Grounding

[eggman6]

switching the coils created alot of hum. Theres no bare wires.

[David Schwab]

switching the coils created alot of hum. Theres no bare wires.

OK so the coils are not out of phase.

There should be a bare wire. Did you strip the ends of the jacket back to see?

[eggman6]

I'll just describe the wiring arrangement, 5 insulated wires, 4 are from the pickup coils, one is soldered to the top of the PCB base.

[David Schwab]

I'll just describe the wiring arrangement, 5 insulated wires, 4 are from the pickup coils, one is soldered to the top of the PCB base.

Do you have the extra wire soldered to ground? That's your ground for the shielding. And of course ground the strings.

I test pickups all the time without having them installed in the instrument (alligator clips attached to a jack), and I have to make sure the shield on the pickup is grounded as well of the strings or I get a lot of electrostatic buzzing.

[Chuck H]

Do the humbuckers hum (buzz) more than your single coils WITH the single coils volume on 10 and NOT using a humbucking position on the 5-way switch? Further, do the humbuckers hum (buzz) more than simply plugging a cord into the amp with no guitar connected.

This is important. The way your humbuckers are wired they offer individual pickup control but leave the amp input floating at it's 1Meg impedance. The way your strat is wired does not do this. It varies the amps input impedance according to the guitars output. A "floating" input will always be more noisy than a grounded single coil. So it's important to guage your criteria on all things being created equal.

If you have access to another two humbucker guitar with independant volume controls, that is to say that with both humbuckers in parallel you can turn down one OR the other OR both, you could plug that guitar into the same amp in the same room with the same lights on and see if the problem exists with the other guitar as well.

Chuck

[eggman6]

I've tried a number of different wiring arrangements, these humbuckers are more noisy than my single coils no matter what.

I'll do some more testing tomorrow, just found an old humbucker to experiment with.

[David Schwab]

I've tried a number of different wiring arrangements, these humbuckers are more noisy than my single coils no matter what.

You are missing the ground wire. That's why you are getting that buzz.

Did you ever try stripping the cable's jacket back a bit to see if the wire is there, but broken too short? That would fix your problem instantly.

[eggman6]

What should this ground wire be soldered to? i thought the wire going to the base was the ground. I doubt the wire would break its the stranded stuff, unless you're on about stripping back the insulation/sheath that would normally surround all the wires, doesn't have this, just the 5 wires comming from the pickup and twisted together. According to the diagram i have i'm not missing any wires.

[David Schwab]

What should this ground wire be soldered to? i thought the wire going to the base was the ground. I doubt the wire would break its the stranded stuff, unless you're on about stripping back the insulation/sheath that would normally surround all the wires, doesn't have this, just the 5 wires comming from the pickup and twisted together. According to the diagram i have i'm not missing any wires.

OK, so you are grounding that, right?

The noise you are experiencing is what you would get if the internal parts of the pickup were not grounded, or the pickup lacked any kind of shielding.

[eggman6]

Indeed. i've taken the base off going to make a new one out of some metal, doubt it will make any difference though.

[eggman6]

Just had a thought, could it be that they have gone microphonic and need repotting?