My Les Paul Studio has a bit of a hum, which goes silent when I touch the jack plate. Is there something I can do to make this go away permanently? A different cable, internal ground wire, etc?
Thanks.
Learning requires a willingness to be bad at something for awhile.
When you say that you are touching the jack plate do you mean the metal edge of the jack or the nut holding it to the jack plate or do you really mean the plastic jack plate (I think most LPs have plastic jack plates)? If it's the metal jack then you are grounding yourself. Does the hum also go away when you touch the strings which should be grounded as well?
If so, then I'm going to suggest that you have a shielding problem.
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
Yes, it also goes away when I touch the strings.
Learning requires a willingness to be bad at something for awhile.
Yes, it also goes away when I touch the strings.
...or Earthing (grounding).
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
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My Les Paul Studio has a bit of a hum
Humbucker pickups or P90s in that LP?
P90s will hum.
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
Burstbuckers, same as in the Standard.
Now, to be honest, it is fairly slight, but gets worse through a pedal.
I'm just thinking, if it goes away when it is grounded, shouldn't there be something that can be done about it? Why doesn't the cable ground from the guitar through the amp?
Learning requires a willingness to be bad at something for awhile.
Burstbuckers, same as in the Standard.
Now, to be honest, it is fairly slight, but gets worse through a pedal.
I'm just thinking, if it goes away when it is grounded, shouldn't there be something that can be done about it? Why doesn't the cable ground from the guitar through the amp?
That's another can of worms, you've just opened.
It's possible that the guitar is not properly grounded, in which case earthing in the amp isn't going to help, you'll have to sort the guitar out.
The other possibility is, that the guitar is earthed, but the power socket, that the amp is plugged into isn't. That is not only a cause of noise, but also a cause for deep concern. Household ring-mains, which aren't earthed are a danger to life and limb. You can buy a mains tester for very little money, that will tell you if the mains is earthed. If it isn't, it is very wise to get it done asap.
I started with nothing - and I've still got most of it left.
Did you know that the word "gullible" is not in any dictionary?
Greybeard's Pages
My Articles & Reviews on GN
My Tele has the same problem...
Burstbuckers, same as in the Standard.
Now, to be honest, it is fairly slight, but gets worse through a pedal.
Probably some sort of boost or overdrive pedal, right? That's just amplifying everything including the noises.
I'm just thinking, if it goes away when it is grounded, shouldn't there be something that can be done about it? Why doesn't the cable ground from the guitar through the amp?
It's not going away when it's grounded the noise is going away when you are grounded. You aren't, in general, well grounded and can be a source of noise or re-radiate noise you pick up. When you are grounded (touching the strings or the jack) then the noise is shunted to ground.
One fix is to add shielding. This will block to some degree the noise from getting into the signal path. The other one is to check your wiring for ground loops which will make it easier for the circuits to pick up the noise you are emitting and put it into the signal path. That might be the problem or it might be other noise that shielding would block. Doing both at the same time wouldn't be much harder than shielding.
Pop music is about stealing pocket money from children. - Ian Anderson
One fix is to add shielding. This will block to some degree the noise from getting into the signal path. The other one is to check your wiring for ground loops which will make it easier for the circuits to pick up the noise you are emitting and put it into the signal path. That might be the problem or it might be other noise that shielding would block. Doing both at the same time wouldn't be much harder than shielding.
+1
As it's only slight without the pedal gain and this is a humbucking pup guitar, chances are it's electric field interference (possibly exacerbated by your body) from something like a CRT monitor or flourescent lamp tubes and and not magnetic interference from house wiring, amp power transformers, flour lamp ballast transformers (flour. lamps are bad new all around for EMI). Hyper is correct: Shielding may be needed, as the area in which you play is EMI "alive." The humbuckers really only take care of the magnetic field interference. The pup covers (still installed?) are for the electrical interference. You may need to added shielding to your pup and control cavities -- don't forget the cavity covers. To see if you already have shielding, pop the control cavity cover and check for foil or a grayish paint inside the cover and cavity -- the later would be conductive paint. It's become almost standard on many guitars, but Gibby is not the most enlightened company when it comes to doing such things.
Oh yeah: And get a noise gate for when you playing with a high gain setup.
-=tension & release=-
My Les Paul Studio has a bit of a hum, which goes silent when I touch the jack plate. Is there something I can do to make this go away permanently? A different cable, internal ground wire, etc?
Thanks.
Try the easy stuff first - plug it in to another outlet - elsewhere in the house. For that matter plug it into another house if possible! A bad power strip/surge protector can cause this - ask me how I know! LOL! I switched power strips on my amp and all is quiet. Stuff you have plugged into the circuit can also cause interference. Good luck!
