# Strat SC pickups - hum positions 1, 3, & 5 Why is that?



## piranha (Dec 11, 2007)

I got a deal on a Strat in town here and notice that positions 1,3,5 hum but not 2 and 4. I realize this is common to single coils. What can I do to lower the hum. It's not brutal but noticeable. It's not as ground issue. I've read about this issue. Can a person do anything to lower the hum?

Thanks guys


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

You can try shielding the pickup and control cavity, as well as the back of the pickguard and make sure that there is a ground wire running from a contact point on the shielding to the ground on the trem. This will reduce the hum, but not eliminate it entirely.


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## copperhead (May 24, 2006)

60 cycle hum is why it hums. rw/rp bucks the hum in 2 & 4 position the middle pickup magnets reverse polarity and reverse wired .bridge n neck pickup have south poles pointing toward the strings than the middle pickup would have north you can test this with a compass .& the two wires reversed to create a humbucker effect 
shielding helps. pick where you stand around your amp ,florescent lighting creates allot of hum .play clean music


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Oh yeah, big +1 to florescents! They are a hum-magnet!

Also, watch what you have plugged into the same circuit. More than 1 amp, or a ton of pedals will cause noise. So will something like a refrigerator compressor kicking on, etc.


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## AlterEgo (Jan 12, 2010)

I concur ... and there is a worst case.... are you playing in from of a computer screen (old tube)...  That's bad... BTW: I finally shielded my Squier last night ... right now playing in from of my old 21 inches tube screen without noise (or almost nothing )... It really works ...fortunately I took picture while I did it, I'll post on my other thread regarding its wiring diagram this weekend... stay tuned

Cheers.


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## piranha (Dec 11, 2007)

Awesome stuff guys. I'm going to shield it.


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## itf? (May 27, 2009)

This is the best thread on sheilding a strat properly that I have found. It does work quite well but, as pointed out by other members it doesn't eliminate the hum entirely. Such is the nature of single coil pickups.

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php

There are several other solutions: noiseless pickups, noise suppressors, noise gates, etc. However, with noiselss pickups there is always a loss of some of the true single coil sound namely in the way of lost high end and boosted midrange. The best outboard solution I've found is the EH Hum Debugger. It does a great job and in a completely different way from noise gates (there's no threshold control and no loss of sustain as is common with gates). Placement in your effects chain is key however. (after overdrives/distortions/fuzz but before modulation type effects)

Hope that helps.


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