Noise/

[NightWinder]

First for everything..........
A customer has a 7 string I built a few yrs ago. All of a sudden, he says its humming out of control. I say send it back, I'll scope it out. There is nothing wrong with the pickup whatsoever???I rewound it anyway. The original, and the rewind were both heavily waxed. Now he is in a higher gain application,so the rewind was potted thouroughly.
Now he's saying its noisy? I've never had this problem, and you guys know how I like my high gainers and such. Is there anything that might cause the humbucker to be generally noisy? I'm stumped? Never had this issue. Its not an issue, only with him. I've even tryed both the pickup he send, and the rewound with no audible noise whateo ever? He is kinda a celeb, but I may be leaning towards him trying to get freebees, which I don't pass my shit out like candy to girlscouts......
I think he may be fucking with me man?
Any thoughts, I'm all ears?
Thanks guys...

[kevinT]

what kind of guitar is he using (brand)?

Any metal pickguards?

Does the player have on any jewelry when playing (bracelet, big rings)?

[NightWinder]

Its an Ibanez. I'm sure he changed the pots? I'll have to ask about the metal pickguards...Got ????
No, he's not a jewlery guy?

what kind of guitar is he using (brand)?

Any metal pickguards?

Does the player have on any jewelry when playing (bracelet, big rings)?

[Spence]

Sounds more like an earthing issue. You need to see the guitar and be able to check his leads too. I recently had a suprise when a guitar I fitted pickups too was making a shit load of noise. It was the so-called shielded guitar lead that was the problem.

[corduroyew]

I was thinking the same thing about the guitar lead. Could be the ground that goes to the bridge has broken too. I know lots of people that have added shielded their guitars but then didn't ground the shielding which adds lots of noise too. If he is running his FX off of more than 1 circuit that can cause hum. If there are home appliances running on the same circuit that his FX or amp are plugged into that can cause hum. Being too close to florescent lighting will do it. If there is a problem with his amp or any of his FX that could do it. Even if you are not using any pedals or FX there is still a laundry list of stuff that could cause hum all of which have nothing to do with the pickups.

[NightWinder]

Maybe he wants to be catered? All I know, is I originally sold the pickup, the guy sold his guitar to another, and the guy contacts me ranting and raving about how splended it is. A few weeks, and all of a sudden, its humming. I test it, nothing is wrong. I hook him up anyway with a rewind, and now Its "noisy". These coils are waxed dude.....Its getting blamed on the pickup....Never In my day did a customer come this way with that type of statement? I lean towards a grounding issue....Maybe a bad pot? Or, he may have it up to close. I like to set mine at about 2mm and work it out from there...He's using pedals so.....Fuck man. Hum???? Could be any of which you guys stated, but truely I'm not an idiot either.....This guys asking if I waxed them????WTF.....Its gotta be a grounding issue on his guitar or something./

[Possum]

gounding...

You know I got a ground lifter plug adapter which basically you plug your 3 prong plug into and it becomes a two prong plug with no ground.......playing through my Marshall studio amp plugged in that way the buckers hum........

[NightWinder]

Hows that thing working for you BTW? You change the tubes? (topic)- I have'nt heard back from him yet, so I'm froze.

[mick]

Trouble is that not everybody is adept a changing pickups , pots , soldering etc , so the first thing they will blame for noise will be your pickups..it's easier than admitting they have fucked up something whilst jiggling that 100 watt iron with the too big tip around the cavity...

Mick

[NightWinder]

Yeah, I hear ya. Last I talked to him, he says he could'nt get the pickup any lower than 2mm from the strings, and now says the screws are too long, and had to drill small holes in the cavity........This is also the same guitar the other pickup was in.....Same shell/ same height? We'll see where it gos.........

[Possum]

Marshall Studio

NW, the Marshall Studio is a cool little amp, I'm glad I got it plus it will gain in value over time since they only made 450 or so of them. Its a bit noisy with all the knobs dimed but has great tone, can be a bit boxy sounding because of the small cab size. Fun to play :-) Only amp they ever made with 6V6s...