There's a lot of 60 Hz hum in my acoustic/electric dulcitar. The amp runs on a battery, so there's no wall-wart leakage, at least not directly.
Besides wearing a wrist-mount grounding strap that connects across the brass bolt that contacts the strings and running a pigtail lead to the negative (outside) of the 1/4" jack, what are my options?
I am building an acoustic/electric chugger with a mini-humbucker, and wonder if I should just ground the strings to the black (negative) lead and prepare to wear a wrist strap while playing?
I am using what is supposedly 97% shield braided cable between the CBG and my battery powered amp. And yes, I have read the "Pin One Problem" essays online.
Thanks
Gordon
Replies
I've built a guitar without grounding the strings before. It still sounds ok. After it was built it did not have any reasonable grounding places that would not be a bit ugly or obvious. So before I decided to start chopping, I plugged it in, and it sounded good enough for me.
I'm not sure how it would sound plugged into a clubs amp system, but for me through my little 20w amp it's OK.
If your using a mini-humbucker, there shouldn't be any 60 cycle hum. That is inherent to single coil pickups.
All guitars with pickups should have a ground wire to the strings either at the bridge or the stop tail piece.
If you have another git or can borrow one, plug it into your amp to see if the noise is still there, change cords etc.
Fluorescent lights or electrical wiring and dimmer switches in a room can be a problem with RF noises being picked up through the amp. Try a different room or outside to see if the problem still exists.
No FL lights in the house or dimmers anywhere. There's a hum without plugging in anything. Minor but annoying. Shall have second box (with mini humbucker) to try with cord shortly.
If you have the hum without anything plugged in(not even a cord), then it's probably the amp or at least part of the problem.