Excessive noise with humbucker

[DavidLay]

I've just filmed a video showing this guitar with the full shreds in it to show how much hum there is and I compare it to my 2 other guitars, one of which I installed invaders in. I'll once again try the embed function but I'll first link the video just in case it still doesn't work. The invaders strangely enough were the quietest of all my pickups. There was practically no hum save for a small bit of inevitable noise. At this point, the alnico magnets vs ceramic are the only thing left that I can think of. If this is a normal amount of hum though I'd also like to know. It's manageable but I'd rather reduce it if that can be done. Anyways, here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oouLRLwkMxk Once again, I get a little carried away and riff around on the guitars a bit but I think the point is there all the same. Thanks again.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

I and others here have used about a bazillion different alnico and ceramic pickups.

Magnets do not make a difference in hum. Overall design can, but having owned the pickups in question, I can tell you, that is not the issue.

[DavidLay]

Hmm. I trust that you've got more experience with pickup modding than I do. These and the invaders in my ESP are the only ones I've installed over stock pickups. I take it the amount of hum in the video was not normal. I'm pretty stumped, though the hum is at a low enough level that it is manageable, but I would really be happy if I could get them to be as quiet as the Invaders.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

You need to take the guitar to a competent tech. Note the word "Competent". There are far more who are not than who are.

In fact, you might try taking it to a competent amp tech instead, since most guitar techs really do not understand electronics well enough to chase something like that down.

[DavidLay]

I just might have to do that. I live in the San Francisco bay area where there is a good number of music shops and so there may be a good number of available technicians though I don't know how many of them would be considered qualified. I would love to be able to do this myself but I think I'm at the point where it's beyond me. Time for me to do some google searching.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

In San Francisco, see Gary Brawer.

[DavidLay]

Groovy thanks. The intial place I was going to call was Subway Guitars of Berkeley but I'm looking up Gary as well. Again thanks.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

No problem, and good luck. Things like that can be very frustrating.

[Jocelyn]

I know this sounds really stupid, but did you try using a diff cable? I had a very fuuny issue many moons back. I had a JB in a V styled guitar and the guitar sounded fine and so did my strat and LP. Then I got a new 'Green coloured' cable. Since the guitar with JB was my main guitar I used the new cable with it. And I get this strange hum. So I thought it must be a grounding issue. I tried my strat and LP and NO HUM. So I was very sure it was a grounding issue. I checked the wiring everything was fine. So I was confused. Any way just for kicks I tried my old cable and hey no HUM. The hum came only with this new cable JB and amp. not with any other combo. Just try using a diff cable. and plug direct into your amp.

Also as everyone said Alnico magnets have nothing to do with the hum. They dont contribute to the hum in any way.

[Jocelyn]

I am sure your pickups are fine. The Problem came up before you put the neck pickup and and you just the Bridge pickup. I have feeling there may be a problem with the switch. This was another problem I had. before I had installed any replacement pickups, and before this forum had existed. Again the problem was on The V . It has two mini toggle switches instead of a regular switch between pickups. When the neck pickup was turned on I would get a HUM as if the guitar was running into a HIGH gain amp or a Distortion pedal was turned on. But bridge pickup was fine. I took it to the tech the problem was the toggle switch for the neck pickup.
Just try another cable first. I thought about the switch because u said distortion.

[DavidLay]

Thanks for the tips, Jocelyn. I haven't thought of those before. I tried several different cables but still had the same hum. I actually want to install a 5 way switch in this guitar in order to do coil splitting so that may be next on the list of things to be replaced. Also, is it at all possible that I overheated something in the volume pot when heating the solder on it to reground everything that was grounded to it or do those stand up to heat fairly well. I'm trying to decide whether or not I should have a go at replacing that as well.

[Jocelyn]

Cool let us know how it goes. Rest assured again there is no way the Alnico magnets are causing the hum. I have a strong feeling it is the switch gone bad.

[DavidLay]

My 5 way switch came today and I just finished soldering it in, following the SD diagram to have it Seymourized. Not wanting to take any chances, I went with a US made Fender switch to replace the generic Cor Tek 3 way it came with. All the positions work exactly as they are indicated to, but the hum is still the same. I wanted to do this anyway though so I don't consider it too much of a loss. Since one of the positions also puts the bridge pickup in single coil mode, I could comare it with humbucking mode. It's a little worse in single coil mode but not by much. Two other possibilities are that something in the low end Cor Tek volume pot got overheated from resoldering all the grounding wires on it a few times (once after refinishing the guitar, once again after changing out the pickups and a third time after putting in the new switch) or it could also be the shiny foil (holographic vinyl) used for my custom finish might also be it. The original pickup cavities were unshielded too but I added some aluminum foil to fix that. Maybe I could also add a grounding wire to connect them and to connect them to the ground inside the guitar, or maybe that's not needed. I saw a video of someone elses full shred that they added a ceramic magnet to but it also has the hum so it might not be the magnets. Still, that doesn't make sense though given how my Invaders are REALLY quiet when I'm not playing any notes. The official Seymour Duncan youtube channel administrator even offered to debug my hum situation and gave me a number. I just might give them a call and if we still can't figure it out, maybe I'll grab a noise gate pedal.

EDIT: I just tried riffing around on the guitar and noticed that while the hum wasn't gone, the new switch boosted the output a little bit and there was also a small amount of extra high end clarity that wasn't there with the previous switch, so odds are that the previous switch had something else a little off about it since adding the new one did something.