Conference napalm::guitar

    
    You could try a surge and noise spike suppressor from Radio Shack.
    
    It suppresses noise and voltage spikes on the AC line.They have 2 
    kinds,one is a heavier duty.Current rating is 10 and 15amp.I use one
    on my PA system.You just plug into it and then into the wall socket.
    
    Mike
    

AS near as I can tell you've got a coule of choices:

Change pickups: either a "stacked" single coil (Duncans, Dimarzio etc.) or
		active pickups

Conductive paint the entire body cavity to block EMI

either one will make a great deal fo difference in cutting the hum and buzz of
a regular single coil pickup. I use Duncan hot stacks and like 'em alot. Totally
hum free performance...but expensive.

dbii

    
    
    
    
    
    	Somethings "sour" for me and instead of sitting here trying to
    "figure" it myself, I'll just "throw it out"... Howcum some positions
    are OK??   Sounds like a humbucker in the bridge position, so that
    might be why that one's clean.. but the combination doesn't make sense
    to me!!!!
    
    	Some thing is going on...  like a pickup not getting to ground (or
    maybe even an intermittent string ground)... or an exspecially noisy
    (and I love em' there myself) pickup in the middle position... but then
    why would neck and middle be OK together??? 
    
    
    	Let's chew this rag for awhile.... my noise problems have been a
    lot easier than this so far... (knocking loudly on wood at this time)
    and I use some pretty old, pretty cheesy Fender single coils in the
    middle.......
    
    Steve

    Re: .1
    
    A surge and spike supressor is intended to keep stuff from getting
    to your amp via the AC cord.  The problem is hum pickup by the guitar.
    
    Tom, you shoulda stuck with your Gibson  8^)  8^)  8^)

    
    						Brian

Re: .3
I'm also having a hard time fathoming the cleanliness of position 2. 
My Kramer makes noise in all but position 5 (humbucker only) in such situations.

However, usually 2 is the neck and middle pickups together.  Perhaps
the two are oppositely wound (it IS supposed to be ``out of phase''),
and that behaves like a humbucker.  Just a guess.

I don't know any solution, short of only using the un-noisy positions,
or switching pickups.

Steph

    I used to have similar problems. If you use a tube amp, sometimes
    the problem can be worse, it was for me. 
    
    There are now more than a couple of companies making equipment
    specifically geared toward this (and other) problems.
    
      1. Furman Sound. They make the PL-8 which is a rack mountable
         power strip with pull-out lights on the front and eight 
         outlets on the back. It will handle 10 amps and will also
    
          o Do surge suppressing
          o Do spike controlling
          o Filter FM noise
    
         Furman also makes the PL-Plus which is an upgraded version
         of the above for more $. The PL-Plus (which is what I use)
         also has an indicator on the front that lets you know how
         much voltage it's getting (different rooms will give you 
         different power ranging from 110 to 120 (or more or less)
         V/AC.
    
         The Furman units (and units similar to it) DO NOT do voltage
         CONTROLLING (like a variac).
    
    Enter the Juice Goose....
    
         The Juice Goose (made by a company in Texas) Will do all of
         above.... PLUS it will REGULATE the voltage. No matter what
         you feed it (down to 35 volts) it will pump out 117 volts.
         
         They have several different models to handle different loads
          from 10 amps on up. 
    
    The band I'm with currently plays in Canada occasionally, and the
    power up there is irratic (putting it mildly). I have had no problems
    using just my PL-8, but the rest of the band (who are all 'goin
    straight in) have had problems ranging from noise to upsetting the
    microprocessor on a Roland D-50.
    
    I am seriously considering the Juice Goose - then there will be
    NO WORRIES. 
    
    -BAP
    
        
         

    What Schecter do you have? I have,supposedly the top of the line
    ebony neck,3 singles and have had noise problems especially when in 
    the recording studio. 
    	I've been able to improve it by grounding the pot's to
    each other with wire instead of the tin foil which comes stock,I
    use a Dimarzio hs2 in the neck position. I also have used a Micro
    Hush from Roctron which eliminated the 60hz hum. I'm still working
    on eliminating noise,I'd recommend you take it to a repair/guitar
    tech and have him work it for you. Pickup replacement is worth 
    looking into....might be cheaper than a repair bill. 
    
    
    							Rick
    

	I've had the guitar checked and all the grounds are ok.
	At practice, I plugged it straight into a Fender Super
	Reverb.  No noise at all.  Turned up the reostat and
	there it was, loud as hell.
    
	Btw, the lead (bridge) pickup is a Jackson humbucker so
	that helps that position.  The guy who checked it out said
	that it's wired so that positions 1 & 2 together do NOT make
	like a humbucker.
    
        There is no tin foil inside and I think it's grounded every
        which way.

	Brian, you disappointed me!!!!  I expected you to describe the
	why's and how's, then give me a list of solutions complete with model
	#'s and price quotes from every music store on the East coast!!!!

	;^)  but, yes, you're right.  My 335 is a solution.  But it don't 
	got no whammy!!!!!  

	I was really hoping that the solution was at Radio Shack for
	$12.99.

	Tom

    Well,
    
    Maybe the noise gate thing in your ME-5 isn't hip enough.  I have
    (should say..had) noise problems like you mentioned...I got a Hush
    II-CX, and I don't have noise problems anymore.  When its really bad I
    just crank it up all the way and it goes away, unless I'm standing like
    right next to my amp. 

    
    Bill,
    
    It does it without the ME-5.  What's the $ range of the Hush?
    
    And don't forget, wedding bands can't crank...
    
    

    >     It does it without the ME-5.  What's the $ range of the Hush?
   
    Hmmmm, around $200. for a mono unit (II-BX), and $250. for the stereo
    one (II-CX).  Just put it post everything, right before the poweramp
    in, or whatever you're using for the amp, and it'll work great.  If you
    run your ME-5 post-gain (ie, guit to me-5 to boogie), just stick the
    hush in the effects loop! 
    
    >And don't forget, wedding bands can't crank... 

    I know.  I meant crank up the noise reduction.

      I agree with WJB also Tom. If the ME-5 doesn't cut it, then you'll
    have to go into the bag of tricks and deal with it a different way.
    The Hush units are GREAT. Single coil p/u's are your problem though. 
    I have "vintage hot stack" Duncans on my old Strat and they cut the 
    noise to almost nothing and that's using a "tube" amp as well. The 
    tone is quite close to my original p/u's too! :^)   
    Dimmer switches are a real pain, but you have no control over them. 
    Surpressors won't do anything for you, plus your Boogie has one in
    there anyway. Better filtering *will* do the trick. 
    
    Fred (Addicted Fender Strat owner)

Buying a noise gate hides the problem it doesn't go away.

A noise gate will gate off your signal (and noise) below a certain signal
threshold and gate it on above that threshold. when on the noise is part of 
your signal, no way around it.

Stacks or actives or advanced shielding are about the only ture fixes.

My hot stacks (Semour Duncan) pick up no hum no noise, they're cleaner than
some humbuckers I've owned. They're also a bit expensive at $65 each...

However, you can buy (Stewart McDonald's is one source I know of) conductive 
paint  and paint the eintire cavity and pickguard, then ground the paint and 
it'll get rid of 80% of the hum you get today..

dbii

    RE: .13     Conductive paint and put it in the gnd loop.
    	                 
    This *is* true Dave, but only if you have quiet p/u's to begin
    with. To really "do it up", get some good *quiet* p/u's, paint the
    guitar cavity, make sure it and everything else is grounded properly. 
    That tin foil crap that manufacturers put on the pickguard really 
    isn't as good as soldering a ground wire from pot to pot to pot to 
    switch to "bridge"...etc. Shielding will only do so much to help
    typical single coils in an environment of dimmers switches,
    electric saws, blenders, mix-masters...   ;^) .            
    
    (No more noise)  Fred
   

Actually I know of a fellow who had stock fender single coils in a strat
who fgot rid of a good 80% of the hum using the conductive paint. Considering 
that few pickups are noisier than stock fender single coils...that's good
improvement. As I understand it all Strat Plus' are painted with conductive
paint, that coupled with the shielding in the lace sensor pickups gets a good
amount of noise protection. (stacks still do better!)

However; my choice was hot stacks, I have 6 single coil pickups in 3 guitars, 
all of them are stacked single coils. It's the best solution overall.

dbii

    I hate noise.
    
    I'm forever fighting a losing battle in it.
    
    I'm told that if there were more standards about grounding, and
    stuff was built better, we wouldn't have to worry about this shit.
    
    I'm really fed up with fighting noise.
    
    	db

    
    
    	Yeah, if neck and middle were wired out of phase, you'd get rid of
    any 60 hz crap when you selected both, but you'd also get a really
    tinny sound... I'm talking doinky, doinky, doinky... knowhatimean??
    
    	If you are, (getting doinks) then I'd re-wire neck, and run the
    separate ground talks about earlier... and I wound DEFINATELY check
    that my string ground is enabled... sounds like she's broke... I'll bet
    you don't have continuity from your strings to ... oh, say... your jack
    plate...
    
    
    
    Steve
    
    "kluger" of quiet guitars

    I think the worst noise I ever heard was while I was trying out an
    effect in a store that had (get this) installed a bunch of those catchy
    colored neon light tubes all over the place.  I ended up with a guitar
    with (cheap) single coils and it was buzz city.
    
    I can't believe that a store that was supposedly knowledgable about
    musical instruments would allow neon lights in their display/demo area,
    it's totally stupid.
    
    Greg

The only time I see any real noise anymore is when I get my guitar too close
to the head and I pickup noise direct form the transformers, if I move away 
the noise goes away.

dbii lover of stacks and no noise

      Funny thing, I remember working on a 1965 Fender P-bass and when
    I took off the pickguard, I noticed a metal plate that matched the
    pickguard exactly! This plate had a ground wire soldered to the
    output jack, which then went to the bridge, etc...  the whole loop ya
    know? It didn't have any problem with noise in clubs either if I
    remember. It belonged to a friend of mine who bought it for $85.00! 
    I was planning on buying it for a hefty $135.00, but...  well that's 
    another story. I've often thought of doing the same thing as that
    P-Bass, but the little amount of noise that I get from my Strat
    doesn't make me want to go out and do it. 
    
    Food for thought for some others who may want to go this route.
  
    Fred

    One of my favorite instruments, a florentine '63 L-5 CES, has been
    making ugly crackling noises for a couple of years. Since these
    occurred mostly in the winter, I follow Henny Youngman's advice:
    
    Patient: "Doctor, it hurts when I do this"
    
    Dr: "Don't do that!"
    
    and don't play it in the winter. Removing (and replacing) archtop
    wiring is close behind root canal work in my list of things I don't
    want to do if I can help it. After listening to Wes this weekend, I was
    really in the mood to play this guitar, so I plugged it in. I noticed
    that the crackling stopped when I touched the plug, so I took out a
    meter and checked the resistance from the tailpiece to the guitar jack
    and found an open circuit.
    
    I removed the strings and tailpiece, stopping along the way to pick up
    all the bridge inserts that fell out ( old TOM's look great,  but they
    are a pain ).  I then checked for the string ground wire,  and found it
    hiding in its hole, barely visible. Needle-nose pliers helped extract
    it. I looped it around one of the tailpiece screw holes and replaced
    the tailpiece. Before restringing, I repaired a small fretboard split
    and oiled the board. I checked the resistance again, which is now a
    nice 0.1 ohms. The guitar is as quiet as can be. 
    
    There are a number of points to this story. First, don't overlook the
    obvious. I found the thought of yanking the wiring harness so
    unappealing that I forgot to check for something much simpler. Second,
    if you have an old guitar that is not well shielded, a string ground
    can be a big help. Although Gibson routinely installed these, they
    sometimes forgot ; even when they didn't forget, the grounds often
    disconnect themselves, usually at the tailpiece. 
    
    Finally, the reverse side of the coin--string grounds can be dangerous.
    I'd be careful using one on an ungrounded amp. Since most of my guitars
    have a string ground, I always use a GFI when playing out, and I test
    for ground problems after setting up, with a neon light tester hooked
    to a pair of 60 foot test leads. I haven't been electrocuted once ;-).
    
    Danny W.
    

    Danny:
    
    Excuse the question from an electric instrument neophyte, but what's a
    GFI?
    
    Inquiring minds want to know.
    
    Thanks,
    
    - Evan

	Ground Fault Interruptor. Like the thing in the bathroom where
	the wife plugs in the blow drier. If the circuit detects that
	power is being grounded unexpectedly (like to the water in the
	tub HACHA!) the circuit shuts off.

	These are neat things to have if you're doing anything with
	electricity and water or you are goofing with an ungrounded
	appliance. Check your local hardware store.

	ccb

    Thanks -- I'm going to pick up two, one for the guitar (once I get the
    bucks together) and one (immediately) for the wife's hair dryer.
    
    - Evan

    
    
    
    	I owe dbii for this one (thanks, Dave) I just finished a Stew-Mac
    Strat and decided to go "whole hog" with the RF insulation.  I used
    some metal foil that was being sold in the auto parts place at K-Mart
    or Ames (forget which) and lined all the cavities in the body, even the
    jack cavity.. this stuff is pretty easy to work with (except, it cuts
    like a razor) and the whole job took 1/2 hour to 45 minutes.  I ohmed
    out each piece to make sure that it was connected to ground, and the
    ones that weren't I made a little solder short to complete the ground
    curcuit. I also covered the pick guard on the control side(where my
    hands usually make those littel crackling noises on the screws) and
    made sure that all the screw heads went to ground.  Anyway, this axe is
    quiet as a tomb.. no lie.. I can't hear anything when I plug in.  I'd
    recommned the process to anyone who's building.
    
    
    Regards,
    Steve
    

now if it was that quiet where I played last weekend...

jeesh talk about EMI!!!

buzzing away...dbii

    Re .25:
    
    I've also lined the body of my Strat with metal foil that I got from an
    ad in an old _Guitar Player_...adhesive backed copper.  I didn't line the
    jack cavity.  I did install Duncan p/u's in all three positions.  Since
    I did both these mods at the same time, I couldn't sat which mod 
    contributed more to the quietness of the guitar, but it was acceptable.
    
    Do you have a name brand for the foil material you got at the auto parts
    store?  The copper foil I put in 15 years ago has developed some 
    slight corrosion (I always thought the air in clubs was corrosive!), so
    it's time to rebuild and add the jack cavity shielding at the same
    time.
    
    At the risk of beating a dead horse, all the power line conditioners 
    in the world won't help RF (radio frequency) generated hum.  It will
    certainly remove the 120hz tone one gets from 60hz AC.  The GFCI is
    a good idea, but will have no effect on hum, either RF or AC generated.
    The guitar p/u's act as an antenna...you can prove it by pivoting 90
    degrees while wearing the guitar: the hum will change.  It's analogous
    to adjusting the rabbit ears on the tube to get a better picture.
    
    Regards,
    jrk