What causes that noise ????

duckmusic

I have a Korean telecaster and I love it but it makes a strange buzzing noise whenever i take my hand of the guitar. As soon as i replace it the noise starts again. What is causing it ??? A friend of mine said that they do that with the tele to give it a sharp tone. Is this true ???

If its not supposed to this how can i fix it ???



Thanks, Duckmusic

Gordon

Is it like mains hum?

Karl Hungus

'Tis the pickups. Single coils just hum.

You could invest in a good noisegate to put between your guitar and amp, and that'll solve the buzz, but it's nothing to worry about.

duckmusic

Yeah, thats what im talking about

duckmusic

Thanks Karl, good to know there is nothing wrong with it. Gives me some peace of mind.

leninbenjamin

wouldn't shielding and properly grounding help reduce some of this noise?

guitarnuts.com has some good info on shielding and if you wanna have a gawk.

Edit: how harsh is the noise? i though there is only meant to be a hum from single coil guitars (havn't had a single coil in ages)

Voodu Child

sounds like a bad ground

Karl Hungus

duckmusic wrote:

Thanks Karl, good to know there is nothing wrong with it. Gives me some peace of mind.

Now, I could be wrong, it could be that the guitar is not properly grounded. I know some people have had problems with Korean made Fenders, so it could be a small issue like that. But still nothing major to worry about.

Edit: Yeah, I see others say it could be grounding.

Johnny Storm

Since it goes away when he puts his hand on the guitar its most likely not a grounding problem.
As Leninbenjamin said www.guitarnuts.com is the source for shielding.

Voodu Child

Johnny Storm wrote:

Since it goes away when he puts his hand on the guitar its most likely not a grounding problem.

Thats why it IS likely a bad ground. He's grounding the guitar himself when he touches the bridge.

-=al=-

pair the single coils together to get rid of it....

Humbuckers are called humbuckers casue they Buck the hum! i.e they're already paired

happens to me also, but meh i dont really give a hoot

Johnny Storm

voodoo_child wrote:

Thats why it IS likely a bad ground. He's grounding the guitar himself when he touches the bridge.

Sorry, dude. Exactly the opposite is correct.

duckmusic

Yeah I think it could be a grounding problem alright. Sometimes if I touch my I-Pod while playing i get a very slight shock. Nothing to bad but i reckon it might be worth my while sorting it out.

Is it a DIY job ? Wat do I do ?

Voodu Child

Your guitar grounds itself through the amp. If the buzzing is starting and stopping when you put your hand on/off the bridge and strings, it means YOU are a better ground than the amp, which means you have a bad ground.

It could be the internal wiring, could be the jack socket, could be the cable, could be the amp, could even be your plug socket/wiring. Its all collectively known as a bad ground

leninbenjamin

voodoo_child wrote:

It could be the internal wiring, could be the jack socket, could be the cable, could be the amp, could even be your plug socket/wiring. Its all collectively known as a bad ground

guitarnuts is good on this

you can isolate the cause of the noise pretty easily, if you pull out the jack and the noise goes away then its the guitar.

shielding and grounding itself isn't too hard but you need to do some soldering, which some people get put off by. if you read up and know what you're doing though then it shouldn't be too much hassle. again, guitarnuts has a guide for this. the one i've linked to there is for strat type.

Edit: If it's a real expensive guitar and/or your afraid of trying the shielding yourself then it might be worth your while to buy (or relieve someone of) a POS and practice on it first. a good knowledge of soldering and wiring is a plus to any guitarist and opens up more tonal and customisation possibilities etc.

Giblet

Turn your monitor off

crosstownk

voodoo_child wrote:

Thats why it IS likely a bad ground. He's grounding the guitar himself when he touches the bridge.

I agree.

Make sure the earth lead in the plug for the amp is securely connected.

Make sure you gear has proper plugs attached and not the 'Thomann' issue European plugs. Do you have any low voltage lighting in the house/studio - sometimes these low voltage light (or at least their transformers) can cause buzzing.

Johnny Storm

Duckmusic, can you clarify please? Does the noise get quieter when you touch the strings or get louder? And does you tele have single coil pickups?

TelePaul

There are a few aspects to this, Karl Hungus was close with the first...depending on the severity of the problem. A Tele with single coils will hum, as will a strat in the neck position. The benefit of a Start is that its pick-ups are wired out of phase with each other in the 2nd and fourth position. Alot fo the time walking around the room your playing in to find a 'neutral' spot without the bias of electrical equipment will help.

A noise gate will not solve this problem...it'll gate the sound when you don't play alright, but a single coil hum will be present when the sound is not gated i.e, when you play. Of course it'll be pretty much drowned out by the notes. A noise gate is useful if you are running your amp at high gain, but I've yet to find one that doens't take from your tone. With distortion, feedback is more common, as the hum form the coil even when you don't play anything is considerable.

The second aspect of this is the shielding of the control cavity, and has been mentioned above. You can use certain foil or paint to shield your control cavity. I don't think grounding is your problem; what your describing is present on every Tele I've played, but if the buzz is loud enough to annoy you, I think your problem is elsewhere.

TelePaul

-=al=- wrote:

pair the single coils together to get rid of it....

Are your pick-ups wired out of phase?

-=al=-

lol no idea

shud they be?

TelePaul

-=al=- wrote:

lol no idea

shud they be?

Nope...if they are wound in opposite directions and selected together, that'd cancel alot of hum, but that's more a feature of strats.

-=al=-

well i only use the neck and mid paired for cleansa nd the humbucker for overdriven tones, i rarely use the neck or middle pup on their own, but sometimes i do, but once u play or touch the strings u cant hear any buzzin, but its all good ive 2 single coil emgs and an old SG310 humbucker in it, its a mad guitar but i loves it

Bratach Bán

-=al=- wrote:

well i only use the neck and mid paired for cleansa nd the humbucker for overdriven tones, i rarely use the neck or middle pup on their own, but sometimes i do, but once u play or touch the strings u cant hear any buzzin, but its all good ive 2 single coil emgs and an old SG310 humbucker in it, its a mad guitar but i loves it

Hey al, the problem you have is the same with Teles the world over. It's nothing wrong with your guitar. And if you're happy with it, that's all that matters. I mean, if people wanted hum-free sounds, they'd play a piano or something, not a Tele.

Personally, I think Teles are amazing, hum and all.