I'm sure this has been a topic before so forgive me for asking....
So NGD No.2 arrived yesterday-a rather nice 2017 LP Tribute in faded honey burst (pics to follow). It feels great to play but I immediately noticed that there is rather a lot of hum/buzz when not touching anything metal on it. If you touch the strings/pups/tail/saddle most of it immediately goes away until it's not being touched again. Admittedly my Katana is set on 'Brown' with some blues driver effect as well so it's fairly dirty but compared to my PRS SE Custom 24 on the same settings, the noise is considerable.
Most of what I can find out leads me to believe this is extremely common and most just live with it-even R8 and R9 owners. Either that or people go down the shielding route.
So my question is-is this really that common? For me it's probably something I can live with and learn excessive use of the volume knobs to cut it out, but I would be grateful of others thoughts.
Cheers
Comments
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
When you touch the strings, the noise goes. That means your bridge & strings are properly grounded so no need to worry about that.
It's probably a noisy RF environment around you. Can you switch off monitors, fluorescent lights and other stuff in the area?
Does it happen when you're not holding the guitar - when it's put down and you're not near it?
As far as I can tell these sorts of noise are RF being picked up by your own body and then by the pickups or some other wiring. As soon as you touch the strings you're earthing yourself and the noise you're picking up is being taken off to earth.
Exactly this. My 2017 SG Standard and LP Tribute make the same noise until I touch the strings etc. I live in an old large house that has been converted into apartments, so I expect it. Sometimes it is nowhere near as noticeable.
Don't worry.
The neck made a crackling noise with a static type of buzz and when touching the strings it went away. The dealer offered to send it back but I delved into the wiring and found the culprit. I soldered the wire to ground and all was good.
As you have another guitar that's OK, it's probably some shielding problem (or just a lack of shielding). The other guitar is just better shielded, including from the RF your body picks up.
@mbe makes a good suggestion too, perhaps internal shielding isn't earthed properly. It could be something like that.
Yes - all fixed. Was done via GUITARGUITAR. The shop had it first and said no fault found but i managed to catch the issue on video and the shop sent it on to gibson