Lot Of Hum From Active Single Coils....

[djhollowman]

Hi all!

I have a guitar with a H-S-S configuration with active pickups: EMG89 in the bridge and a pair of Guitarheads active single coil pickups in the middle and neck positions.

The EMG89 is fantastic, absolutely silent even in single coil mode, but the single coils are NOISY with any kind of gain applied!

They're better with a less "gain-y" setting, like going through the amp's clean channel. But I want to be able to use them with the dirty channel as well. If I do, they just hum loudly.

Anyone else had this problem with active singles?? Is it the fact that they're active that's contributing to this noise?

Anyone got any ideas for how to quiet them down a bit?

I can't shield the pickup cavities because it would be seen (there's no pickguard) The control cavity is already shielded. I'm pretty certain the wiring is good - I installed all 3 pickups at one time, and I'm pretty confident in my wiring skills. I've never had any problems with noisy pickups like these before. I've read plenty of good things about Guitarheads active pickups before, maybe they were all humbuckers??? (I don't know.)

Would appreciate any thoughts/suggestions please.

Thanks!

DJ

[Bmth Builder]

As far as I'm aware sheilding is pointless on active circuits (including single coils) because EMGs are already internally sheilded or something...

So I'm not sure sheilding will help anything...

[killemall8]

it has nothing to do with them being active. actives are quieter than passives.

[GregP]

Also not true.

EMG's particular active technology is not only well-shielded, but use the preamp to boost a signal that is much lower to begin with and may or may not have a different shape to the coil. AFAIK, other manufacturers (including Guitarheads) basically put a preamp on top of a normal single coil. No doubt, amplifying a standard single coil before amplifying it will make it noisy indeed.

"Active" does not automatically imply "quiet". It's just that EMG's particular active technology is the most well-known and has set the standard in the field; and it is known to be quiet.

[djhollowman]

Also not true.

EMG's particular active technology is not only well-shielded, but use the preamp to boost a signal that is much lower to begin with and may or may not have a different shape to the coil. AFAIK, other manufacturers (including Guitarheads) basically put a preamp on top of a normal single coil. No doubt, amplifying a standard single coil before amplifying it will make it noisy indeed.

"Active" does not automatically imply "quiet". It's just that EMG's particular active technology is the most well-known and has set the standard in the field; and it is known to be quiet.

Sadly that's what I thought might be the case!

(Thanks for the replies guys!)

So is there nothing I can do to make it quieter?

DJ

[killemall8]

Also not true.

EMG's particular active technology is not only well-shielded, but use the preamp to boost a signal that is much lower to begin with and may or may not have a different shape to the coil. AFAIK, other manufacturers (including Guitarheads) basically put a preamp on top of a normal single coil. No doubt, amplifying a standard single coil before amplifying it will make it noisy indeed.

"Active" does not automatically imply "quiet". It's just that EMG's particular active technology is the most well-known and has set the standard in the field; and it is known to be quiet.

well, i really dont know. the only reason i said that is because in that one thread where someone asked a question about actives vs passives, a few people said they are quieter than passives, and that was an advantage. so i was speaking thru that i heard.