Got Some Nasty Buzzing Happening! Any Help?

[Steve R]

Hi everyone,

This is my first post here, so I guess I should say "Hello" first! This is a great site, I've popped in here on and off a number of times over the past few years, and always managed to find what I was looking for pretty easily. So thanks to everyone for that.

I've got a bit of a problem at the moment though, one of my guitars is really buzzy. It's a H/H, with coil taps on each pickup, which are a Duncan APH1 in the neck, and an SH11 in the Bridge. They're fine when they're working with both coils, but when I tap them, to run just a single coil, they buzz quite badly (and VERY noticably). They seem to be quite a bit worse than the bit of hum you'd expect from single coils, I've checked that they're wired up correctly as per the wiring chart supplied with them, I have sheilded the electronics, and pickup cavities (however, have not grounded the sheild in the pickup cavities... should I?).

Any hints?

...and thanks again for making this site such a pleasure to peruse!

Cheers,

Steve

[lovekraft]

...have not grounded the sheild in the pickup cavities... should I?

Absolutely, with all haste and despatch! Split humbuckers often buzz louder than single coils, since they don't have to be shielded much at all to keep them quiet in humbucker mode.

[George Brown]

connecting the ground to the coductive paint/ copper tape is how you make a shield if not then its just a conductive material around the pickups

edit: whilst your pick-ups may be wirred correctly you might want to check for ground loops

Edited May 3, 2006 by George Brown

[Steve R]

Well, thanks for the input guys. I went through everything I could think of, sheilding the pickup cavities, GROUNDING that sheilding ( ), I tried tapping the oposite coils, rewiring, checking for (and fixing) ground loops, no luck. What I ended up doing was rewiring it so that the pickups switched to paralell, rather than single coil. The results were fantastic! I had thought of this once a while ago, but realy liked the contrast I could get with the coil tap, I was worried that even in paralell, they might have a bit too much power (I use the one main guitar to get all of my sounds, so I need it to be versatile), but I was wrong, while the sound is a lot fuller and warmer, it still has a fairly distinct cingle coil sound, the bridge is giving a great classic rock tone still, which sounds great. Plus... it's all hum free! At rehersal this weekend, having not had a chance to talk 'gear' with any of the guys yet, our bass player commented on how nice my tone was that day, so... the proof is in the pudding!

Thanks again for your help guys, really appreciated the input.

Cheers,

Steve