Musician Gear & Tech Discussion

just had a ton of work done to my guitar, new pick-ups, volume pots, had the wiring checked to make sure grounds are correct and still I am getting humming sounds from the amp and guitar. Only the electric that I had worked on though. I upgraded the pickups to the gibson burstbuckler pro 1 and 2s, it is an ES335 hollow body copy. Some people are telling me that the hollow bodies are like that, but I am not so sure. I use an Epiphone SG and it's fine. I use an accoustic and it's fine. Any thoughts would be a great help. Should I invest on a noise surpressor pedal?

Have the electronics checked again, somewhere else. If you're getting hum, and it's not running single coil pickups, it's most likely a ground problem. My hollow body Cort CL1500 is completely stock except for a bridge replacement, it makes almost no noise at all, with humbuckers. I've shielded my Strat so it's very quiet, but still has a slight bit of single coil noise, but I've never played a hollow body with serious hum. Those include Gibson ES 335, Oscar Schmidt 335, a couple of off brand hollow bodies, a half hollow telecaster, and acoustics. None made any serious noise or hum, even the Gibson 335 through a loud Peavey Butcher. It was as quiet as any guitar I own right now.

Check the electronics out again, something is either not grounded or a wire is reversed somewhere.

Hollows are know for feed back in the body itself. Not humm . . . ground issue ?

Definitely sounds like a ground issue. If it happens with either pickup (or both), check the wiring from the pots to the jack.

Ground Issue

Spray some WD-40 on it.

I just got a GC flyer and they have a Jackson Adrian Smith guitar for $499. I had thought about hopping up my strat with pretty much the same setup as this guitar, it has locking Floyd Rose, Dimarzio Super Distortion in the bridge pickup. It was gonna cost me around $350 in parts to mod my strat, so this guitar if it plays and sounds good might be a sensible solution for me.

Has anyone on here played one of these?

The flyer included a coupon to get 50-100 dollars off of it, if they have one in the store locally I may check it out.

If you can find one to play, try it. I wouldn't like the white finish or the wide-style neck myself.
Also, looks like these are made in India.

Try different guitar cables. Maybe one of the 1/4 inch ends have a bad connection. Also, the 1/4 input jacks may be loose on the amp. It could be something as simple as that. Hope you find the source.

Thanks jsantos. I forgot about guitar cables, and came back to post exactly what you did. Definitely check the cables.

Thanks jsantos. I forgot about guitar cables, and came back to post exactly what you did. Definitely check the cables.

Cool Paleopete! I had the same problem not too long ago using less expensive cables. When you are an active musician, these cables get so much abuse from plugging/unplugging, getting stepped on, jerked by people walking on stage, they rarerely last a season. I think the cables with the reinforced connections (the plug housing in one solid piece) last longer and have better noise reduction because of shielding.

I doubt this is the problem, but I use a powered pedal board and I crossed some of the power wires in mine and was getting this horrible hum, so I uncovered everything and rerouted the power cables in the board and my hum went away.

If he got the guitar rewired I would think its in the guitar.

Try different guitar cables. Maybe one of the 1/4 inch ends have a bad connection. Also, the 1/4 input jacks may be loose on the amp. It could be something as simple as that. Hope you find the source.

Yes . . . I guess we all ( I know I did ) assumed he checked the cables first.

Damn cables Always freakin something up in sound check.

I've had to re solder cables at gigs a bunch of times...once when I had already loaned one out and only had one left for my guitar, and HUUUMMMMM...dammit...10 minutes to start time, and I had to solder a cable. we started 2 minutes late...

And I never thought of cables when this fellow posted...I must be slipping...

Dammit where did my picture go???? I just tried to redo it, still no picture...

Is it AC hum or feedback at high volume? If AC hum, it's either the guitar, the cord, or the amp. Simple process of elimination should find it quick. If the amp and cord are quiet with other guitars, somebody fuzzed up the wiring in the 335. Did anyone mention a possible ground problem??

My 335 with Duncan Pickups is the quietest guitar in the rack.