Fix it Friday! - Killing the Hum in a Guitar

[@SaxophoneHitman008]

I started down this road as an actual electronic engineer. Yep, truly and indeed. For 30 years I've been explaining my ass off about this and other principles that apply to guitars and especially tube amps. IT'S SO refreshing to know there is at least someone else out there who is spreading the correct information! Bravo dude. And thanks, now finally I can sleep at night :)

[@create2009]

Thanks!

[@oneeyemonster3262]

i have a shit load of SHIELD CABLES...i suppose they;re sort da ore twisted with aluminum foil, braided and thick ass jacket, No wonder all my home made guitars dont hizz ot hummm....Plus the Cable from guitar to amp are also shielded..lol

[@davidkornblatt991]

WHY DOESN'T EVERY ELECTRIC GUITARIST WATCH THIS?

[@roadapple66]

Gregs Guitars: I too have a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology, and I agree with you. I have worked for many years in factory's that produce Computers, switches, modems, test equipment, hard drives, etc. I have also worked for the Air Force Satellite Control Network (AFSCN), and as a Satellite Systems Engineer for Lockheed-Martin. I am now retired, so I work on tube amps, effects pedals, and guitars for amusement. It's good to see another Engineer / Technologist on these pages. Someone that understands WHY things are wired / configured the way they are instead of just doing something because they were shown to do something a certain way. I'm glad I'm not alone in this! Thanks!

[@DougHinVA]

glad you can understand it.... it's too complicated for guitar players. they are NOT into basic electronics, see ?

[@AutoDIYdactic]

I have to say, I've watched many videos on guitar hum and this is the most in depth explanation I've heard yet as well as all the helpful stop gaps you can try to reduce hum.

[@cattledog5464]

I got my wires so short that they won't reach to connect. Zero hum.

[@rowanpattisonguitar]

Ha

[@TheForce_Productions]

🙄

[@JLchevz]

that solves it lmao

[@coffindancer38]

Finally!!! A guitar guy on youtube that understands the star ground!!!! Every video about eliminating hum should begin by telling folks to take out those single coils and throw them on the workbench to keep screws handy. Get some aftermarket humbuckers and youll reduce him and have a real guitar to play.

[@Smilesjones]

Here is a lucid explanation of what the factors are which add unwanted "noises" to a guitar signal and the same kudos for your killer suggestions! Thanks very much for helping me resolve a grounding issue just now; especially shortening and twisting the output and ground wire up to the output jack. Worked amazingly!!

[@marshallohio5512]

Took a friend's brand-new g&l legacy that was horribly set up from the factory, and made the guitar playable for him. This was a $1500 plus tax guitar. The buzz / hum was nuts !! I did the cavity shielding, twisted the three pickups and out put jack wires. Grounded the back of the pots by Daisy chaining with a single wire, and reversed the out put jack wires. Setup the bridge and all saddle heights. My friend is still blown away today. Why folks pay $1500 for unplayable strats from the factory is beyond me. I do this work for free for those who think the guitar needs different pickups installed. Oh, using a TC Spark Booster with a decent amp will keep the finished strat from always being in its case or resold. Cheers

[@TheJams4live]

This video literally saved a guitar from being thrown away. Thank you so much.

[@create2009]

Great!

[@timdixon1166]

As an electronics tech who has just got interested in guitars, I have always been surprised that most guitars do not use screened leads for pickup wiring. I bought a pawn shop no-name strat copy really cheaply which I figured I would customise. It is a nice looking guitar with a dead straight neck, good tuning screws etc. but with crappy strings and missing the springs from the bridge. Who knows why... It seems to be hardly used so maybe a kid owned it...I decided to check out the pickup wiring expecting the usual mess but was astonished to find ALL the wiring was in screened lead. It used star grounding, had a large screening plate on the pick-guard that the pots were mounted on and the cavities had all been coated with conductive paint. Needless to say it was silent! There are some really well built copies out there!!!

[@ckdesign]

terrific, clear overview of the problem and solution. had massive hum from my '83 MIJ Squire tele - hum would go silent when I touched the strings so it was primarily a shielding problem. gave it the full treatment you outlined: copper tape shielding of all cavities, soldered ground wires between each of the cavities, shortened wiring, tight twisting on pairs for both pickups and output jack and finally, star grounding to a single pot. outcome couldn't have been better - the difference between touching/not touching now can barely be perceived and then only if you are listening carefully to *_try_* to hear it - it's effectively *_NIL_* . thanks so much!

[@shigjetar]

This is the best video I've seen explaining grounding, now I've got an afternoon of work to do on my guitar! Thank you so much!

[@create2009]

Thanks! How'd it come out?

[@erickt1974]

Question. My guitar has 2 cavities. Control Cavity and Pickup cavity. I understand that I have to ground the pickup cavity shielding with a wire connecting to a pot but do I ground the control cavity or does it ground when I screw in the pots? (It's a Les Paul Junior)

[@codebeat4192]

Now that is a short, effective and clear explanation, well done!

[@garrettodonnell4177]

Leo Fender was an electrical engineer who knew very little about how music worked. Kind of funny that his invention is now the domain of musicians who know very little about how electricity works. :)

[@lulumanus9025]

Thanks much. Have a top of the line Squire Strat. Overlooked the twisted pickup wires when I did all the rest of the shielding. They had the pickup wires in rubber tubing which looked neatly done so I left it. This time I cut it off and did the twist. Left the pickup wires separated. No more hum. Now I can actually use this guitar with single pickups.

[@atomicguitars7123]

Best video out there that explains hum / buzz noise on guitars.

[@DiMazzimo]

Thanks a lot! This worked great for me. I used aluminum foil, which I connected to ground, and twisted the black and white cable from my single coil pickup. The hum before was terrible. Now it's almost silent. I was about to give up, but now my guitar is great again!

[@create2009]

Fantastic!

[@holy7]

I’m going to try this weekend, hopefully it works. My toggle has terrible buzz on 5 of 6 positions

[@TheForce_Productions]

Make your guitar great again! 🤘😎🎸

[@quaidmarshall8969]

@@holy7 4 years late but did you fix it

[@RamoneCelso]

Great video, my guitar was humming and buzzing like crazy when I turned the tone knob, I tried the aluminum foil thing... and it worked!!! I can turn my amp to 11 and there's just a tiny micro hum. Thanks man.

[@curtrod]

dude this is the best explanation and demonstration of this on youtube! bravissimo

[@roadapple66]

I didn't see this, or hear you mention it, but I have had good luck with the black, conductive paint. I just paint the cavities, let it dry completely, and screw a ground wire into the cavities. If you covered it, then I apologize for missing it. I have used copper tape, aluminum tape, and the conductive paint to good effect on guitars with single coil pickups. Thanks for the video! the information is spot on.

[@gerardoromano3436]

Great video!! , star grounding is very important to avoid ground loops, we are talking Milivolts here in a high impedance circuit, just like a radio. Keep uploading videos, really helps. Cheers :)

[@tswrench]

I appreciate this info and your presentation of the material, but the most valuable thing you could've done, you didn't do, which is to provide and A/B, before and after demonstration of 60 cycle hum, and how this method helps to attenuate that noise.

[@lawrencebrett8993]

Wow that is such an excellent explanation and almost cost-free solution to the problem. Hopefully when I've done this I won't need to go and buy a noise gate pedal. Many many thanks!

[@groakersmusic2713]

Great video. Organized and explained very well. Thank you for making this! I will definitely share with friends :)

[@thiagosolano8269]

Man thank you very much, you saved me life and my guitar kkk the best advice I have gotten from this KZbin in years. 😎👍

[@CG-sv2nw]

Twisted pair is the same thing they do in cat 5e or cat 6, the cable used for Ethernet. This method works well👍

[@johnroberts838]

I used the twisting of the Pickup wires in my Telecaster Duncan Hot for Tele set without shielding, NO HUM, sensational, thank you so much, best technique, no messy copper shielding .

[@create2009]

Glad it worked for you!

[@telestrat7184]

My brand new tele was humming so bad even with copper foil sheets that i have installed previously. After i saw your video, i opened up my guitar, twisted the pickup wires, added ground wire to the bridge pickup cavity, put everything back together and ...Voila! Hum is gone. Thank you!

[@create2009]

Awesome! I'm so glad this is helping people!

[@Spitfireseven]

I am a tech and your video is great because anyone can understand it. Thanks for the great explanation.

[@NickWeissMusic]

Best video on the subject I've ever seen, I learned from it and I've been a pro guitar tech for 20 years. I knew what to do, but not exactly why to do it, couldn't have been explained clearer. I had never heard of the star ground before, most manufactures don't do that. I've never had a complaint after shielding and all the other steps, but it certainly can't hurt, and will probably make wiring up all the grounds on a big job easier anyway.

[@create2009]

Awesome! Thanks for the kind words. I've found that in most of the guitars I've been inside of, that manufacturers do some sort of star variant... that is they will daisy chain to a common point to save wire. It's really about resistance between points in the circuit exceeding a certain value. "Star grounding" is an easy way for folks to get it right without having to understand what's going on. Daisy chaining often fails not because it's "bad" but because it's picky and not easy to troubleshoot. It would be easy to run a daisy chain through steel potientiometer shell or a tailpiece and have no idea what's wrong. Also, any noise from corrosion that develops in the wire or solder joint over the years is summed down the daisy chain, this cannot happen in the star configuration.

[@TheChadPad]

@@create2009 So would the point of star grounding then be to avoid increasing resistance which other ways of grounding does?

[@jvin248]

Good job. I'd add that you really want to use a shielded cable from the control cavity to the output jack. Twisting those two wires doesn't help like people think (or else all guitar cables would be inexpensive twisted pairs not woven shielded cables). $90 Epiphone Specials ship with shielded cable to the jack. My experiments have shown that shielded cable output wire cleans up about half a guitar's noise, the other half is all the cavity shielding. +1 on the aluminum shielding tape, I use that same roll.

[@kdakan]

That's nice to know, I was guessing the same thing, if twisting the wire worked to eliminate noise all guitars would be shipped that way. None of my guitars have twisted wires.

[@VashStarwind]

Would adding foil around the output wire be good enough to shield it?

[@deanwarren3646]

Good thorough video. Just one side note, when using the aluminum tape like you buy at Home Depot for AC duct you need to make sure you fold over the edges of overlapping pieces. The adhesive on the back is NOT conductive and you will not get good contact between pieces if you do not fold the edges. Use a meter and verify conductivity throughout the areas you shield.

[@goodun6081]

Dean Warren, I use a miniature Phillips screwdriver pushed into the overlapping layers of aluminum tape with a twisting motion of my wrist to sort of make a cold riveted joint between the overlapping foil edges, punching through the insulating resistance of the adhesive. If you do this every half inch or so along the seams you will get a good low-resistance connection between the foil strips. And yes, of course you want to verify this with an ohmmeter.

[@TylrVncnt]

good 'un - great idea & solution 👍 thanks for sharing!

[@RickJando]

I never could understand why people buy expensive fender guitars and having to put up with that dopey hum. Luckily my Les with it's mini humbuckers doesn't make that noise. This has been a very useful video thank you.

[@74dartman13]

A lot of people have been saying the aluminum tape doesn't conduct between pieces . I use it and it works fine. Also I've been making cigar box guitars. I've cut the pickup leads short and used shielded cable to wire everything. In those I haven't even needed to use any tape and they're very quiet! I think the shielded cable really helps a lot!

[@ThomasClark123]

So why don't guitar builders do this during assembly???

[@davidhaney1394]

money

[@semilivesixstringstrumist5595]

Small builders do. Its the big corp. that don't. It cost them money. Its about mass production with as little cost as possible. All corp. suck! No matter what they make.

[@andreil1234]

During the fifteen-minute assembly for a Squier Bullet or during the five hour long assembly for a Custom Shop Strat? :)

[@subscribetobanbasstabs2599]

they do

[@lulumanus9025]

They do on the expensive custom shop stuff. Worked like a charm for me.

[@wrg1183]

Thank you! As guitar tech hobbyists, the last thing we want is to watch someone play guitar and tell us to turn the volume down. We want actual applications, and you provided them.

[@sandrotartaglia8717]

I learned why my DIY installation of Duncan Phat Cat pickups is so NOISY! I did everything wrong. Especially miles and miles of unnecessary wire that needs to be drastically cleaned up. Can’t wait to get to work on it. By the way, P-90’s make a Les Paul sound AMAZING!

[@create2009]

Yeah p-90's are great. If you installed humbuckers and still have significant noise, this video should cure it.

[@paulbcote]

Thank you for the concise, yet thorough explanation!

[@kutanghansip32]

wow, thanks man! This is worked in my strat! I've shielding before, and check the electronics it's fine but my guitar still noise. After watch your video I twisting pickup wire and shortening them to pot & switch. It's work! Thank you so much.

[@luke9771]

I followed all these steps! I know close to nothing about guitar electronics, and I had this buzz I thought was incurable. Following this stuff completely got rid of the buzz! However, I didn't do the starfish grounding thing.

[@gabegmusic8156]

Great job. I just did this to my MiM Tele Deluxe. Works great. I hear no hum at all. It's beautiful.

[@Groosome128]

A before sample would have been good for comparison.

[@conallowry9664]

Groosome128 That's what I was thinking

[@voteZDLR]

Yeah well... if you have a guitar that hums then you probably already know what the 60 cycle sounds like. I imagine that's how we all got here cause we're looking for a solution to this problem. BUT all being said I will at least agree that a before/after comparison would've been nice, at the very least.

[@bilbobaggins2083]

Exactly.

[@voteZDLR]

@@dejfcold Yeah... is it like a single coil strat or something? It could need to have like copper sheeting laid on the inside by all the electronics inside the guitar. For some reason single coil pickups on Mexican made stratocasters, especially (or cheap ones, anyway) are effected by this. In fact, the "hum" used to be something guitar players had no choice but to get used to, in some cases, that's why they invented the HUMbuckers.

[@onzkicg]

Ooops moment. We live in a rush generation. It’s good that hum and buzz is very familiar sound to all.

[@nelsonpaul72]

Very well done video! I came across this because I've been playing guitar for many years and just recently took on the project of taking a low-cost used MIM Tele and upgrading the electronics. On my first attempt it has an incredible amount of buzz which I'm now certain is a grounding issue. I will follow the steps you've outlined here and see how it goes. If it goes well maybe I'll post a before and after. Thanks again.

[@nelsonpaul72]

Update: worked like a champ! No noise, no interference...just sweet tones from the new pickups. Thanks again.

[@bobparsonsartist564]

I looked at the wiring in my G&L Strat, which is very noisy, and what I have is very long parallel wiring, with the excess wire nicely bundled and tied with a zip tie. Thanks for the vid. I look forward to hearing the difference.

[@marshallohio5512]

My G&L Legacy same issue from factory! Not any more by this video suggestions! Cheers

[@pierreandrerock]

great thanks for your video now my telecaster dont gate any buzz you'r the best demo in youtube

[@MrGavinspoppop]

I just added some copper tape to the cavities in my Cort Strat .... and I did the underside of the pickguard .... it worked great !

[@create2009]

Great!

[@HankleburyTV]

Thanks for the nice, straightforward explanation of the problem causes and their solutions.

[@PISSEDOFF-MADABOUTIT60]

Great work easy to understand and I now know that I can use foil to save money.

[@wrm192]

I'm getting a buzz on my bridge backup (Strat) Seems like something is not grounded properly. When I touch the strings, the buzzing stops. (could be a bad connection somewhere) I installed aluminium tape in the cavities. However I didn't connect them with wire, only connected through the pick guard. I'm still trying to find the source of my hum. Thanks for the video. Very useful info.

[@lynyx77]

very useful and great explanation, hope to see you back with new videos

[@mikeymumblesreal]

Excellent, easy to follow, sensible tips. I'll redo my Strat, thanks so much.

[@MrKurtisp23]

Gonna try some foil on my Electric Violin, I will let you know if it works!

[@johnroberts838]

Once again thank you for your advice, twisting definitely works!

[@Jenisonc]

Wow. Incredible video! Thank you! I have a heavy hum from a simple piezo set up cigar box guitar but I believe this will help me learn what I can do. Thanks again.

[@SaurabhVerma-vm9dc]

This works like a charm. Had a noisy fender start 50s series. not anymore. Thanks :)

[@divisonlapse]

Just did that! Wow what difference. Thanks

[@IamUncledeuce]

Thanks, a couple of added techniques I was not aware of!

[@Giggiyygoo]

I googled "why am I hearing a constant hum in my ears" and now this is in my recommend.

[@unSTEVOED]

Did you line the inside of your head with Foil??

[@VashStarwind]

The star grounding would just be the difference of wiring your components in parallel vs series correct? Also i didnt know why people twist their wires, but it makes sense now, thanks for this vid, picked up a few good ideas. Getting foil tape in the duct section of the hardware store is another good one, cause purpose built shielding tape is kind of spendy ha.

[@nicholaswoolfenden5254]

Kind of you to share knowledge. Many thanks mate.

[@MrCacciLLo]

Good explanation, although it should be better to replace the 2 single wires from the pickups to shielded wire. And using shielded wire between the switch and pots all the way to the output jack

[@francislalonde7843]

Hi! Can I use the volume pot for the star grounding? Thanks and great video btw!

[@DaBears08]

God I can't believe I'm about to take my strat apart....thanks for the info though.

[@6strings735]

Excellent, thank you. (OK, I'm a retired electrical engineer like many others here it seems, love this stuff.)

[@ioodyssey3740]

And you don't know what a real ground loop is? WTF?

[@infinity-mi365]

Thanks for this !! In the middle of a Telecaster build and i'm learning about ground hum. Loved your theory explanations. The whole process has made more sense now. Just wondered though if twisting the ground and signal wires would although kill the hum, it would reduce the output signal too?

[@gerardoromano3436]

No, It doesnt. Justo helps kill unwanted noise.

[@mathiasluyten]

Most helpful video i've found so far, thanks!

[@berntedvinsson5397]

This guitar is shielded with shield paint from the factory ;) that's why there is a groundwire screwed to the body. What they maybe missed was the pickguard shield or twisted the wires cause the neck pickup have a good shield :)

[@kirklethbridge4477]

wish u showed us the star shaped option and what they tie in to. and also...no pics of how to ground the aluminum/copper shielding....do i use screws?

[@fenderblues1744]

I removed the wires from the pickups and used coax wire through out and no more hum, didn't need to use the tape.

[@fenderblues1744]

@@butt-head5212 No.

[@petercummins1097]

Really informative video, thanks. Just winding if you need a ground wire from each cavity if the scratch plate connects them all. Could you just connect the control cavity to ground?

[@goununo]

Thanks. Simple, short and effective.

[@ephraim.1964]

This is just awesome! Can any of the potentiometers be used to do the grounding or just one in particular? Thanks!!

[@driftingmelodies]

It's the best iv seen.. I have 2 questions ..where do all the ground wires meet I'm star grounding and you twist only the hot and ground wires of the pickups ,not two hot wires from the pickups?

[@jjohnston73]

Great job explaining riot causes and solutions.

[@create2009]

Thanks!

[@semilivesixstringstrumist5595]

I picked up a couple tips. Thank you buddy.

[@nanaandbump.]

Such an awesome explanation, thanks for this!

[@Kikutuca]

Thanks for share your time and knowledge.

[@glenngulia5409]

Incredibly good video. THANKS!

[@denis_kleshchev]

great video. But how did you connect pieces of aluminuminum tape together? The adhesive on it is not electric conductive. And I don't see any connections between tape pieces like soldering

[@marshallohio5512]

Fold corner section of tape and tape it down over the other tape! Simple as that! Test ground at different areas of tape. Cheers

[@thedukeofno]

Does the "I don't know if that did any good or not" at 8:30 pertain to the whole previous 8 minutes of the video?

[@omargarcialechuga7205]

I do not know about the twisted cables, is a thing that I couldn't consider when I soldering the pickups .-.

[@DenisAhmet]

This looks great and I will be trying it out. One question, what have you used under the black screws in the cavities - it's hard to see in the video, but it looks like a strip of metal, which then is connected to the ground wires. I think this is quite important?

[@leswhite3524]

0:14 ...or a boosted CB radio... Oh yeah. Saw a band's PA fried once because of that. It was both sad and awesome! Like, "Whoa! Did you hear that?" and, "Shit, there goes the show."

[@jasonjohnson4170]

Love it! Very helpful. Thank you!

[@voteZDLR]

That's a pretty sweet telecaster you got there bro XD ... only thing I'd recommend different from what you suggested to other people reading this -- use copper tape. NOT aluminum.

[@create2009]

I disagree. Copper tape is fine, but I think aluminum is fine too. There's so much surface area I argue that the reduced conductivity is ineffectual.

[@voteZDLR]

It goes beyond that, it's more that it just bonds better to copper foil tape than aluminum foil.

[@muriois2957]

Hey! I know this is sorta off topic cause of the unit but is there a way to eliminate the hum and electoral noise of the sp404, it has a ground terminal screw in the back but I’m not that educated on electrical connections, I’m not sure if I have to ground the whole unit or to get a wire to the ground terminal screw to some metal, hope you can write back have a good day!

[@007mercucio]

Just got a very cheap new electric guitar ...you convinced me to try this, because it hums like a mother, but I'm wondering if your fixes would be enough to fix something that hums as badly as this one does... the one I'm talking about came really cheap, on ebay. Irin guitar. Yes, it hums so badly I was a little worried about my equipment... I was wishing you would do a "before and after" on how much hum these things can fix. Still, I know that I need to try. I suppose it will be a soldering day tomorrow. :)

[@create2009]

How did it turn out?

[@hognather]

Hey easy stuff especial as the owner of a 70 British car when it comes to bad grounding! LOL How may grounds do you have on the vol pot is it 5 or 6: 3 shield 2 PUPs and 1 tremolo? And all the routed shields have a eyelet connector under the shielding secured with screw

[@create2009]

Honestly I don't know. What matters is that every shield location, every pickup and every piece of metal gets connected to this one point, which gets connected to signal black or "ground" on the way back to the amp. You are correct, I use eyelet connectors and screw into the wood. I find using copper foil and soldering to it sometimes fails mechanically. If your pickguard doesn't make a firm connection, it needs it's own wire too.

[@michaelalbro6856]

Nothing against aluminum but the advantage to copper is that you can solder to it rather than using screws for hooking up wires for grounding, I bought a 2” wide by 6 yd. long roll on amazon for $10

[@GuilhermeSantos2003]

Do you need to unsolder any wires of the cavities?

[@godzilla964]

Is ok if I do all the things you said to fix noise issues? Will I affect the way the notes sustain if I do shielding and twist the wires?

[@NickWeissMusic]

Ryan it will have no effect whatsoever on your note sustain or anything like that.

[@josesaldivar655]

Thanks a lot. Can you put the sound with the humm before the fix ?

[@TheOfficialGoomba]

i have a mitchell guitar with some really shit hardware right now this is exactly what i need thank you.

[@sgttak7335]

Great video. But how do you create a ground wire with aluminum to solder to ground pot? Did you solder a new wire from the aluminum?

[@mikemartin6554]

he put screws in the cavities which touched the aluminum sheilding,and ran the wires to a single point on one pot.

[@BruceLyeg]

Thanks! I now know what my project will be this weekend!

[@PhoenixRover]

Very helpful! Thanks a bunch.

[@montiac22]

I have a question about the star grounding. Can you please tell me what the center point of that star is grounded too? Is it a pot or no pot or possibly to the guitar? If anyone knows can you please tell me. This is a great video and thank you for posting.

[@marshallohio5512]

Just ground the pickups to volume. Don't be concern with star grounding. Ground the three pots together single wire daisy chain. These videos are all over the place! Cheers

[@umanand1897]

What is the rest of your rig? Your tone at the end sounds great!!

[@sirstashalot7441]

This was very helpful. Thanks for this.

[@MyQarl]

I see that you've soldered a ground cable to link the pots. Isn't the metal plate already doing the same thing? Probably it doesn't matter at all, but aren't you creating an unnecessary ground loop?

[@flyingformation1878]

Hi! Thanks a lot, I really loved the video. Forgive my ignorance but if you know this stuff why guitar makers, let's say like Fender or whatever, do not seem to be able to remove the noise from their guitars? Do you get less hum if you buy a more expansive model? I have no idea.

[@fenderfreak215]

flying formation late, but the American elite series has noiseless pickups and they still sound awesome. I just got a tele over the summer and it has no more hum than my humbucker guitars

[@DIRT2021]

Can someone tell me.... I have pickup that I want to remove ALL of the wiring that comes with it, like shown here...BUT.... where exactly on the pickup should I soldering what is the 'ground' and the 'hot' ? I know where they should GO (switch...star ground) but not sure how the pickup itself where to solder the ends ?