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Buzz-kill help

Posted by Uncle John on October 18, 2013 at 10:56am in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts

This license plate git worked fine with a piezo.   I cut the plate and added a chrome mag pup from Gitty.  It buzzes and hums.  

The pup sits on wood.   2 wires go into a 2 prong jack.   I wired them one way and when that buzzed, wired it the other (opposite) way.  Still buzzes.  It is not 'grounded' to anything.

The jack goes into a plastic jack cover.   The metal plate does not touch the pickup.   I also tried it with the plate off.   Still buzzed.  

I have not strung it up.   I've put another guitar up to it and and strummed.  it sounds good and would be playable - but would hum/buzz when not being played.

Fixes?   Grounding?   Ground to what. 

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Replies

  • Uncle John October 18, 2013 at 4:48pm

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  • Uncle John October 18, 2013 at 4:42pm

    All up and running.  Sounds good.   For some reason this pickup was extra sensitive to a bad surge protector.  On battery or with the amp plugged into a good outlet, no hum.  Thanks to all for the help.  I will delete this forum after a couple of days.

    • Clock The Wolf > Uncle John October 18, 2013 at 5:59pm

      Don't delete it! It might show up in a search when someone is looking for answers!

  • Maddog October 18, 2013 at 4:10pm

    That was next on my list John at least about the plug not grounding on the amp, I know ALL about having no ground on the outlet end of an amp. Took me about 2 days and 10,000 hairs pulled outta my head to figure it out but that was it. Glad ya got it! I've been thinking about it all day at work :-)

  • Uncle John October 18, 2013 at 2:21pm

    Hey guys!   The ground to the tail piece made no difference.  It still hummed.  BUT!   The hum went away when I went to battery power.   It turns out I have a bad surge protector!!!     Maddog mentioned having similar problems with an ungrounded outlet.   Gonna put it back together, work a bit on another project and maybe string it up today.

  • Uncle John October 18, 2013 at 1:32pm

    Gees,  I was going to go play with grounding it to the metal tail piece, thinking it would be easy to do and the same as grounding to the strings.  But what Dan says is true.  Well.  Gonna try it to the tailpiece.

  • Dan Sleep October 18, 2013 at 12:39pm

    I think what UJ is saying is that it hums now, when there is no bridge and there are no strings installed yet. So he can't ground the strings if there aren't any, right?

  • Maddog October 18, 2013 at 12:35pm

    YEP!

  • Bad Finger (Eric) October 18, 2013 at 11:07am

    Ground the bridge/strings to the jack ground.

This reply was deleted.