Noise cancellation on pickups with base plates

[ScottA]

Hum and buzz do not separate into different physical phenomena. Hum is the lower harmonics, and buzz is the higher harmonics, but both can result from either electric or magnetic field interference.

It is interference from electric and magnetic fields that have to be treated differently, not "hum" and "buzz".

This is just exasperating.

[Mike Sulzer]

This is just exasperating.

My feelings exactly. Hum and buzz are different sounds; each has one of two possible physical causes. Why do you treat them as if the sound is definitely associated with one cause?

[ScottA]

My feelings exactly. Hum and buzz are different sounds; each has one of two possible physical causes. Why do you treat them as if the sound is definitely associated with one cause?

They are two different, distinguishable types of noise. They arise from different physical phenomena and they are also cancelled or reduced in different ways...

...You can call them whatever you like, but they are two differentiated types of noise and they have to be dealt with differently.

The exasperating point.

It appears we violently agree.

I'm simply choosing to adjust the definition of the commonly used terms to help differentiate between the two distinct types of noise. Whenever I do this I explain this point explicitly, as I did above.

I would add that you are apparently applying your own, somewhat arbitrary, distinction of the definition of hum and buzz to lower and higher harmonics respectively. I don't think I've seen a definitive distinction like this anywhere else. In fact in many cases the terms seem to be used interchangeably.

[Mark Hammer]

I think what both Scott and Jason are trying to convey is that baseplates may somehow "invite" higher harmonics from the same general EMI source. How it does so is a mystery. That we perceptually organize this as two different kinds of noise may be dissociated from there being a single common source of both kinds, with separate mediation of noise-subtype (e.g., by baseplate).

I'm agnostic on all of this, since I've never had enough experience to have heard it (especially given the fluorescent-lit super-noisy workspace I am typically in). I'm just trying to reconcile all three viewpoints.

[ScottA]

I make pickups that are very good at cancelling magnetic interference. Almost perfect.

This makes the other type of noise easier to isolate.

For example, I only use baseplates on the lower output versions of my Tele bridge pickup.

They buzz. They are by far the noisiest pickups I make, to the point that I make qualifying statements about the residual noise with these particular models.

The higher output Tele versions without baseplates are actually more quiet.

It's not terrible though, just in comparison to the really quiet ones. In real terms they make about as much noise as a typical uncovered humbucker. But, it's the type of noise that you can't get rid of when you turn your body.

It's also part of the Tele tone (not the buzz, the inductive and magnetic flux focusing effects) so I do it on those models.

As mentioned above, shielding helps.