Shocking Electric-al Guitar! |
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Aug 19 2010, 11:00 PM
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Help, my long hours of guitar playing has some electrifying results!
When I got new pickups for my Les Paul Gibson, there was a faint humming when idle with the amp at loud volume. I just thought it was a minor buzz from the new pickups and nothing to worry about. When playing the guitar it's fine, I lightly rest my hand on the strings when playing mostly (even if not palm muting it stops buzzing) - just a very light touch on any of the string and it went away... Today, I noticed it almost zapped me with a small current, minor but still... I found out you can touch any piece of metal, the string, bridge, even a light touch on the end of one of the string tuners. It makes a little clicking sound if you tap on it, a light touch and no more buzz, zero, na-daa. The Gibson has always been very little or no buzz in the past. Is my guitar not GROUNDED anymore?!?!!! (it seems to be using my body to ground itself now) I've tried different power points, removing all devices except the AMP and Guitar directly into it. It seems to be the guitar creating a faint hum until I touch anything metal in it. Ekk is that bad? Is it easy to fix if that's the case, should I take it back to the guy that did the new picksup? Maybe a wires loose? This post has been edited by Azzaboi: Aug 19 2010, 11:07 PM --------------------  Play Games Arcade Take a break, Play Games! Play the best free online flash games at Aaron's Game Zone like Bloons Tower Defense 4! |
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Aug 19 2010, 11:37 PM
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I have the zapping problem w/ my Gibson too
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Aug 20 2010, 01:45 AM
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Thanks for your replies,
I've still got the guy's email that serviced my guitar so threw him an message asking around it. This is pretty much the answer I got (I mixed with info I found online with the same issue): QUOTE The light buzz/hum you are talking about is an electronic one and very normal in electric guitars because of the insufficient shielding in the interior cavities. Amplified even more especially under stage lighting or your computer monitor, etc. If you have another guitar around, plug it in under the same conditions and you will notice the same thing too. Single coil pickups will do this all the time, humbuckers are created to cancel most of this out. If your guitar wasn't grounded, then touching the strings will cause more buzz. It's doesn't sound like an issue with the guitar, unless it's it shielding or a bad soldering joint, but more to do with your body. The human body acts as a good antenna. You can test this by the huge signal that is injected into an amplifier when you touch the tip of an open guitar instrument cable plugged into an amp. It will buzz like crazy! When you touch the guitar stings that are grounded, your body is also grounded and that makes YOU an ineffective antenna - cancelling that out. That's why guitars have the strings grounded. A non-grounded guitar could be dangerous! You will probably find it's a device around you with a power field, which also flowing through your body and getting picked up by the guitar pickups when your body isn't grounded. I found out my thick woolly socks where to blame for creating static to cause the small zap! lol I was working on my rhythm/timing and tapping my foot for hours working up a small charge! I think it's my newish surround sound speakers around my room causing the buzz feedback? Also what Zakk suggested is highly recommend to check over too. Something about 'loop' grounding (incorrect wiring) or a loose wire should be checked. This post has been edited by Azzaboi: Aug 20 2010, 01:47 AM -------------------- Play Games Arcade Take a break, Play Games! Play the best free online flash games at Aaron's Game Zone like Bloons Tower Defense 4! |
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