hoping it's an issue ... then I'll just contact Suhr support, and they can fix it. I just want some more information from the community before taking any action.

I'm otherwise pretty happy with the guitar.

 

[Husky]

All
Positions of single coils should be the same. How far are you away from the hum source? The closer you are the less effective because the system is not in the same location as the pickup. If you are a reasonable distance from other electronics and still have an issue contact CS. Was the guitar pre owned though? Also be careful of metal interference like aluminum back plates etc.

Hi all,

So I have this new Suhr Classic S that I bought online. I got it because I can't deal with hum, and I wanted to be able to use my Strat neck pickup. I thought about getting a set of noiseless pickups for my Am Pro Strat, but in the end decided to take a chance and just "upgrade" to a Suhr.

My Strat is SSS, and the hum is what one would expect:
1 loud hum
2 dead quiet
3 loud hum
4 dead quiet
5 loud hum

Positions 1, 3, 5 all have equally loud hum. I know some people don't mind it but I personally find those positions unplayable. I'm pretty new to Strats so it's not something I've learned to grow used to. Humbuckers are quiet. The guitars I've played the most, my classicals, are dead quiet.

Onto the new Suhr, which is HSS:
1 quiet (humbucker)
2 dead quiet
3 low hum
4 low hum
5 dead quiet

I mostly use position 4, but I also like position 5, which I can't use on my Strat. So I was happy that position is really quiet on the Suhr. Unfortunately, position 4 is not. Position 3 is same as 4. It's not as loud as a Strat single coil, maybe half that loud or a bit less, but still enough to mildly annoy me.

It's not a great trade for me to get a quiet position 5 while adding noise to position 4.

I'm really surprised by this, since the neck by itself is so quiet. Considering that it's easy to make position 4 quiet, and position 3 also makes noise, I'm wondering if something might be wrong with the SSCII system/wiring of the middle pickup that is causing the noise.

Very interested in hearing other folks experience with this system. Is your 4 position quiet? I'm actually hoping it's an issue ... then I'll just contact Suhr support, and they can fix it. I just want some more information from the community before taking any action.

I'm otherwise pretty happy with the guitar.

 

[Arcadia]

All
Positions of single coils should be the same. How far are you away from the hum source? The closer you are the less effective because the system is not in the same location as the pickup. If you are a reasonable distance from other electronics and still have an issue contact CS. Was the guitar pre owned though?

Oh Hi John. That was fast.

Guitar was just purchased new from a dealer.

I just tried a test. I shut off every electrical thing I could, including the AC. I stood as far away from that amp as I could, about 15 feet. I turned up the master on the amp so I could really hear the noise. FWIW, the amp is quality, and handwired (Bad Cat) and doesn't hum or hiss on its own.

In this test, 5 is quiet, 4 makes a bit of noise, 3 is a bit louder than 4, 2 is quiet. Sound isn't affected by my hands being on the bridge/strings, so it's not likely to be grounding.

If I could get all the single coil positions as quiet as 5, I'd be super happy with the guitar.

 

[Husky]

Oh Hi John. That was fast.

Guitar was just purchased new from a dealer.

I just tried a test. I shut off every electrical thing I could, including the AC. I stood as far away from that amp as I could, about 15 feet. I turned up the master on the amp so I could really hear the noise. FWIW, the amp is quality, and handwired (Bad Cat) and doesn't hum or hiss on its own.

In this test, 5 is quiet, 4 makes a bit of noise, 3 is a bit louder than 4, 2 is quiet. Sound isn't affected by my hands being on the bridge/strings, so it's not likely to be grounding.

If I could get all the single coil positions as quiet as 5, I'd be super happy with the guitar.

I haven't noticed any significant difference between the positions, there could be a middle pickup with an issue where it doesn't produce as much hum as expected. Start a ticket with CS and I'm sure we can get you sorted quickly

 

[Arcadia]

I was working the past few weeks, but I'm off this week so sat down and made a recording, and sent it off the Suhr CS. Genuinely curious to hear whether this level of noise is considered normal or not for this system.

Anyway, here are the files I sent off in case anyone was following this thread and is curious.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uj1Hm0KXzqxNlYf_2Svk1RVqrt_BQ2fA?usp=sharing

There are two files. The one called "strat_and_suhr" has me switching through the positions on both my Strat and the Suhr. I call out which guitar/position I'm on, so it's clear. It's all in one take, and you can hear me switching guitars in the middle. The second file is just me switching through the single coil positions on the Suhr.

The amp is a handwired Bad Cat clean channel turned up fairly loud, but not cranked - at the level where I would play at home. You can hear some hum from the amp, but it's pretty darn quiet. You can hear that the Suhr neck pickup is dead quiet. You can barely notice me turning up the volume knob. It's even quieter than the Strat 2 and 4 positions, which are very quiet. Then you can hear that the Suhr neck-middle has a definite hum, and the Suhr middle by itself is even louder, almost as loud as a Strat single. The middle-bridge position is also pretty quiet, about the same as the Strat.

In the "just_suhr" file, you can clearly hear that the positions have greatly different amounts of hum, with the middle being quite loud, comparable to a Strat.

 

[Husky]

Is this guitar new or second hand?
How far are you away from the amp when you do this recording?
Which way are you facing?
Are you near any other interference?

I hear a low frequency hum that shouldn't be there unless the volume is jacked up, maybe coming from the amp or is anything else plugged in? Or it is outside interference.

I also hear the hum and then it gets loud, are you moving closer to the amp when I hear that? FYI two single coil pickups in parallel will be more quiet than a humbucker because the coils are in series for the humbucker so nothing is going to be as quiet as two single coils in parallel.

Its hard for me to judge that audio clip with visual to see what you are doing but basically....

Its going to be as quiet as an uncovered humbucker but you can't be 2 ft away from the amp. Make sure you are facing away from the amp and a normal playing distance at least 6ft. There should basically be no difference between positions but again you can't be to close to a transformer.

I was working the past few weeks, but I'm off this week so sat down and made a recording, and sent it off the Suhr CS. Genuinely curious to hear whether this level of noise is considered normal or not for this system.

Anyway, here are the files I sent off in case anyone was following this thread and is curious.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Uj1Hm0KXzqxNlYf_2Svk1RVqrt_BQ2fA?usp=sharing

There are two files. The one called "strat_and_suhr" has me switching through the positions on both my Strat and the Suhr. I call out which guitar/position I'm on, so it's clear. It's all in one take, and you can hear me switching guitars in the middle. The second file is just me switching through the single coil positions on the Suhr.

The amp is a handwired Bad Cat clean channel turned up fairly loud, but not cranked - at the level where I would play at home. You can hear some hum from the amp, but it's pretty darn quiet. You can hear that the Suhr neck pickup is dead quiet. You can barely notice me turning up the volume knob. It's even quieter than the Strat 2 and 4 positions, which are very quiet. Then you can hear that the Suhr neck-middle has a definite hum, and the Suhr middle by itself is even louder, almost as loud as a Strat single. The middle-bridge position is also pretty quiet, about the same as the Strat.

In the "just_suhr" file, you can clearly hear that the positions have greatly different amounts of hum, with the middle being quite loud, comparable to a Strat.

 

[Arcadia]

Is this guitar new or second hand?
How far are you away from the amp when you do this recording?
Which way are you facing?
Are you near any other interference?

I hear a low frequency hum that shouldn't be there unless the volume is jacked up, maybe coming from the amp or is anything else plugged in? Or it is outside interference.

I also hear the hum and then it gets loud, are you moving closer to the amp when I hear that? FYI two single coil pickups in parallel will be more quiet than a humbucker because the coils are in series for the humbucker so nothing is going to be as quiet as two single coils in parallel.

Its hard for me to judge that audio clip with visual to see what you are doing but basically....

Its going to be as quiet as an uncovered humbucker but you can't be 2 ft away from the amp. Make sure you are facing away from the amp and a normal playing distance at least 6ft. There should basically be no difference between positions but again you can't be to close to a transformer.

Sounds like you didn't read my posts. As already stated, guitar is new.

How far I am from the amp in the room or how I'm facing doesn't affect this noise. I've tried it. Everything in the house I could possibly turn off was off, including the AC. I believe the low frequency noise you are describing is the amp. That's a constant in the background of the recording.

I'm not moving. As stated, the volume changes in the hum are due to switching pickup positions. The different positions on the Suhr have greatly different amounts of noise. You can hear this clearly in the "just_suhr" file, where I move through the single coil positions every few seconds. Again as I stated, the neck is dead quiet, the middle is quite noisy.

I just listened to the audio again, and this is all very clear in the files. They demonstrate the point I'm trying to make perfectly.

Just trying to determine if this is normal for SSCII so I can decide if I need to move on from this guitar, as I bought it specifically for SSCII. In short, I want all the single coil positions to sound like the neck position on this guitar, which is in fact "dead quiet".

PS. Didn't intend to drag you personally into an internet debate. I'm fine with waiting for CS to respond. Point of this thread was to hear others' experience with SSCII noise, but no one has posted for some reason.

 

[Husky]

sorry yeah I went back to the first post again but see you said it was new in follow up. There is no reason for the neck to be more quiet than the middle so I suspect something is off. Please continue with Customer Service so we can look at it. I just heard hum come in and out which is why I was wondering if you were getting closer to the amp in the test or rolling up the volume and why I said a video would help. It's also odd that direction doesn't change it but there is still a residual hum to me that shouldn't be there. So I was trying to get a noise floor. I think I'm getting confused because I hear the amp hum, that hum is low frequency and is the primary noise the SSC cancels out, then you change positions and turn the volume up? The SSC has a lot less high end buzz to me in your clips than the Fender but that Amp hum seems too loud to me. Pete Thorn has power line boxes on poles all around him and has a hell of a time with all guitars. Are there any of those near you? It could have effects on combinations and do remember that nothing not even a Humbucker is as quiet as two single coils in parallel. I'd still like to see it though to make sure.

Sounds like you didn't read my posts. As already stated, guitar is new.

How far I am from the amp in the room or how I'm facing doesn't affect this noise. I've tried it. Everything in the house I could possibly turn off was off, including the AC. I believe the low frequency noise you are describing is the amp. That's a constant in the background of the recording.

I'm not moving. As stated, the volume changes in the hum are due to switching pickup positions. The different positions on the Suhr have greatly different amounts of noise. You can hear this clearly in the "just_suhr" file, where I move through the single coil positions every few seconds. Again as I stated, the neck is dead quiet, the middle is quite noisy.

I just listened to the audio again, and this is all very clear in the files. They demonstrate the point I'm trying to make perfectly.

Just trying to determine if this is normal for SSCII so I can decide if I need to move on from this guitar, as I bought it specifically for SSCII. In short, I want all the single coil positions to sound like the neck position on this guitar, which is in fact "dead quiet".

PS. Didn't intend to drag you personally into an internet debate. I'm fine with waiting for CS to respond. Point of this thread was to hear others' experience with SSCII noise, but no one has posted for some reason.

 

[Arcadia]

No above ground power lines here. The amp hum doesn't seem loud in the room. Seems very quiet to me for a tube amp turned up fairly loud. I think with the Zoom H4N sitting right next to the speaker and no actual playing happening, it seems louder than it is. Even so, the single coil hum cuts through and is loud and clear in the recordings to my ears. Anyway, thanks for the response, will wait for CS.

Welcome any other TGPer experience with SSCII. Would especially be interested in hearing someone say "mine is dead quiet in all positions" lol.

Edit: Wanted to add:

The SSC has a lot less high end buzz to me in your clips than the Fender.

Yes, it's quieter than the Fender singles, but the odd thing for me is the very stark difference between the neck by itself and the middle by itself. If I'm not mistaken, that's exactly the same pickup in those two positions. Can't think of any technical reason why one would be loud and one would be quiet, but I'm not an expert.

 

[crazymauler]

My Suhr Classic Pro HSS (which I unfortunately had to sell recently) was dead quiet in all positions. A fabulous guitar in every respect—tone, feel, playability, craftsmanship, aesthetic—and I can’t wait to own one again.

 

[crazymauler]

@Arcadia FWIW I wouldn’t rule out environmental factors. In my home studio, when I’m in the sweet spot and oriented a certain direction, all my guitars (incl. Strat & Tele) are acceptably quiet, but the Suhr was almost completely silent, even with high gain or fuzz.
If your Strat is noisy and the Suhr is quiet but a little noisy in positions 3 & 4, it makes me think you have some kind of RFI/EMI/dirty power or something else going on.
Perhaps conduct a similar experiment at another house/studio/store if possible?

 

[kevin hart]

I have a SSH guitar with the SSCII and the Neck and Middle picks are dead quiet... they're actually quieter than the humbucker.

 

[Husky]

The coil is not in the same physical
Space as the pickup for tonal reasons. The closer it is to the source of interference the more that matters but the neck is closer to the hum coil than the middle. Typically this doesn't matter unless the hum source is close. Think of it like a focus. So there is a reason it could be noisier in certain environments. You don't have an opportunity to listen to the guitar someplace else to see if there is the same result? The hum I hear in the pickups is the same hum I hear in the amp and it seem excessive. I still think there is a reason for that. Unless your recorder is automatically adjusting at low level and boosting?

No above ground power lines here. The amp hum doesn't seem loud in the room. Seems very quiet to me for a tube amp turned up fairly loud. I think with the Zoom H4N sitting right next to the speaker and no actual playing happening, it seems louder than it is. Even so, the single coil hum cuts through and is loud and clear in the recordings to my ears. Anyway, thanks for the response, will wait for CS.

Welcome any other TGPer experience with SSCII. Would especially be interested in hearing someone say "mine is dead quiet in all positions" lol.

Edit: Wanted to add:



Yes, it's quieter than the Fender singles, but the odd thing for me is the very stark difference between the neck by itself and the middle by itself. If I'm not mistaken, that's exactly the same pickup in those two positions. Can't think of any technical reason why one would be loud and one would be quiet, but I'm not an expert.

 

[Bluplirst]

The recording of the fender sounds insanely loud for regular 60 cycle hum.

 

[Husky]

The recording of the fender sounds insanely loud for regular 60 cycle hum.

I agree and I'm wondering if there is an auto leveler on the recorder boosting the level.

 

[AprioriMark]

Honestly, I have had really strange issues with buzzing related to old wiring in the past, and this is what that reminds me of. Yes, even with the seemingly unreasonable difference between pickups. I live in a hundred year old building with above ground power lines that was converted to condos 20 years ago. It's beautiful, but the power situation was odd. I had power conditioners all over, so I assumed the noise problem was guitar related. Once we replaced our power mains and sub feeds to unit stacks, noise just disappeared.

It may certainly be an issue with some aspect of the guitar, but I encourage you to (safely, hi covid19, I hate you) go play the guitar somewhere else and see if the problem still exists.

-Mark

 

[rollyfoster]

Have you moved the amp/guitar to a different room? Anything else in the signal path? What does the amp sound like if it’s turned on but nothing is plugged into the front of it?

 

[Arcadia]

Honestly, some odd comments above.

I thought folks on TGP would be familiar with the concept of recording input level. Of course all the noise sounds "loud" because I set it up to be able to actually hear it clearly. It wasn't set up to record guitar playing from the amp at volume.

Of course the Strat is louder. I thought this was clear, but it doesn't have a noise cancelling system installed. The pickups are V-Mod.

My power is clean, and there isn't any unusual interference going on here. Also, the amp is running through a Monster Power station that's designed for musical instruments, but there isn't a great difference with/without it.

Of course there's nothing else in the signal path.

The amp hum is exaggerated in the recording. Again, recording input level. It's a very quiet amp in the room. Low noise floor. I've had noisy amps so know what those sound like. I also have a Tone King, and they're both equally quiet.

The thing to focus on in the audio is the difference between the noise from the neck pickup and the middle pickup. Maybe I confused things by putting too much stuff into the audio recording.

 

[Arcadia]

My Suhr Classic Pro HSS (which I unfortunately had to sell recently) was dead quiet in all positions.

I have a SSH guitar with the SSCII and the Neck and Middle picks are dead quiet... they're actually quieter than the humbucker.

Thanks very much for this feedback, exactly what I was hoping to hear. My neck pickup is dead quiet. My middle pickup is quieter than a V-Mod but decidedly not dead quiet.

 

[Michaeli]

Hi all,

So I have this new Suhr Classic S that I bought online. I got it because I can't deal with hum, and I wanted to be able to use my Strat neck pickup. I thought about getting a set of noiseless pickups for my Am Pro Strat, but in the end decided to take a chance and just "upgrade" to a Suhr.

My Strat is SSS, and the hum is what one would expect:
1 loud hum
2 dead quiet
3 loud hum
4 dead quiet
5 loud hum

Positions 1, 3, 5 all have equally loud hum. I know some people don't mind it but I personally find those positions unplayable. I'm pretty new to Strats so it's not something I've learned to grow used to. Humbuckers are quiet. The guitars I've played the most, my classicals, are dead quiet.

Onto the new Suhr, which is HSS:
1 quiet (humbucker)
2 dead quiet
3 low hum
4 low hum
5 dead quiet

I mostly use position 4, but I also like position 5, which I can't use on my Strat. So I was happy that position is really quiet on the Suhr. Unfortunately, position 4 is not. Position 3 is same as 4. It's not as loud as a Strat single coil, maybe half that loud or a bit less, but still enough to mildly annoy me.

It's not a great trade for me to get a quiet position 5 while adding noise to position 4.

I'm really surprised by this, since the neck by itself is so quiet. Considering that it's easy to make position 4 quiet, and position 3 also makes noise, I'm wondering if something might be wrong with the SSCII system/wiring of the middle pickup that is causing the noise.

Very interested in hearing other folks experience with this system. Is your 4 position quiet? I'm actually hoping it's an issue ... then I'll just contact Suhr support, and they can fix it. I just want some more information from the community before taking any action.

I'm otherwise pretty happy with the guitar.

Hi mate, just wanted to find out if you ever did get this issue resolved? Cheers