I have been chasing a crazy loud buzz for days, and came across this video. I had no issues up until recently, and the problem persisted between multiple amps, guitars, cables, etc. So I went into my garage and experimented with my body to figure out if that was the issue, and sure enough it was. Turns out, when it got hot this summer I decided to play barefoot. If I put my sandals on however, boom no buzz. I could literally touch a bare foot to the concrete and it buzzes, take it off and it stops. Thanks so much for this, saved me who knows how much time and money trying to fix it!
Im new to playing electric guitar as I've played acoustic for years .. I got my first electric guitar and amp yesterday and the hum was driving me crazy.. the second I touched the strings or the guitar the humming stopped .. this video saved me from ripping my walls apart thinking it was my outlets
I don't know. Since your guitar is so perfectly grounded, doesn't this only show that there are secondary factors playing a role? A maxed out distortion pedal introduces a lot of self-noise, yes. And your body will always act as ground, that is basic electronics. Why didn't you just walk away from the guitar to show the difference? That to me would be a much stronger proof. As I said, I don't know. This raises more questions than it answers.
@00- , you have a defective amplifier! This is a very dangerous situation! You should *never* be able to "feel" electricity on the strings. If one hand (or both) is on the strings or metal hardware of the guitar, and you happen to put your lips to a microphone, or you're standing barefoot on a concrete basement or garage floor, or you touch a water faucet and a sink, or anything else that has an earth ground, The voltage leaking out from your amplifier will try to pass through the guitar strings and through your body and 2 whatever grounded object you are otherwise touching. You could easily be electrocuted. Does your amplifier have a grounded cord with the round 3rd pin? If it doesn't, or if it originally had one but somebody removed it, then not only does that need to be to be repaired or replaced so that you have a ground to the amplifier again, but whatever is leaking voltage inside the amp to the metal chassis and therefore to the guitar strings will need to be repaired. If it is a vintage tube type amplifier it might have a defective coupling capacitor from the power cord to the chassis, of the type that is sometimes referred to sarcastically as a "death cap". If the amplifier has a ground switch or polarity switch, then it almost certainly has one of these capacitors and the amp's interior wiring will need to be upgraded for safety. Worse yet, it could be a "Widowmaker" amplifier, with a Transformer-less power supply circuit sometimes referred to as an AC/DC circuit ( Which has nothing to do with the famous rock band). These amplifiers have no power transformer and the only transformer you will see on the chassis will be a small output transformer that feeds the speaker. These things are highly dangerous and generally not worth putting the effort or money into to make them electrically safe. Not to mention that the audio output power is invariably less than 2 Watts, tone quality generally isn't very good, and they are noisy and buzzy by design. If it has weird tubes such as a 50C5 or a 50L6 and a 35Volt rectifier like a 35W4 then it is definitely a "widow maker" type amplifier and you really don't want anything to do with it. Amplifiers of this type can no longer be manufactured because they don't meet electrical code and they are extremely unsafe.
@00- , feeling electricity on the strings is *not normal*, regardless of the guitar, the type of pickups or the internal wiring. You never said what amp you're using. If you plugged directly into the amp (no pedals or effects) and felt juice on the strings, something ain't right. Here's something to try ---- plug the amp into a modern kitchen or bathroom plug that has a GFCI ground fault interruptor built in (sircuit breaker buttons on the outlet). If it trips, you've got a problem, if it doesn't, you're safe. Or don't. But even stubborn people who refuse to use common sense and logic to solve a problem don't deserve to get electrocuted.
@00- it doesn't matter. A faultily wired guitar can hum and buzz like a banshee but it can't put voltage on the guitar strings because it doesn't contain a power supply. Only an amplifier can do that. I've got 50 years of electronics repair experience, including fixing many defective guitar amps, both tube and solid state. My experience and instincts tell me if you're feeling an electrical tingle, somethings wrong. Regardless, do what you want, but stay safe!
I used to do a bike-powered 12v PA system for small hippy festivals. No mains anywhere near, no inverters, FOH, monitors all 12v car amp kit, even built guitar & bass amps using 12v amps. No hum. ;-)
I recently moved homes and immediately noticed electrical noise coming through my amp. At my previous home there almost no electrical noise. I took my guitar and amp to my neighbors house and there was almost no noise. I have tried expensive cables, surge protectors with emi/Rfi filters and different electrical outlets with no success. I then purchased a wall plug tester and checked every outlet. I found 2 outlets and 1 wall switch wired incorrectly and 1 outlet that was half faulty. After I corrected the wiring and replaced 1 outlet the noise was substantially reduced.
@@Ilikefreibier the neutral and hot wire were reversed. Reversed polarity. Yes it works but the risk of getting shocked is increased.The ground was correct.
@@Ilikefreibier I am not an electrician. Yes A.C. still works no matter which way it is wired but there is a correct way to wire it. The tester identified the incorrect wiring. I am sure the wall switch being wired incorrectly was a bigger problem. I believe the LED light it controls was the root cause for the noise. I suspect it was back feeding interference into the wiring.
After months of trying to solve my "buzz" problem it was a neutral to ground fault in the house wiring. Ground faults create EMF. I purchased an EMF meter and saw high magnetic fields on the meter that were unexplainable and seemed to move around. Another thing to keep in mind is if your main breaker panel is grounded to the city water supply it might also be a source of the problem. If your neighbor has a neutral to ground fault and is also grounded to the city water supply then they might be the cause of EMF.
You need a grounded copper foil shield in the guitar cavity on the side closest to your body. That will stop 90% of the coupling. I've done it to all my guitars that have this problem and it shuts the noise down instantly.
I had an odd situation related to this recently: New guitar was making random crackling noises. After investigating, it was triggered by body contact with the back cover plate. When I opened the cavity, it turned out someone had painted the cavity with conductive shielding paint but failed to paint the top edge, which would make contact with the cover plate that had some conductive foil attached. So they had turned the guitar cavity into a giant capacitor instead of a Faraday cage lol. I put some aluminum foil on the top edge of the cavity as a quick fix and it removed the noise.
In my case, I replaced a stuck tone pot for my Washburn guitar. This was a tone pot with push/pull coil tap which got stuck so I need to replace it. What I found out surprisingly was that if the pot body touched the wood in the install position there would be wierd noise coming out when plugging the guitar to the amp. I need to open the back plate up and reinstall the pot so that no part of it touch the wood. I had to twist the pot a little before tightening to do that. I thought oh! the factory might paint the inside with certain kind of conductive paint. As for the ground noise which goes away when we touch the strings or metal part of the guitar. It goes away because the electric charge can go to ground thru our body. This is happenning all the times in Thailand where I live. The problem is the wiring in most older houses are not grounded. The power outlet has only 2 holes no 3rd hole for ground. So, I put a copper ground rod about 1.7 meter long into my front yard and wire it to my wall outlet with 3 hole socket and change my amp power plug to 3 prong with ground wire connected to the Amp chassis.
Very informative. I have a Telecaster that exhibits this problem. When I touch the strings or the metal volume/tone knobs, the hum goes away. I was just about to crack it open and check all the wires, etc. But I did your test of touching a metal pedal on my board and touching a metal input jack on an amp I am not plugged into, and the hum stopped. Thanks for saving me the trouble a lot of wasted time debugging the issue!
One thing I still don't understand. You say you have a telecaster that has this problem. But the point of the video was that it is a problem with your house, not the guitar. So how come only your tele has that problem? And if other guitars don't, then the tele should be fixed to match the other guitars?
The ultimate test would be to take the guitar off and stand at the other side of the room. Removing yourself from the equation. That would actually prove that nothing else in your home's circuit could be causing the issue. Touching part of your ground loop is indeed grounding yourself, but could also be cancelling noise from another appliance by using the body's resistor capabilities, hence removing yourself from the equation is the way for it to be 100% conclusive. I might be wrong, though...
I did just this after watching the video. I had a buzz going on, I took my guitar off and placed it on a sofa, no buzz, I put the guitar back on and the buzz came back.
So glad u made this video. U helped me greatly. I've been contemplating what was happening when I was getting all this buzz but yet it would go away when I would touch the strings. I couldn't find anyone addressing this until I ran across your video. Before I watched this I was already contemplating that it may not be a ground issue though I wasn't 100% sure. When I watched your video u it became clear...I really appreciate your knowledge.
im learning some noise is normal but recently ive noticed, specially with the tone knob up, this type of clicking or popping sound when i first put a finger on a string, its honestly distracting. im guessing its not a ground issue but im not sure what to do about this, its the same behavior with different guitars and amps in my apartment
Thank you for posting this, the noise has stopped me from even wanting to record anything because I always felt it was going to sound horrible, good to know its just normal and Its not too much to worry about 🤙
New les paul. So much noise. Only partially diminished when touching the guitar. Another no name les paul type guitar is perfectly silent. But it doesn't cut the distortion when rolling back the knob.
@@DianaTR00 not yet ! from all the research on internet, apparently its all the frequencies from other electricals in the room like lights that the guitar is picking up and making it noisy.
There’s radio waves all around, so if it’s not picking up your body’s immediate waves it’s getting something else. You ever pick up the radio station through your pickups ??? Lol
@@J.C.Ky.ridgerunner1955 I painted my pickup cavities with conductive paint and put shielding tape on the back of the plastic covers. It completely solved my problem, and now my guitar is dead silent with hands off or on.
Okay, this is all great, but why does only one of my guitars do this? All humbuckers. There still has to be something wrong with the guitar, or something that can be changed, seeing as how none of my other guitars do this!
This isn't proof of anything other than the amp you touched is sharing the same ground as your guitar. If this is the case, then touching that amp would be the same as touching the bridge of the guitar. I suspect your guitar does indeed have a grounding issue that you have missed.
Thank you so much for this video. I had exactly this problem of unwanted noise which was making a great guitar and amp almost unusable. I was getting a bit despondent listening to your explanations because I couldn't see what the solutions might be. Then you mentioned the magic word "dimmers". The ceiling light in my practice room has a dimmer switch and that turned out to be the issue. With guitar strapped on and loads of unwanted noise, I turned the light off and, bingo, the unwanted noise went away and I was left with a great guitar and amp sound. So I went to my local electrical store today and bought a regular on/off light switch to replace the dimmer switch. The result is total guitar karma. So thanks again for your great video.
The noise issue changes depending on where you are? So you can’t be the source of the noise now can you if that’s the case. The source of your noise is electrical noise either from your electrical outlet or other electronics outside of your control like your neighbours heat pump or hot tub.
This is the most helpful video I watched in a long time. The buzz was driving me crazy, it appeared when I did not touch the bridge or the strings. I resoldered everything and even made sure the guitar is fine with a multimeter. But the buzz was still there. Then I saw this video and understood the problem. I went on installing shielding in the cavity and now it is dead silent. Thanks for sharing.
I've just bought a Gibson Les Paul standard 60's and it has this issue. Why is it that I can plug in my 30 year old Epiphone Les Paul and it doesn't hum at all? Why is it that my American strat has a hum constantly, but it doesn't go away when I touch the metal parts?
hi , i have the opposite problem , same noise but it only happens if i play chug power chords with heavy palm muting , or touch the strings .. if i lay my hand across the strings i get the buzz for a second & then its gone until i play heavy palm muting which brings it back while im playing is there a fix to this ? ive tried different guitars etc & just use an fm3 for home recording thank you
@@3000KTM if you have a noise gate active on the FM3 that could explain why the noise disappears after a second. The noise gate is kicking in. If with the completely clean tone, no distortion, you have an obvious increase in noise when you touch the strings, that would suggest there is a grounding issue on the guitar.
I'm lazy and didn't want to take apart and shield my bass that I only use for DI recording, so: If you have a similar issue, where your guitar buzzes mildly but stops when you touch the strings, and you just need a quick fix to record a track, tape one end of a spare aux cord to something metal on the guitar and stick the other end in your shoe, against your foot (touching skin), or where ever else you want to stick it, I won't judge. You're effectively now always touching the guitar and you can get that track recorded and move on. Edit - I actually tape the aux cord to the metal end of the cable that I'm using, so it's not technically *on* the guitar. Don't be pedantic.
How to interpret if it's getting noisy while touching the humbuckers? I an hear quiet buzz normally but it's getting loud when touching the currently active humbucker.
Hey, thanks for the video and explanation of the problem. Question: what if the noise doesn't even depend on the pickup? I have it both on single coils and humbucker. (Fun fact: the bridge humbucker + the middle pickup make less noise that the humbucker itself with autosplit wiring; same with neck + middle single) I'm currently plugged into the soundcard that doesn't have a ground pin on its plug and it goes into the laptop that's connected to the mains properly having three pins, so it definitely has grounding. So I used your tip with touching different parts of the chain: I touch the soundcard's case made of metal the noise gets slightly suppressed, touching the laptop helps even more in combination with the previous action. I actually blame the audio interface not having the ground pin. BUT. When I plug in a Squier Affinity Strat this higher hiss is way lower. I'm confused a bit.
@@CharvelLloydNS it’s really hard to diagnose something like this without being in the room with it. But if the full humbucker is making more noise than split coil plus a single coil I think there’s a problem with the humbucker or the wiring. In general, I wouldn’t be looking for faults in the audio interface either. It’s possible, of course, but low probability. It may be a good idea to bring your guitars to a professional to have their wiring checked out and ensure that the cavities are correctly shielded. It may help the situation, and even if it doesn’t make a much difference to the actual noise, you’d have peace of mind that everything is done correctly and working as intended. Try asking pro musicians and music teachers in your area who they trust with their instruments and go to them.
Hello I never had background/static noise but now all of a sudden, my two guitars have it. When I turn to my right / left the sound increases. I literally went to the woods with a multiprocessor unit powered by batteries and the pickups of the two guitars behave the same way than when I am at home. The strange thing is that I didn't have this problem before and I changed nothing in the house. Some days ago, there was a storm, I really don’t know what to do. Thx!
I don't think the storm had anything to do with. Possible likely a electrical transformer somewhere near your house? If you can find, call your electric supply people and ask them to fix it. It's often a fixable fault. The direction you face when the noise is at its strongest is the direction to look (either directly in front or behind you).
Im bougth a new cable instrument for doing an DI my acoustic guitar that have an amp on it, when im connecting to my audio interface (steinberg ur 22mkii i was gain the volume up i become buzz very loud too) but when i touche the metal on the jack it goes down when i put off my hand it goes noisess again what should i do?😢
I'm sorry but that's not the kind of thing I can diagnose over the internet, I would need to have the instrument in front of me. Contact the guitar manufacturer or the preamp manufacturer and see if they have any ideas.
Hi guys, I am a 13 year old guitarist, who owns an ibanez 121 par kbf, is in a big problem, which could also lead me into leaving Guitar; the problem is that, whenever I use the volume pot on my axe it starts humming and a buzz sound starts coming out of it, this sound does not come when the pot is turned all the way up or all the way down but only occurs when the pot is in the middle, pls help me if you have any explanation or any other similar experience... Thankyou. I went to a guitar tech to get this fixed, but when he played throught his amp, he said that there was no such noise he could hear. But when I brought it hone and plugged it into my setup which consists of a Bluetooth speaker and a multi FX processor, the noise was there. He suggested me to come back again at his shop on 27 of March with my processor and the lead wires that I use as they're also not very quality.
Good question! However, it's not necessary if the cavity is fully shielded. Example, if you correctly shield the walls, floor, and ceiling of a room you are in, shielding the ceiling of room below really won't make much difference.
Holy crap. This is so wrong I barely know where to start! The hum and buzz doesn't come from your body. It is indeed passing through you but your body is not the source of the noise. Your body does not generate this noise on its own. It is the result of electrical and magnetic fields "floating" around you everywhere; both natural electrical, magnetic and radio fields generated by the Earth and the sun and the weather, and those generated by the electrical wiring in your house and radio transmissions occurring simultaneously on all conceivable frequencies. All of that stuff is essentially "referenced" to and looking for a path to ground. The human body has both resistance and capacitance and also makes a pretty good antenna. Unless you are standing inside a Faraday cage (a specially shielded, radio secure room, seen in spy movies), your body is picking up, resonating with and even re-radiating all of this crap. When you get near the guitar, your body radiates this noise into the pickups and wiring (high-impedance circuits like the coils of pickups, and the preamp input circuits of amplifiers and effects pedals, in a way that low-impedance microphones and mixer circuits are not). When you actually touch the strings of the guitar, the electrical noise that your body is functioning as an antenna for gets dumped to ground and canceled out. This is assuming that the guitar is properly wired, the strings and metal hardware are all electrically connected to ground (through the shield of guitar cable back to the amplifier chassis, which must have some kind of ground reference); and assuming that good shielding practices are used throughout (which many guitars are not, especially if inexperienced guitarists have been changing their own pickups or doing other work inside the guitar). Single coil pickups do tend to be prone to picking up electrical noise (though good wiring and shielding can minimize this ---- I have a Tele that I shielded which is surprisingly quiet ); humbucking pickups utilize two coils of opposite polarity and so any electrical noise picked up by one coil is also picked up *out of phase* in the other coil and so the noise tends to cancel itself out (like a car with the front wheels spinning one way and the rear wheels spinning in the opposite direction). Humbucking pickups also have more capacitance then single coil pickups and so they tend to roll off some of the high frequencies, making buzz a bit less noticeable. Now, when you are sitting right next to your friggin' amplifier, surprise surprise: the magnetic fields from the amp are going to be radiated into your body and into your guitar! Duh!!!! Even well shielded humbuckers are likely to pick up noise from the nearby power transformers of your amp, whether the amp is tube or solid state. Also, trying to track down the source of the noise with a bunch of pedals connected us futile unless you have first plugged the guitar directly into the amp to make sure it's not a guitar-wiring problem; plus you need to turn off nearby lighting, dimmers, heaters, appliances etc and see if the noise is lessened. Try the amp and guitar in several other rooms. Try it at someone else's house! Once you're certain that the problem isn't from the amp, the guitar, and the electrical system around, then and only then can you add a pedal, or pedals plural, into the system, one at a time, to see what happens to the noise level. NEVER attach a ground wire from your body to the guitar, the amp, or any other device. Your body could become the permanent path to ground for high voltage if your amp or any other nearby audio device or electrical appliance is defective. NEVER. At least your hands might fall off of and away from the guitar strings and hardware if you get zapped. I sure hope so.
Not really, physics/mother nature just doesn't work that way. Faraday cages are less effective as the frequency gets lower and at audio frequencies are very low in the grand scheme of electromagnetic things. There are some ways to make improvements but they are small compared to the expense and/or added difficulty.
I just want to add that if you have issues like that, don't use coated strings like Elixirs etc, as the coating adds a significant resistance and when you touch the strings the grounding is not that efficient as with uncoated strings. And fr such "airborn" noise sources shielding of electronic cavity in the guitar helps as well. It will not remove the noise, but it will reduce the amplification of noise that guitar is picking from your body. E.g. when I put unshielded guitar closer to my body, this type of noise gets worse, but not with the shielded guitar.
I thought it was my cable. Got a new one, still buzzes when metal isn't touched by me. I can touch the metal on my amp, a line 6 spider 75 watt, and it stops the buzzing. All my guitars do it. I'm convinced it's the amp at this point.
Try piano? But seriously, something is very wrong in your amplifier or other equipment that I cannot diagnose from here. You should get a professional to figure out the problem.
Thanks for the video! Please help. Why dose my guitar hum alot when even at 0 volume? And my other guitar doesn't hum at 0 volume most is at 10-80% volume but less at 100%? But everything is completely silence when I use battery from pedal. I do use a battery powered speaker. Im so confused I use a 1 spot power supply..
@@AhrnNilsson Hi Ahrn. One of your guitars almost certainly has a wiring problem or faulty volume pot that needs to be fixed. The other one might do also, or the one spot may be faulty, I cannot diagnose over the Internet. You need to bring them to a professional and have them checked out.
@@DrKevGuitar Hi again I have tried a lot of things new cables and power supply. It hums only on bridge pickup. So I guess there a problem somewhere in that circuit the neck is completely silent even with distortion...
Thanks man. I was double-checking myself, and the amount of disinformation on the internet was driving me nuts. I DO have a ground problem, touching something that should be grounded has no effect.
Can you explain what’s creepy about that? Many musicians name their instruments, and some refer to their investments with the pronouns that match the gender of the name. And in many languages all nouns are gendered and so objects are always referred to with the appropriate he/she pronouns and adjectives. Example: in France, where I currently live, a guitar is always “la guitare”, never “le guitar”. “Elle est belle” (she is lovely) is the grammatically correct way to compliment someone’s instrument. Modern English does not generally do this but there are some carryovers from past times, e.g. referring to ships, cars, aircraft as “she”.
Maybe but not perfectly. As I said in the video, my guitars are perfectly shielded. BUT, remember that the pickups are poking out of a hole in the shielding. Nothing can be done about that.
I just installed some “noiseless single coils” and had this happen to me. When I touched the handle on my amp the sound disappeared and I wasn’t sure if it was my soldering, or if some wire was touching something it shouldn’t be. Now (thanks to your video) I know what it is👍🏻.
Yes, though, I’m not sure if its particularly convenient. Then again, many people here in the comment section have done exactly that, or some homebrew version of it. The best/first course of action should be trying to find the source of the noise, as I said many times in other comment replies. It’s going to be an appliance, maybe an old computer monitor or TV, Transformer, fluorescent, lighting, or dimmer switch, etc find it switch it off.
Really interesting. However, I have 3 identical home-made lap steels, all with identical electronics and aluminum bridges screwed into the wood, (not grounded to anything). Only one of them buzzes and touching anything metal stops the noise, including touching the non-connected bridge after taking strings off. Any ideas?
Clearly, if only one of them buzzes, one of them is not identical. Sadly, no, unless I had them on a bench in front of me, there is no way I can diagnose it.
thank you kevin! ive had this problem for YEARS and have searched the whole internet for thi but i havent found anything as clear as this… thanks for this video!
You watched a whole video to not get the point? C'mon! Though you get bonus points for the apostrophe on "c'mon". Good punctuation my friend! But seriously, the point is that the noise is NOT due to a wiring fault on the guitar. It's an external noise source and the solution is to hunt it down and eliminate it. Or a noise gate. Or move to a different location.
My guitar is relatively quite. I used a continuity tester and tested all metal parts and I have good continuity between all metal parts. I checked all my solder joints for continuity and they are excellent and have a bright shiny ball appearance, it all looks good. However, I have a slight background buzz. If I tough the strings, output jack or bridge with my hand, the noise goes away completely. I know I’m late to the party here but Is this normal or is there something more I can check that can be amiss?
The answer is in the video, my friend. That’s totally normal. The noise going away is a sign of a good ground connection. Remember our guitar pick ups are basically giant antennas wound up into a small package. Eliminating all noise, with a lot of distortion, is exceptionally difficult. sounds to be like your guitar is great. Enjoy!
@@DrKevGuitar yes, thank you. I moved the guitar to another amp in another room. No hum sound whatsoever, totally silent. Switched cables, all is good. I must have been acting as an antenna in my living room where many electronic devices live. Good lesson too learn, was driving me nuts. Thank again!
Sorry Richie but thats a hard no. I’ve been doing this a long time my friend. If I tell you there are no ground issues then you can be 100% sure that’s the case.
Please don't take it the wrong way. I have guitars that have the same problems and others that don't. Connected to the same amplifier, some make that noise and others don't, and the person's body is the same. I've been working professionally and fixing my own guitars since 1999, I'm just telling you this so you can see that I know what I'm talking about.
Ok, in this case, it sounds like a ground loop because there are two different physical electronic devices involved that are connected together. Have a look at this... ruclips.net/video/4YM1iwC6vhg/видео.html
@@DrKevGuitar Alright I don't even know what's happening anymore, I hooked my amp up to my stereo system and the music is coming out perfectly, however for some reason it doesn't play any sound from my guitar, I've tried 3 separate guitars and none of them produced any sound. I've never been so confused in my life
Good video. However, I have two new Squier Telecaster Deluxe models. One purple and one black. The purple one buzzes like crazy until I touch any metal on it yet the black one does not. It is silent by comparison!! Any thoughts?
I have 5 guitars and one of them is so bad that I can't really put the effort to play it. I don't see anything wrong with it either. The other guitars are pretty silent.
This is a great video and helped me as a starting place. Hilariously, I took jumper cables and attached it to conduit in the studio. Then I attached the other end to a metal stand. Then I took my bare foot and touched the base of the stand. And now I was grounded hahahaha.
Ha ha! If it works, it works! Just make sure the conduit has a correct ground and not into a device/appliance that could have a wiring fault. Thanks for your comment!
Ok, how about this: I have two Fender Telecasters. Both have identical Fender Noiseless pickups. One makes a buzz unless I touch the strings, metal parts, etc. The other makes no buzz at all, it is dead quite whether I’m touching it or not. Explain that.
Thanks man, I just got a new Gibson standard SG and thought it was the guitar. I left my guitars on the stand, and tested this by touching various metal objects in my room, turns out it's me lol
I was about to argue... then in the course of trying a different outlet i unplugged my plasma tv by accident when trying to unplug my amp... the buzzing stopped. Touche my friend. Touche.
I had exactly the same problem, drove me crazy! I took the pickup out to trash it and decided to try this. I soldered an extra ground to the back of my pickup (a humbucker), and just for laughs, wrapped it in aluminum foil. NO MORE NOISE!
Finally someone who can think clearly instead of deeply! This is as logical as it gets! As usual: Nature's logic is inverse to human logic! Reverse our thinking and we start getting stuff right!
Ok! But I have a paradox. There are two guitars, one is homemade, made of pine boards and cheap spare parts from Aliexpress, Open humbuckers, noise at high gain - 24 dB. And then there's the Harley Benton SC-550. The noise level on the same path is -12 dB. I replaced the pickups with open ones with the brand name humbuckers - noise, bought others on Ali humbuckers with covers, noise -12 dB. Bridge, strings, switch - everything shows 0 on the ground wire. It's just the cry of my soul! I do not know what else to do... Thanks!
Thank you! From your explanation, I found my buzz wasn't a ground problem with my guitar; it was a ground problem with my electrical outlet! I plugged my amp into a different electrical outlet and the buzz was 10x quieter.
you know what i did since i have no money, I attached a wire to the input jack using the screw that was connected to the jack then removed the other end of the wire and stick it to the part where i rest my arm so it connects to my skin while I play open strings
Hey man, When I increase the tone on my Gibson les paul tribute in overdrive , my guitar makes noise . But when I turn down the guitar tone and increase the amp tone my guitar does not make noise. Is it a grounding issue?? Please answer. Thanks
Obviously, without your guitar in front of me I can’t say for certain but noise decreasing when we turn down the tone control on the guitar is normal (the tone control is getting rid of the most audible frequencies of the noise). I don’t know what’s causing your noise, but it seems like the guitar circuit is functioning correctly.
Thank you. I tried to re-solder my new SD Hot Stack set for about 6 times… Thought it was a grounding problem. I just don’t understand why SD promotes those pickups as Noiseless (humcancelling) on their website? This leads to wrong expectations and disappointment 😢
I have a squier tele that's particularly bad compared to all my other guitars, very loud buzz until i touch metal. I changed the pots and put a 4 way switch, im not sure If i did some thing when i changed that, but i don't remember it buzzing this way before. It has cover ground, i resoldered all my grounds, doubled checked them, guitar has shielding, buzzes no matter what location im at(tried at home and the local shop), even two guitar techs checked my wiring. Could it be these specific pick ups or pots? Im thinking of changing them but i want to stick with medium output single coils.
My Gibson SG Standard 61 has this problem for a long time! It really turns me freak. I decide try to use a wire to connect my body to one of metal parts on the guitar. So weird.
This was not my problem😭the problem of my guitar that if I use the mid, mid + bridge , and neck is grounding or its buzzing humming and etc , while if I used neck and bridges is the only one is not buzzing😭
I have been chasing a crazy loud buzz for days, and came across this video. I had no issues up until recently, and the problem persisted between multiple amps, guitars, cables, etc. So I went into my garage and experimented with my body to figure out if that was the issue, and sure enough it was. Turns out, when it got hot this summer I decided to play barefoot. If I put my sandals on however, boom no buzz. I could literally touch a bare foot to the concrete and it buzzes, take it off and it stops. Thanks so much for this, saved me who knows how much time and money trying to fix it!
Im new to playing electric guitar as I've played acoustic for years .. I got my first electric guitar and amp yesterday and the hum was driving me crazy.. the second I touched the strings or the guitar the humming stopped .. this video saved me from ripping my walls apart thinking it was my outlets
I don't know. Since your guitar is so perfectly grounded, doesn't this only show that there are secondary factors playing a role? A maxed out distortion pedal introduces a lot of self-noise, yes. And your body will always act as ground, that is basic electronics. Why didn't you just walk away from the guitar to show the difference? That to me would be a much stronger proof. As I said, I don't know. This raises more questions than it answers.
THANK YOU! This was one of the clearest video's on youtube I've seen in a while, great slow and steady, but not too slow explanations.
Thank you for taking the time to comment!
@00- , you have a defective amplifier! This is a very dangerous situation! You should *never* be able to "feel" electricity on the strings. If one hand (or both) is on the strings or metal hardware of the guitar, and you happen to put your lips to a microphone, or you're standing barefoot on a concrete basement or garage floor, or you touch a water faucet and a sink, or anything else that has an earth ground, The voltage leaking out from your amplifier will try to pass through the guitar strings and through your body and 2 whatever grounded object you are otherwise touching. You could easily be electrocuted. Does your amplifier have a grounded cord with the round 3rd pin? If it doesn't, or if it originally had one but somebody removed it, then not only does that need to be to be repaired or replaced so that you have a ground to the amplifier again, but whatever is leaking voltage inside the amp to the metal chassis and therefore to the guitar strings will need to be repaired.
If it is a vintage tube type amplifier it might have a defective coupling capacitor from the power cord to the chassis, of the type that is sometimes referred to sarcastically as a "death cap". If the amplifier has a ground switch or polarity switch, then it almost certainly has one of these capacitors and the amp's interior wiring will need to be upgraded for safety. Worse yet, it could be a "Widowmaker" amplifier, with a Transformer-less power supply circuit sometimes referred to as an AC/DC circuit ( Which has nothing to do with the famous rock band). These amplifiers have no power transformer and the only transformer you will see on the chassis will be a small output transformer that feeds the speaker. These things are highly dangerous and generally not worth putting the effort or money into to make them electrically safe. Not to mention that the audio output power is invariably less than 2 Watts, tone quality generally isn't very good, and they are noisy and buzzy by design. If it has weird tubes such as a 50C5 or a 50L6 and a 35Volt rectifier like a 35W4 then it is definitely a "widow maker" type amplifier and you really don't want anything to do with it. Amplifiers of this type can no longer be manufactured because they don't meet electrical code and they are extremely unsafe.
@00- , feeling electricity on the strings is *not normal*, regardless of the guitar, the type of pickups or the internal wiring. You never said what amp you're using. If you plugged directly into the amp (no pedals or effects) and felt juice on the strings, something ain't right. Here's something to try ---- plug the amp into a modern kitchen or bathroom plug that has a GFCI ground fault interruptor built in (sircuit breaker buttons on the outlet). If it trips, you've got a problem, if it doesn't, you're safe. Or don't. But even stubborn people who refuse to use common sense and logic to solve a problem don't deserve to get electrocuted.
@00- it doesn't matter. A faultily wired guitar can hum and buzz like a banshee but it can't put voltage on the guitar strings because it doesn't contain a power supply. Only an amplifier can do that. I've got 50 years of electronics repair experience, including fixing many defective guitar amps, both tube and solid state. My experience and instincts tell me if you're feeling an electrical tingle, somethings wrong. Regardless, do what you want, but stay safe!
I used to do a bike-powered 12v PA system for small hippy festivals. No mains anywhere near, no inverters, FOH, monitors all 12v car amp kit, even built guitar & bass amps using 12v amps. No hum. ;-)
I recently moved homes and immediately noticed electrical noise coming through my amp. At my previous home there almost no electrical noise. I took my guitar and amp to my neighbors house and there was almost no noise. I have tried expensive cables, surge protectors with emi/Rfi filters and different electrical outlets with no success. I then purchased a wall plug tester and checked every outlet. I found 2 outlets and 1 wall switch wired incorrectly and 1 outlet that was half faulty. After I corrected the wiring and replaced 1 outlet the noise was substantially reduced.
How can an outlet be wired incorrectly? Like there's only 3 cables to connect, no?
@@Ilikefreibier the neutral and hot wire were reversed. Reversed polarity. Yes it works but the risk of getting shocked is increased.The ground was correct.
@@solkinar I don't see how that could affect the noise, I mean with AC it doesn't matter which way it's connected... Correct me if I'm wrong
@@Ilikefreibier I am not an electrician. Yes A.C. still works no matter which way it is wired but there is a correct way to wire it. The tester identified the incorrect wiring. I am sure the wall switch being wired incorrectly was a bigger problem. I believe the LED light it controls was the root cause for the noise. I suspect it was back feeding interference into the wiring.
After months of trying to solve my "buzz" problem it was a neutral to ground fault in the house wiring. Ground faults create EMF. I purchased an EMF meter and saw high magnetic fields on the meter that were unexplainable and seemed to move around. Another thing to keep in mind is if your main breaker panel is grounded to the city water supply it might also be a source of the problem. If your neighbor has a neutral to ground fault and is also grounded to the city water supply then they might be the cause of EMF.
You need a grounded copper foil shield in the guitar cavity on the side closest to your body. That will stop 90% of the coupling. I've done it to all my guitars that have this problem and it shuts the noise down instantly.
My guitars are fully shielded.
I had an odd situation related to this recently: New guitar was making random crackling noises. After investigating, it was triggered by body contact with the back cover plate. When I opened the cavity, it turned out someone had painted the cavity with conductive shielding paint but failed to paint the top edge, which would make contact with the cover plate that had some conductive foil attached. So they had turned the guitar cavity into a giant capacitor instead of a Faraday cage lol. I put some aluminum foil on the top edge of the cavity as a quick fix and it removed the noise.
In my case, I replaced a stuck tone pot for my Washburn guitar. This was a tone pot with push/pull coil tap which got stuck so I need to replace it.
What I found out surprisingly was that if the pot body touched the wood in the install position there would be wierd noise coming out when plugging the guitar to the amp. I need to open the back plate up and reinstall the pot so that no part of it touch the wood. I had to twist the pot a little before tightening to do that. I thought oh! the factory might paint the inside with certain kind of conductive paint.
As for the ground noise which goes away when we touch the strings or metal part of the guitar. It goes away because the electric charge can go to ground thru our body.
This is happenning all the times in Thailand where I live. The problem is the wiring in most older houses are not grounded. The power outlet has only 2 holes no 3rd hole for ground.
So, I put a copper ground rod about 1.7 meter long into my front yard and wire it to my wall outlet with 3 hole socket and change my amp power plug to 3 prong with ground wire connected to the Amp chassis.
Very informative. I have a Telecaster that exhibits this problem. When I touch the strings or the metal volume/tone knobs, the hum goes away. I was just about to crack it open and check all the wires, etc. But I did your test of touching a metal pedal on my board and touching a metal input jack on an amp I am not plugged into, and the hum stopped. Thanks for saving me the trouble a lot of wasted time debugging the issue!
One thing I still don't understand. You say you have a telecaster that has this problem. But the point of the video was that it is a problem with your house, not the guitar. So how come only your tele has that problem? And if other guitars don't, then the tele should be fixed to match the other guitars?
Set the guitar down and walk out of the room. If the buzz stops then it was your body. If it doesn't, back to square one
The ultimate test would be to take the guitar off and stand at the other side of the room. Removing yourself from the equation. That would actually prove that nothing else in your home's circuit could be causing the issue.
Touching part of your ground loop is indeed grounding yourself, but could also be cancelling noise from another appliance by using the body's resistor capabilities, hence removing yourself from the equation is the way for it to be 100% conclusive.
I might be wrong, though...
Mine does it still, even when I take off and leave on the couch.
@@jacquesmurdoch3599 have you tried a different guitar and cable?
im pretty sure that hum comes from a bad ground from the mains!
I did just this after watching the video. I had a buzz going on, I took my guitar off and placed it on a sofa, no buzz, I put the guitar back on and the buzz came back.
i have 3 guitars. 1 buzzes. AND buzzes by itself off the stand. so it must be grounding in my case.
So glad u made this video. U helped me greatly. I've been contemplating what was happening when I was getting all this buzz but yet it would go away when I would touch the strings. I couldn't find anyone addressing this until I ran across your video. Before I watched this I was already contemplating that it may not be a ground issue though I wasn't 100% sure. When I watched your video u it became clear...I really appreciate your knowledge.
Thanks for this!
I just spent an hour re-soldering everything and then decided to do some research.
Thanks for this!
im learning some noise is normal but recently ive noticed, specially with the tone knob up, this type of clicking or popping sound when i first put a finger on a string, its honestly distracting. im guessing its not a ground issue but im not sure what to do about this, its the same behavior with different guitars and amps in my apartment
Thank you for posting this, the noise has stopped me from even wanting to record anything because I always felt it was going to sound horrible, good to know its just normal and Its not too much to worry about 🤙
Its actually the exact opposite for me. My single coil strat is totally quiet whereas my les paul has this exact noise issue.
New les paul. So much noise. Only partially diminished when touching the guitar. Another no name les paul type guitar is perfectly silent. But it doesn't cut the distortion when rolling back the knob.
to me it's the same. my Strat is very quiet and my Les Paul is quite noisy. have you found any solution?
Strange, single coils tend to be more noisy than Humbuckers
@@DianaTR00 not yet ! from all the research on internet, apparently its all the frequencies from other electricals in the room like lights that the guitar is picking up and making it noisy.
@@DianaTR00 the solution is don't stop playing and play loud. 😆🤘 but yeah, I have 3 LP's and sometimes they drive me insane with the electrical noise!
I don't think the noise is being caused by your body. If you set the guitar down and leave the room, the sound doesn't improve.
It does for me. Does not vanish, but obviously drops.
Same issue. Even when my guitar is on its rack, it continues with annoying hum. Sorry, but there has to be another reason.
That's exactly what I said. Walk out of the room. See what happens. Wish I had an answer. Driving me crazy
There’s radio waves all around, so if it’s not picking up your body’s immediate waves it’s getting something else. You ever pick up the radio station through your pickups ??? Lol
@@J.C.Ky.ridgerunner1955 I painted my pickup cavities with conductive paint and put shielding tape on the back of the plastic covers. It completely solved my problem, and now my guitar is dead silent with hands off or on.
Okay, this is all great, but why does only one of my guitars do this? All humbuckers. There still has to be something wrong with the guitar, or something that can be changed, seeing as how none of my other guitars do this!
This isn't proof of anything other than the amp you touched is sharing the same ground as your guitar. If this is the case, then touching that amp would be the same as touching the bridge of the guitar. I suspect your guitar does indeed have a grounding issue that you have missed.
Thank you so much for this video. I had exactly this problem of unwanted noise which was making a great guitar and amp almost unusable. I was getting a bit despondent listening to your explanations because I couldn't see what the solutions might be. Then you mentioned the magic word "dimmers". The ceiling light in my practice room has a dimmer switch and that turned out to be the issue. With guitar strapped on and loads of unwanted noise, I turned the light off and, bingo, the unwanted noise went away and I was left with a great guitar and amp sound. So I went to my local electrical store today and bought a regular on/off light switch to replace the dimmer switch. The result is total guitar karma. So thanks again for your great video.
Awesome! So glad it worked out!
Take the guitar and set it on the stand away from you, does it still buzz?
what if the hum doesn't go away when you touch the strings but does go away when you touch the input jack and cable?
Yes, that absolutely could be a string/bridge ground issue. A continuity test with a multimeter would give you the answer to that instantly.
This video is great. I have the same issue with my Strat.
Update - it was the lights in my room. When I turn them off the buzz goes away!
The noise issue changes depending on where you are? So you can’t be the source of the noise now can you if that’s the case. The source of your noise is electrical noise either from your electrical outlet or other electronics outside of your control like your neighbours heat pump or hot tub.
So basically name of the game is good equipment grounding and good feet isolation?
I seem to have this problem until I turn my tone down. Once the tone is down the noise is just about gone.
@@brandonperry1016 that’s absolutely normal behavior. The tone control is affects everything that passes through the circuit. Including the noise.
But why does only one of my guitars buzz like that?
This is the most helpful video I watched in a long time. The buzz was driving me crazy, it appeared when I did not touch the bridge or the strings. I resoldered everything and even made sure the guitar is fine with a multimeter. But the buzz was still there. Then I saw this video and understood the problem. I went on installing shielding in the cavity and now it is dead silent. Thanks for sharing.
I've just bought a Gibson Les Paul standard 60's and it has this issue. Why is it that I can plug in my 30 year old Epiphone Les Paul and it doesn't hum at all? Why is it that my American strat has a hum constantly, but it doesn't go away when I touch the metal parts?
No solution except move?
hi , i have the opposite problem , same noise but it only happens if i play chug power chords with heavy palm muting , or touch the strings .. if i lay my hand across the strings i get the buzz for a second & then its gone until i play heavy palm muting which brings it back while im playing
is there a fix to this ?
ive tried different guitars etc & just use an fm3 for home recording
thank you
@@3000KTM if you have a noise gate active on the FM3 that could explain why the noise disappears after a second. The noise gate is kicking in. If with the completely clean tone, no distortion, you have an obvious increase in noise when you touch the strings, that would suggest there is a grounding issue on the guitar.
I'm lazy and didn't want to take apart and shield my bass that I only use for DI recording, so:
If you have a similar issue, where your guitar buzzes mildly but stops when you touch the strings, and you just need a quick fix to record a track, tape one end of a spare aux cord to something metal on the guitar and stick the other end in your shoe, against your foot (touching skin), or where ever else you want to stick it, I won't judge. You're effectively now always touching the guitar and you can get that track recorded and move on. Edit - I actually tape the aux cord to the metal end of the cable that I'm using, so it's not technically *on* the guitar. Don't be pedantic.
Decent tip actually
Good tip. But im gonna solder the aux to my nob just to be safe
@@jameslightningappleby Respect where it's due.
How to interpret if it's getting noisy while touching the humbuckers? I an hear quiet buzz normally but it's getting loud when touching the currently active humbucker.
If the hambucker is covered, the cover may not be grounded.
Hey, thanks for the video and explanation of the problem.
Question: what if the noise doesn't even depend on the pickup? I have it both on single coils and humbucker. (Fun fact: the bridge humbucker + the middle pickup make less noise that the humbucker itself with autosplit wiring; same with neck + middle single)
I'm currently plugged into the soundcard that doesn't have a ground pin on its plug and it goes into the laptop that's connected to the mains properly having three pins, so it definitely has grounding. So I used your tip with touching different parts of the chain: I touch the soundcard's case made of metal the noise gets slightly suppressed, touching the laptop helps even more in combination with the previous action. I actually blame the audio interface not having the ground pin. BUT. When I plug in a Squier Affinity Strat this higher hiss is way lower. I'm confused a bit.
@@CharvelLloydNS it’s really hard to diagnose something like this without being in the room with it. But if the full humbucker is making more noise than split coil plus a single coil I think there’s a problem with the humbucker or the wiring. In general, I wouldn’t be looking for faults in the audio interface either. It’s possible, of course, but low probability. It may be a good idea to bring your guitars to a professional to have their wiring checked out and ensure that the cavities are correctly shielded. It may help the situation, and even if it doesn’t make a much difference to the actual noise, you’d have peace of mind that everything is done correctly and working as intended. Try asking pro musicians and music teachers in your area who they trust with their instruments and go to them.
Hello I never had background/static noise but now all of a sudden, my two guitars have it. When I turn to my right / left the sound increases. I literally went to the woods with a multiprocessor unit powered by batteries and the pickups of the two guitars behave the same way than when I am at home. The strange thing is that I didn't have this problem before and I changed nothing in the house. Some days ago, there was a storm, I really don’t know what to do. Thx!
I don't think the storm had anything to do with. Possible likely a electrical transformer somewhere near your house? If you can find, call your electric supply people and ask them to fix it. It's often a fixable fault. The direction you face when the noise is at its strongest is the direction to look (either directly in front or behind you).
Im bougth a new cable instrument for doing an DI my acoustic guitar that have an amp on it, when im connecting to my audio interface (steinberg ur 22mkii i was gain the volume up i become buzz very loud too) but when i touche the metal on the jack it goes down when i put off my hand it goes noisess again what should i do?😢
I'm sorry but that's not the kind of thing I can diagnose over the internet, I would need to have the instrument in front of me. Contact the guitar manufacturer or the preamp manufacturer and see if they have any ideas.
Hi guys, I am a 13 year old guitarist, who owns an ibanez 121 par kbf, is in a big problem, which could also lead me into leaving Guitar; the problem is that, whenever I use the volume pot on my axe it starts humming and a buzz sound starts coming out of it, this sound does not come when the pot is turned all the way up or all the way down but only occurs when the pot is in the middle, pls help me if you have any explanation or any other similar experience... Thankyou.
I went to a guitar tech to get this fixed, but when he played throught his amp, he said that there was no such noise he could hear. But when I brought it hone and plugged it into my setup which consists of a Bluetooth speaker and a multi FX processor, the noise was there. He suggested me to come back again at his shop on 27 of March with my processor and the lead wires that I use as they're also not very quality.
This happens on all the guitars I wire myself. I test the connections and they're all perfect but it doesn't happen on any factory guitars I have.
can you just connect yourself to anything in the chain? list an ESD cable of some sort? @DrKevGuitar
Yes, you could.
DI box with a ground lift switch... works like a charm
No, in this case, it’s NOT a ground problem so ground lift switch won’t do anything.
THANKS! this as very informative for me. (heavy distortion player)
Oh maaaan! I really could have used this video about 30 years ago.
Thanks for sharing!
Has anyone tried shielding the backside of the guitar yet? Like via the backplate or maybe underneath the pickups?
Good question! However, it's not necessary if the cavity is fully shielded. Example, if you correctly shield the walls, floor, and ceiling of a room you are in, shielding the ceiling of room below really won't make much difference.
thanks for this. it double confirmed I have some elusive grounding problem.
Holy crap. This is so wrong I barely know where to start! The hum and buzz doesn't come from your body. It is indeed passing through you but your body is not the source of the noise. Your body does not generate this noise on its own. It is the result of electrical and magnetic fields "floating" around you everywhere; both natural electrical, magnetic and radio fields generated by the Earth and the sun and the weather, and those generated by the electrical wiring in your house and radio transmissions occurring simultaneously on all conceivable frequencies. All of that stuff is essentially "referenced" to and looking for a path to ground. The human body has both resistance and capacitance and also makes a pretty good antenna. Unless you are standing inside a Faraday cage (a specially shielded, radio secure room, seen in spy movies), your body is picking up, resonating with and even re-radiating all of this crap. When you get near the guitar, your body radiates this noise into the pickups and wiring (high-impedance circuits like the coils of pickups, and the preamp input circuits of amplifiers and effects pedals, in a way that low-impedance microphones and mixer circuits are not). When you actually touch the strings of the guitar, the electrical noise that your body is functioning as an antenna for gets dumped to ground and canceled out. This is assuming that the guitar is properly wired, the strings and metal hardware are all electrically connected to ground (through the shield of guitar cable back to the amplifier chassis, which must have some kind of ground reference); and assuming that good shielding practices are used throughout (which many guitars are not, especially if inexperienced guitarists have been changing their own pickups or doing other work inside the guitar).
Single coil pickups do tend to be prone to picking up electrical noise (though good wiring and shielding can minimize this ---- I have a Tele that I shielded which is surprisingly quiet ); humbucking pickups utilize two coils of opposite polarity and so any electrical noise picked up by one coil is also picked up *out of phase* in the other coil and so the noise tends to cancel itself out (like a car with the front wheels spinning one way and the rear wheels spinning in the opposite direction). Humbucking pickups also have more capacitance then single coil pickups and so they tend to roll off some of the high frequencies, making buzz a bit less noticeable.
Now, when you are sitting right next to your friggin' amplifier, surprise surprise: the magnetic fields from the amp are going to be radiated into your body and into your guitar! Duh!!!! Even well shielded humbuckers are likely to pick up noise from the nearby power transformers of your amp, whether the amp is tube or solid state. Also, trying to track down the source of the noise with a bunch of pedals connected us futile unless you have first plugged the guitar directly into the amp to make sure it's not a guitar-wiring problem; plus you need to turn off nearby lighting, dimmers, heaters, appliances etc and see if the noise is lessened. Try the amp and guitar in several other rooms. Try it at someone else's house! Once you're certain that the problem isn't from the amp, the guitar, and the electrical system around, then and only then can you add a pedal, or pedals plural, into the system, one at a time, to see what happens to the noise level.
NEVER attach a ground wire from your body to the guitar, the amp, or any other device. Your body could become the permanent path to ground for high voltage if your amp or any other nearby audio device or electrical appliance is defective. NEVER. At least your hands might fall off of and away from the guitar strings and hardware if you get zapped. I sure hope so.
I said quite clearly in the video your body is an antenna. Thanks.
When I touch the bottom screw on the middle pick-up on my strat, I get a little static click. How do I fix that? And I hear it on a clean channel.
Could you potentially shield the guitar better ?
Not really, physics/mother nature just doesn't work that way. Faraday cages are less effective as the frequency gets lower and at audio frequencies are very low in the grand scheme of electromagnetic things. There are some ways to make improvements but they are small compared to the expense and/or added difficulty.
Okay, I just threw the guitar to the trash bin. Im gonna make Humburguers.
Keep the guitar, make hamburgers anyway.
No dude. You have a wiring or pickup issue. That Microphonic noise isn't normal
No. With enough distortion you will hear that on almost any guitar.
Thankyou for this, instead of pissing about with shielding im just going to invest in a gate pedal.
I just want to add that if you have issues like that, don't use coated strings like Elixirs etc, as the coating adds a significant resistance and when you touch the strings the grounding is not that efficient as with uncoated strings. And fr such "airborn" noise sources shielding of electronic cavity in the guitar helps as well. It will not remove the noise, but it will reduce the amplification of noise that guitar is picking from your body. E.g. when I put unshielded guitar closer to my body, this type of noise gets worse, but not with the shielded guitar.
Interesting. I only have 1 guitar that does this. It’s my only guitar with coated strings.
I thought it was my cable. Got a new one, still buzzes when metal isn't touched by me. I can touch the metal on my amp, a line 6 spider 75 watt, and it stops the buzzing. All my guitars do it. I'm convinced it's the amp at this point.
I have 4 guitars, only one of them have this problem, why is that?
Exactly. I don’t buy his explanation. There’s some problem with his guitar.
Thanks for the vid but can I stop the noise?
Ultimately, you may just have to find the source of the noise and switch it off.
My guitar noising when i turn the volume down, can you tell me why? thank you
No, I'm sorry, I can't diagnose that without the guitar in front of me to examine.
Thanks that was helpful sir !
I need a fkn solution
Could this be resolved with a noise gate pedal or a power conditioner?
A power conditioner will be no benefit if the noise is coming from an appliance or transformer somewhere else. Noise gate might help.
Thanks alot for explaining, it's driving me crazy when i do home recording with my single coil j bass
Good video, but I put the buzzing guitar on a stand and went to the other end of the room. Made no difference.
I just got a Tele and it’s awesome but it does this and is gradually pissing me off more and more so thanks for explaining this.
I've got this problem, and I was actually hoping you would provide a solution. But either way, it's good to know that it's not a grounding-issue
What do you do if your guitar strings electrocutes you?
Try piano? But seriously, something is very wrong in your amplifier or other equipment that I cannot diagnose from here. You should get a professional to figure out the problem.
Thanks for the video! Please help. Why dose my guitar hum alot when even at 0 volume? And my other guitar doesn't hum at 0 volume most is at 10-80% volume but less at 100%? But everything is completely silence when I use battery from pedal. I do use a battery powered speaker. Im so confused I use a 1 spot power supply..
@@AhrnNilsson Hi Ahrn. One of your guitars almost certainly has a wiring problem or faulty volume pot that needs to be fixed. The other one might do also, or the one spot may be faulty, I cannot diagnose over the Internet. You need to bring them to a professional and have them checked out.
@@DrKevGuitar Hi again I have tried a lot of things new cables and power supply. It hums only on bridge pickup. So I guess there a problem somewhere in that circuit the neck is completely silent even with distortion...
Thanks man. I was double-checking myself, and the amount of disinformation on the internet was driving me nuts. I DO have a ground problem, touching something that should be grounded has no effect.
Lol, I forgot all about having to re-orient yourself in order to get a decent take.
Informative, but what is the remedy to this unwanted noise?
Became a bit creepy when he referde to a guitar with a name and ..she
Can you explain what’s creepy about that? Many musicians name their instruments, and some refer to their investments with the pronouns that match the gender of the name. And in many languages all nouns are gendered and so objects are always referred to with the appropriate he/she pronouns and adjectives. Example: in France, where I currently live, a guitar is always “la guitare”, never “le guitar”. “Elle est belle” (she is lovely) is the grammatically correct way to compliment someone’s instrument. Modern English does not generally do this but there are some carryovers from past times, e.g. referring to ships, cars, aircraft as “she”.
if you have this problem just use TRS cable instead of mono cable.. Just solved my issue today
Really? That's interesting! How does that work?
@@BrandonKJohnson Not sure but trs cable has two signals and the noise gets canceled when it reaches the output.. doesn't work for all noise though
@@chrischris7180 hmmm interesting!
@@chrischris7180 You said it "solved [your] issue" but also said, it "doesn't work for all noise though." Could you explain?
so shielding the interior would fix it?
Maybe but not perfectly. As I said in the video, my guitars are perfectly shielded. BUT, remember that the pickups are poking out of a hole in the shielding. Nothing can be done about that.
I just installed some “noiseless single coils” and had this happen to me. When I touched the handle on my amp the sound disappeared and I wasn’t sure if it was my soldering, or if some wire was touching something it shouldn’t be. Now (thanks to your video) I know what it is👍🏻.
ESD grounding would help?
Yes, though, I’m not sure if its particularly convenient. Then again, many people here in the comment section have done exactly that, or some homebrew version of it. The best/first course of action should be trying to find the source of the noise, as I said many times in other comment replies. It’s going to be an appliance, maybe an old computer monitor or TV, Transformer, fluorescent, lighting, or dimmer switch, etc find it switch it off.
Really interesting. However, I have 3 identical home-made lap steels, all with identical electronics and aluminum bridges screwed into the wood, (not grounded to anything). Only one of them buzzes and touching anything metal stops the noise, including touching the non-connected bridge after taking strings off. Any ideas?
Clearly, if only one of them buzzes, one of them is not identical. Sadly, no, unless I had them on a bench in front of me, there is no way I can diagnose it.
Thank you, thank you Kevin. You just saved me a lot of time & effort. There is nothing wrong with my 2 beautiful strats.
so, if you were to turn it up and walk away from the guitar, it should get quieter/go away completely?
Yes. It does get quieter.
Was literally about to comment with this!!
thank you kevin! ive had this problem for YEARS and have searched the whole internet for thi but i havent found anything as clear as this… thanks for this video!
You are very welcome!
You made whole video to have no solution. C’mon!
You watched a whole video to not get the point? C'mon! Though you get bonus points for the apostrophe on "c'mon". Good punctuation my friend! But seriously, the point is that the noise is NOT due to a wiring fault on the guitar. It's an external noise source and the solution is to hunt it down and eliminate it. Or a noise gate. Or move to a different location.
My guitar is relatively quite. I used a continuity tester and tested all metal parts and I have good continuity between all metal parts. I checked all my solder joints for continuity and they are excellent and have a bright shiny ball appearance, it all looks good. However, I have a slight background buzz. If I tough the strings, output jack or bridge with my hand, the noise goes away completely. I know I’m late to the party here but Is this normal or is there something more I can check that can be amiss?
The answer is in the video, my friend. That’s totally normal. The noise going away is a sign of a good ground connection. Remember our guitar pick ups are basically giant antennas wound up into a small package. Eliminating all noise, with a lot of distortion, is exceptionally difficult. sounds to be like your guitar is great. Enjoy!
@@DrKevGuitar yes, thank you. I moved the guitar to another amp in another room. No hum sound whatsoever, totally silent. Switched cables, all is good. I must have been acting as an antenna in my living room where many electronic devices live. Good lesson too learn, was driving me nuts. Thank again!
Great video man
wear shoes
Sorry, you are wrong. This guitar has ground issues
Sorry Richie but thats a hard no. I’ve been doing this a long time my friend. If I tell you there are no ground issues then you can be 100% sure that’s the case.
Please don't take it the wrong way. I have guitars that have the same problems and others that don't. Connected to the same amplifier, some make that noise and others don't, and the person's body is the same. I've been working professionally and fixing my own guitars since 1999, I'm just telling you this so you can see that I know what I'm talking about.
My amp just buzzes it's ass off the second I plug in the aux, nothing seems to mitigate it, I unplug the aux and it's perfectly fine. What the hell?
Ok, in this case, it sounds like a ground loop because there are two different physical electronic devices involved that are connected together. Have a look at this... ruclips.net/video/4YM1iwC6vhg/видео.html
@@DrKevGuitar Alright I don't even know what's happening anymore, I hooked my amp up to my stereo system and the music is coming out perfectly, however for some reason it doesn't play any sound from my guitar, I've tried 3 separate guitars and none of them produced any sound. I've never been so confused in my life
Good video.
However, I have two new Squier Telecaster Deluxe models. One purple and one black.
The purple one buzzes like crazy until I touch any metal on it yet the black one does not. It is silent by comparison!!
Any thoughts?
Have you tried painting the purple one black ?
I have 5 guitars and one of them is so bad that I can't really put the effort to play it. I don't see anything wrong with it either. The other guitars are pretty silent.
This is a great video and helped me as a starting place.
Hilariously, I took jumper cables and attached it to conduit in the studio. Then I attached the other end to a metal stand. Then I took my bare foot and touched the base of the stand. And now I was grounded hahahaha.
Ha ha! If it works, it works! Just make sure the conduit has a correct ground and not into a device/appliance that could have a wiring fault. Thanks for your comment!
@@DrKevGuitar I did this with an electrician. Also, removing a dimmer fixed 90% of the problem. This grounding solution fixed the other 10.
@@Carsonchildersmusicnow OUTSTANDING! Great job!
Ok, how about this: I have two Fender Telecasters. Both have identical Fender Noiseless pickups. One makes a buzz unless I touch the strings, metal parts, etc. The other makes no buzz at all, it is dead quite whether I’m touching it or not. Explain that.
Thanks man, I just got a new Gibson standard SG and thought it was the guitar. I left my guitars on the stand, and tested this by touching various metal objects in my room, turns out it's me lol
I was about to argue... then in the course of trying a different outlet i unplugged my plasma tv by accident when trying to unplug my amp... the buzzing stopped. Touche my friend. Touche.
*SMILE*
So i can’t do anything about this except for getting rid of unnecessary electricity in my room?
I had exactly the same problem, drove me crazy! I took the pickup out to trash it and decided to try this. I soldered an extra ground to the back of my pickup (a humbucker), and just for laughs, wrapped it in aluminum foil. NO MORE NOISE!
Finally someone who can think clearly instead of deeply!
This is as logical as it gets!
As usual: Nature's logic is inverse to human logic!
Reverse our thinking and we start getting stuff right!
Ok! But I have a paradox. There are two guitars, one is homemade, made of pine boards and cheap spare parts from Aliexpress, Open humbuckers, noise at high gain - 24 dB. And then there's the Harley Benton SC-550. The noise level on the same path is -12 dB. I replaced the pickups with open ones with the brand name humbuckers - noise, bought others on Ali humbuckers with covers, noise -12 dB. Bridge, strings, switch - everything shows 0 on the ground wire. It's just the cry of my soul! I do not know what else to do... Thanks!
Thank you! From your explanation, I found my buzz wasn't a ground problem with my guitar; it was a ground problem with my electrical outlet! I plugged my amp into a different electrical outlet and the buzz was 10x quieter.
you know what i did since i have no money, I attached a wire to the input jack using the screw that was connected to the jack then removed the other end of the wire and stick it to the part where i rest my arm so it connects to my skin while I play open strings
Hey man, When I increase the tone on my Gibson les paul tribute in overdrive , my guitar makes noise . But when I turn down the guitar tone and increase the amp tone my guitar does not make noise. Is it a grounding issue?? Please answer. Thanks
Obviously, without your guitar in front of me I can’t say for certain but noise decreasing when we turn down the tone control on the guitar is normal (the tone control is getting rid of the most audible frequencies of the noise). I don’t know what’s causing your noise, but it seems like the guitar circuit is functioning correctly.
@@DrKevGuitar thanks so much man
@@DrKevGuitar sir how can I contact you? I mean how can I maybe send a video to you explaining my problem?
@@DrKevGuitar So you mean can noise gates solve the problem?
Can noise gates solve the issue man? @@DrKevGuitar
Thank you. I tried to re-solder my new SD Hot Stack set for about 6 times…
Thought it was a grounding problem.
I just don’t understand why SD promotes those pickups as Noiseless (humcancelling) on their website? This leads to wrong expectations and disappointment 😢
I have a squier tele that's particularly bad compared to all my other guitars, very loud buzz until i touch metal. I changed the pots and put a 4 way switch, im not sure If i did some thing when i changed that, but i don't remember it buzzing this way before. It has cover ground, i resoldered all my grounds, doubled checked them, guitar has shielding, buzzes no matter what location im at(tried at home and the local shop), even two guitar techs checked my wiring. Could it be these specific pick ups or pots? Im thinking of changing them but i want to stick with medium output single coils.
2 brand new guitars and a new bass do this noise, tried with various amps and different outlets, it continues? what can i do?????
My Gibson SG Standard 61 has this problem for a long time! It really turns me freak. I decide try to use a wire to connect my body to one of metal parts on the guitar. So weird.
This was not my problem😭the problem of my guitar that if I use the mid, mid + bridge , and neck is grounding or its buzzing humming and etc , while if I used neck and bridges is the only one is not buzzing😭
Wish I watched this before I opened up my guitar and amp yesterday night lol.
Thanks