I don't understand where this noise could be coming from.

[huuurreeeeeeee]

So I decided I would re-wire my guitar. I took it apart and ran into a problem immediately.

To start with, I tried to connect just one pickup to the amplifier, but there was a problem. There is a steady humming that won't go away. When I was using my guitar just today with everything connected, there was no such noise.

I measured the frequency of the noise, it is 60Hz.



When I touch the audio jack as shown in the image, the noise gets quieter, the more of my finger is touching the metal, the quieter it gets, but it never fully goes away.



Touching any ground connections, or the metal on the pickup makes the noise louder. It seems that everything is grounded, and as I said there used to be no noise. I apologise if this a total newbie question, but I just couldn't find anywhere else that I could find an explanation for this, so posting here hoping some generous people might give me a clue.
Thanks a lot if you do

[nevetslab]

From the two photos, I see the RED wire is connected to the phone jack Sleeve (ground) and the YELLOW wire connected to the jack TIP contact. The other end of that cable connects to your pickup. But, I see the YELLOW wire is connected to the shield, so you have the RED and YELLOW wires reversed on the jack connections. So in this shot, you only have the pickup wired to the jack, no pot, no tone controls, and, no ground connected to the bridge. I see a Yellow wire soldered to a Red wire, and the Red wire disappears into a hole, which we might assume the other end is connected (by pressure) to the bottom side of the bridge, or to the bridge height fasteners pressed into the body. I don't see the bridge being connected to the phone jack sleeve (ground).

Reverse the wires at the pickup, and then get Ground (from the Bridge) connected to the Sleeve terminal of the phone jack (Ground).

[huuurreeeeeeee]

From the two photos, I see the RED wire is connected to the phone jack Sleeve (ground) and the YELLOW wire connected to the jack TIP contact. The other end of that cable connects to your pickup. But, I see the YELLOW wire is connected to the shield, so you have the RED and YELLOW wires reversed on the jack connections. So in this shot, you only have the pickup wired to the jack, no pot, no tone controls, and, no ground connected to the bridge. I see a Yellow wire soldered to a Red wire, and the Red wire disappears into a hole, which we might assume the other end is connected (by pressure) to the bottom side of the bridge, or to the bridge height fasteners pressed into the body. I don't see the bridge being connected to the phone jack sleeve (ground).

Reverse the wires at the pickup, and then get Ground (from the Bridge) connected to the Sleeve terminal of the phone jack (Ground).

nevetslab The RED and YELLOW wires actually correspond. The red goes to the hot connection on the jack, and the YELLOW goes to the ground.

[The Dude]

nevetslab The RED and YELLOW wires actually correspond. The red goes to the hot connection on the jack, and the YELLOW goes to the ground.

That is clearly not the case in your photo. I see yellow going to tip and red going to sleeve.
Also, that extra length of unshielded wire is going to pickup any noise in the room- fluorescent lights, etc.

[dragonwerx]

Do you have a history of paranoia?

[huuurreeeeeeee]

That is clearly not the case in your photo. I see yellow going to tip and red going to sleeve.
Also, that extra length of unshielded wire is going to pickup any noise in the room- fluorescent lights, etc.

The Dude How can you tell? Is the longer one the sleeve?

[The Dude]

The tip of the plug is aptly called the tip connection. That is the positive connection. The other is the sleeve- generally ground. Look at your picture. You can see that one of the solder lugs goes to the sleeve connection because it is clearly visible from lug to sleeve connection of the jack. You have the positive wire to that lug and it should be to the other.

Edit (for a bit more clarity):

[huuurreeeeeeee]

The Dude That actually turned to be it! Thank you so much.