I am trying to record with my LP Custom, but if I EQ either of the humbuckers with any sort of treble at all I get this nasty noise coming out of it. If I turn either of the EQ knobs all the way down then the noise goes away, but I want a bright sound. I know this is something of a problem with all guitars, but it just seems a little excessive...it becomes really annoying in the recording mix, at least to me. How do you get around this? Do you always have to EQ these noises out post-recording? I thought humbuckers weren't supposed to have this problem as much as single-coil pickups.
Any tips would be great. Thanks.
What kind of "nasty noise" are you getting? Scratchy noise when you turn the tone knobs down?
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Are you talking about a crackly staticky noise that is there all the time when the tone pot is turned up? If so, what you may have is a grounding / shielding issue. When you turn the tone pot down you allow "noise" in the system to get to ground easier.
Do you have shielding in the control cavity? Is it properly connected to ground?
Are your pot bodies all connected to ground either directly (a wire from the pot body that ultimately ends up connecting to the jack ground) or indirectly through the cavity shielding?
If you have a multimeter you can check those out by putting a cable into your guitar jack and then touching one probe to the sleeve on the other end of the cable and touching the other probe to the shielding in the guitar. Then check the pot bodies in the same way. If you can't do this or don't know how to solder (which may end up being the way to fix this) then take it to a local reputable guitar tech.
Humbuckers will have less noise than single coil pickups but once the signal is out of the pickups and in the controls there is no difference between the two. At that point it comes down to the wiring (shielding, grounding, etc) and the environment (how electrically "noisy" it is).
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
What kind of "nasty noise" are you getting? Scratchy noise when you turn the tone knobs down?
No its not a scratch, its just your standard treble hum, but loud. And its not the action of turning the knobs that creates the sound (not a dirty pots issue), its just that I get the noise with a high-treble EQ setting. Every guitar seems to have this problem a bit, but it seems more than normal.
Thanks
Are your pot bodies all connected to ground either directly (a wire from the pot body that ultimately ends up connecting to the jack ground) or indirectly through the cavity shielding?
Yea I really don't know if they are grounded, but all the soldering connections look alright...I don't see any kind of shielding though, what would that look like?
Foil (copper or aluminum) or metallic paint lining the cavity.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Foil (copper or aluminum) or metallic paint lining the cavity.
Yeah, the shielding paint is often a dull dark grey (carbon based).
Yea I really don't know if they are grounded, but all the soldering connections look alright...I don't see any kind of shielding though, what would that look like?
If all your pots are grounded then you may need to add shielding to make the noise go away. Grounding the pots provides a shield around the pots themselves (the body of the pot is a shield for the signal inside the pot) but you may still get noise. You can shield the control cavity using the ideas from the Guitar Nuts website. He doesn't have specific directions for doing a Les Paul but it's not hard to adapt the ideas. I used it as a starting point for the shielding I did on one while I was in changing the controls.
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
Wow, I'm sure that works great, but its way too much work...are electrical hum issues something that local guitar techs will work on (and do well)?
Wow, I'm sure that works great, but its way too much work...are electrical hum issues something that local guitar techs will work on (and do well)?
Hmmm, not really sure since I did the work myself. I figure that a knowledgeable person who has done this a few times and has all the parts handy should be able to do it with about 2-3 hours of labour. Disconnect the pots from the pickups and 3 way switch; rearrange the grounds; paint the cavities 3 times (important to not skimp here); and then re-hookup the pots. It will take more than 3 hours till it's done because of the need to wait for the shielding paint to fully dry between coats if you go with paint. Depending on the shape of your cavity paint might be much easier than the copper foil.
You might even be able to do a "quickie" version by not separating the shield grounds out and leaving a potential ground loop in the shields. You would just shield the pot and pickup switch cavities and the back of the cavity covers (foil and/or paint) and then the existing grounds on the pots and switch would ground the shields. You would have the potential for some noise but would it be enough? I'm not sure.
If you don't want to shield then another possibility for your recording is to move away from the computer - you are recording with a computer, right? The computer and all that other electrical gear might be the source of your noise. Also, turn off any fluorescent lights that you may have on. Maybe also try turning around in a circle to see if you can find an angle that reduces the noise enough.
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
