pickup noise/hum ???

[bitter]

I just picked up my hagstrom from the guitar shop where I had it setup in addition to a electronics/pickups swap. Went with a pair of GFS fat pats to keep a classic sound but to get less squeal than stock hags. replaced pot, jacks, and 3-way switch. When I got it home, the bridge pickup was fine but the middle and neck were awfully noisy (both in coil tap and hum mode). I could hear it through the clean channel and a noise gate barely helped. In the past, touching the strings and bridge would stop/reduce hum but now it the complete opposite    When it touch the strings it increases and the noise gate can't squash it.


The whole point of this upgrade was to remove all these issues. Granted the new bridge pup is fine but the neck.middle positions are unusable.

Any help troubleshooting before I call the shop? Thanks

[fallen]

Make sure that there is a ground wire attached to the bridge? I'm not familiar with those guitars but if your pickup cavity or control cavity is lined with foil tape you can also run a ground wire to the body/foil with a wood screw.

I'm guessing the only real way to solve it is to plug the guitar in while it's opened up and try grounding things to the guitar body or yourself or try moving wires around until the hum stops.

[bitter]

There was no lining of foil tape in the cavity, just black paint. I thought about buying a foil kit from GFS when I grabbed the pups and parts.

I'm guessing the bridge is fine but the neck might have a bad ground, resulting in hum? And the middle pos. hum is a further result of the neck pup.

[chille01]

If you paid someone to swap your pickups, take it back and demand they do the job properly.  Don't go poking around in there though, cuz then they'll use that as an excuse not to do anything about it.  Yes, you could fix it yourself, but you shouldn't have to.

[bitter]

Agreed. Just want to get some insight first before calling them up. I'll never let someone do it again after this gets straightened out.

Played it some more and the noise definitely starts up when touching the strings. I can't say I'm too impressed with those GFS pups as of yet.

[Mr. Foxen]

If the noise when touching strings is a lot like the nosie when you touch the tip of the jack, that will be the earth and hot wires switched somewhere. Are you mixing various pickups in there? possibly they've wired it wrong to keep the phase relationship between them right (which is a crappy bodge).

[bitter]

If the noise when touching strings is a lot like the nosie when you touch the tip of the jack, that will be the earth and hot wires switched somewhere. Are you mixing various pickups in there? possibly they've wired it wrong to keep the phase relationship between them right (which is a crappy bodge).

No its not quite that harsh of a sound. more like a cable that isnt plugged in yet. its more of a loud buzz. I'm thinking that things might have been wired incorrectly for 2 reasons:

1) its a traditional les paul style electronics setup with an additional mini toggle for coil tap function. The gfs fat pat pickups are a set and were wired for coil tap ability.

2) *Hopefully someone can clarify this part for me... but I have heard folks say GFS use a different wiring method??? They included a wiring diagram with the pickups so I wonder if the tech just did something different. before starting the thread I wondered if the neck was out of phase.

[SpaceTrucker]

when I get a cell phone call my amp starts beeping like r2d2

[justinhedrick]

when I get a cell phone call my amp starts beeping like r2d2

me too. at&t by chance???

[Mr. Foxen]

GFS, as far as I recall, use the same wiring colours as Dimarzio, but they might not represent the same thing, so tech could have wired it according to dimarzio colour scheme.

[bitter]

Yeah they mention something along those lines in the included diagram. I called them and they're gonna look into it. as you roll off the neck tone pot the hum gets worse, so it could be a junk pot.

Thanks for the help everyone.

[bitter]

Took it back in and they did some research too. It took a couple of tries, but it turned out to be a grounding issue on the neck. The tech said he followed the wiring guide I provided (which we consulted again yesterday), and it looks the guide was mislabeled or missing something. Its a lot better than stock now and the coil taps actually sound pretty good. Def a different tone than the stocks tapped as they really just reduced low end.

Thanks to everyone that chimed in 

[jibberish]

when I get a cell phone call my amp starts beeping like r2d2

if my cell is on top of the stereo rack, i can hear the the call coming in before the phone rings..that is a little radio transceiver and that shit crawls into everything that is close enough to get the concentrated energy from th ephone. so it also affects plain old stereos. when i am playing or especially recording, the phone goes in the other room.

energy falls off with the square of the distance. this is why i NEVER CARRY MY CELLPHONE IN MY POCKET IF POSSIBLE or turn it off for a bit like in the store.
at a couple mm distance, the energy from the phone is pretty intense. fuck that. that phone transceiver is strong enough to reach a tower, and at a mile or several miles, the square of the distance vs 2mm is boucoup orders of magnitude smaller energy at the tower YET STILL STRONG enough to establish comms. so imagine what it is with the antenna against your skin more or less.....

all phones work in a similar fashion so the carrier company really shouldn't matter.

[bitter]

yeah I ditch my phone when going to a store. Both for the reasons you mentioned but also so it wont share the same pocket as my keys and get scratched. Plus, Anything in the right pocket makes it difficult to play sitting down.