New Guitar Hums Only At My House

Can this mean my household electrical system is not properly grounded? If so why did I not notice this with previous guitars?
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You could guess, or you could find out for sure with one of these

Have you tried plugging in to different outlets in your house? In different rooms?

It's possible that this guitar is more sensitive to hum than the others.
Or it's possible that the outlet you normally plug into has become damaged.
Or was not installed properly, and the ground wire loosened over time?

Thanks Kent, I will make a trip to Canadian Tire for one of those testers. My latest experiment with "The Hum" is this: I tried three different electrical outlets in three different rooms in the house and The Hum follows me everywhere. I am going to drag my gear to a friends house tonight and see if it hums there.

Is it possible entire house has some grounding problem? Everything sounded great at the store go figure!

Yes, you can have an entire house with a grounding problem, therefore the setup may behave differently someplace else.

Is there any solution or test I can conduct to see if I have grounding challenges in my house? I think my electrical system is grounded to a water pipe but I may be wrong I will have to check tonight. Will the little tester Kent suggested tell me this?

Now my new guitar has a HDR (High Definition Revoicer) by Godin which switches the pickups from active to passive so it does have a 9v battery. Could this be a contributing factor? I hae used single coil guitars before with no issues.

Is the hum the same in active and passive modes?
Can you use it in passive mode with the battery out?
Do you have fluorescent or neon lights? 8)

I'm thinking ground loop, maybe with the weird wiring in that guitar. You might want to try out a ground loop isolator, like the EHX Hum Debugger.

Grounded to the cold water pipe (on the "strret" side of the water meter) is common, though a dedicated ground rod is better. Make sure the ground clamp on the pipe is tight, isn't corroded and doesn't wiggle.

The outlet tester *might* show a whole house problem, but it is designed to test for correct wiring of the outlet itself.

Another possibility is that something in your house is generating electrical noise that is being passed to your amp thru the house wiring. Motors and fluorescent (or neon) light fixtures are common culprits.

Is the hum the same in active and passive modes?
Yes it hums in both active and passive mode, it is louder in active mode in fact.

Do you have fluorescent or neon lights?
I don't, other than some of those little compact ones.

Can you use it in passive mode with the battery out?
I don't know but I intend to try it and try replacing the battery and see if there is a difference.
I'm thinking ground loop, maybe with the weird wiring in that guitar. You might want to try out a ground loop isolator, like the EHX Hum Debugger
I am going to google them in a minute but I really don't want to spend much more money on this I am hoping to speak to the owner of the store and simply retun the guitar and find another. I guess I am giving up
Grounded to the cold water pipe (on the "strret" side of the water meter) is common, though a dedicated ground rod is better. Make sure the ground clamp on the pipe is tight, isn't corroded and doesn't wiggle.

I will see if I can find where it is all grounded and check but this has not changed in the 7 years since I bought the house. The only new addition is the guitar.

Thanks guys!!

Go you sit near your pc when you play? I find that if I am close to my pc, some of my guitars will pick up hum; electrical noise from unshielded components...

I have mostly dealt with the hum although it still needs some work. I returned my guitar and got a Tele. The Hum is still there my much much lower. I will have to look into this more however. The Passive/Active pickups in the Godin really accentuated the already preasant hum making it quite annoying. It was a sweet guitar though I recommend it. Great for a warm overdriven sound mmm.

I purchased as Americat Special Tele in white and it is really nice too.
Go you sit near your pc when you play? I find that if I am close to my pc, some of my guitars will pick up hum; electrical noise from unshielded components...

This hum is everywhere throughout the house. I think I will have to look into open ground loops etc just to be on the safe side.

Get a length of wire and strip a couple of inches of sheath from both ends. Plug in the guitar and switch on your amp. Connect one end of the wire to your guitar (one of the strings or the bridge) and the other to a piece of bare metal on a central heating radiator (do NOT stick it into a socket). If you have a grounding problem, the hum should disappear - assuming that the radiator is earthed, which most, if not all are.

Thnaks Greybeard i will try thatI expect the humming will stop. What is the next step? Does this mean I need to drive a ground rod in or somehow re ground my entire fuse box?

I don't know about N. America, but most countries use a ring main, which points to the ring being detached from the Earth point, rather than one of the earthing sections being broken.

If that is the case, it needs to be reconnected - don't forget to shut the power down if you're doing it yourself.

I'd get an electrician to do it - that won't invalidate your house insurance.