Hum Fixes for Single Coil?

Bill Bertinot · From: Burlington Ky

A lot of people probably would not mind the amount of hum I am talking about, but, in todays modern electronic world there must be a fix out there for that 60 cycle hum - or am I being a silly optimist!
I would appreciate any suggestions to lessen the hum using the True Tone with my LG III. I have used various humbuckers and the alumitone, all hum-less with their own unique nice tones. However, my preference is the Wallace True Tone. I am playing through a Nashville 1000. Positioning the steel at various angles to the amp has little difference. Also, in my opinion, EQ'ing it out changes that great tone.
Playing live with a band it's not that big of a deal, but in the quiet space of my studio I would love to hear anyones successful actions in "bucking" that hum!

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Robert Gifford · From: Venus, TX, USA (DFW Area)

All single coil pickups will have some noise. The best you can do is try to contain it with good shielding... that being said the hum can be worse or better depending on the particular pickup.

Companies for years have been trying to figure ways around it. The best ones I've seen either utilize stacked coils or dummy coils... but with either method you basically turn your single coil into a "humbucker."

Bill Bertinot · From: Burlington Ky

Robert,

How would you suggest I further shield the pickup or wires leading to the input plug?

Graeme Jaye · From: Spain

If you can accept yet another bit of electronics in your rig, then you could use a parametric equaliser and set it to notch out the offending frequency.
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Ray McCarthy · From: New Hampshire, USA

I use the TruTone also, and the slight hum (only when the pedal is mashed) has never been noticed by the guys in the band or anyone else, but I have an idea which I haven't yet tried. It might be silly, I don't know, but suppose you had a big sheet of foil, or a sheet pan--something like that, that you would connect to ground to act as a shunt. You could move it around for the best result. It seems to me it would cancel a lot of the magnetic energy causing the hum.

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David Ball · From: North Carolina High Country

I use an EH HumDebugger and it works great. Doesn't change the tone of the guitar, but removes probably 95% of the hum from the single coils.

Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

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Ken Metcalf · From: San Antonio Texas USA

I have a Hum-X and it will take the buzz out of my laptop, but not amp hum.
Also I have noticed that my Emmons single coil has considerably less hum than a TT single coil.
Which seems odd to me as they are in theory identical or very similar.
It is part of the price you pay for the good Single coil sound.... Same as the Telecaster

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Robert Gifford · From: Venus, TX, USA (DFW Area)

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

Bill, how were the single coils in the Blanton steels?
Did Jerry have a certain way of getting around the hum?

I am listening to your Jambalaya as we speak. What a great tone coming from that Blanton!
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Jerry Overstreet · From: Louisville Ky

I lined the pickup cavity of my Zum with copper shielding tape when I installed a TT. Didn't help a bit.

Same with the Alumitone, which contrary to propaganda, though quieter than most s/c's, is not 100% hum free, at least not in my guitar.

The Boss multi units VF-1 and SE-70 have a Hum Canceler patch that works perfectly on 50 or 60 Hz hum....only problem is they are dedicated noise free algorithms containing just the Hum Canceler and Noise Suppressor.

No other effects can be used in that patch, so you'd need another source for rev/delay, and other effects when using that algorithm.

It is dead quiet though.

Nic du Toit · From: Milnerton, Cape, South Africa

Get a good DI box....like a Boss DI-I...all kinds of possibilities there.....even an earth lift....
You can either have it between your VP output and Amp input, or patch it between the pre-amp and power amp. Of course, there are various other ways of doing it.....
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Bill Bertinot · From: Burlington Ky

BENT:

That's the original pickup in the Blanton. I assume it's single coil since it only has that one row of poles - I don't think there's another coil underneath. It is pretty quite. I have no idea how he did that.
The Emmons was recorded using the 108 Humbucker. Nice sounding pickup in the Emmons.

Bill Bertinot · From: Burlington Ky

To everyone who has replied to this post:

THANK YOU, I am taking notes and will try some of these fixes!

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

David Mason · From: Cambridge, MD, USA

Hum-bucking? Ummmm... this has been thought through, and "hum" - "bucking" pickups are what great minds came up with. Both Lawrences and Alumitones can be EQ'd to be bright enough to crack teeth, the "ol' muddy" is a thing of the past.

Brian McGaughey · From: Orcas Island, WA USA

Bill, great playing on the Jambalaya cut...nice!

I don't have anything to add to what others have said other than in my limited experience I've given up single coils because they were too noisey for the musical setting I'm in. I've not tried all the humbuckers out there but BL 710s come close to s/c to my ear.

Good luck, and again loved your playing and backing track.

Pat Comeau · From: New Brunswick, Canada

I have a Wallace True-Tone single coil in my SD10 and with my peavey session 500 i can hardly hear the hum, i also have a E-66 humbucker in my other S10 steel and i've compared them and the hum coming out of the TT single coil is not enought to mention Oh Well

, i don't understand why some people makes a big deal with single coil pickup...i really think that if the noise or hum coming from a single coil is more amplified or louder than normal it probably as to do with bad equipments, bad wires and different guitars and setup and also the room wiring ,bad dimmers ect..., sometimes changing polarity can cancel the hum to almost nothing, and trying to sheild it with foil copper ect...doesn't always work Oh Well

.

you can't beat the sound of a single coil, isn't that sound we're all after...Emmons, Sho-Bud Razz

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Ian Sutton · From: San Francisco, CA

if you just teach it the words, it will no longer hum! Very Happy

I just replaced my BL 705 with an GL E-66 and the E-66 humbucker really nails the old single coil tone IMO.

Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

I, too, have an excellent humbucker (Fulawka 19K)
But when I started dabbling in winding my own pups, the bug bit me and I am now on a (impossible?) quest to wind a single coil with acceptable hum or none at all. The reason is that although I love the sound of my humbucker, there is a different sound in the single that I just like. Can't explain it, I just know that I like it.

Basically, I think I have wound the 7 or 8 pups so far about the same way. I have also used shielding and grounding much the same way and the result so far is not acceptable. However, something funny happened with the last one; it is quieter that the others. It seems as if winding a pup is a lottery ...luck.

I have used the same type/gauge wire, the same Alnico 5 pole magnets, the same lead wires, the same shielding and grounding.
I have not found out why this one is better. But I have theories: It is quieter some days than others, so I believe there are some outside forces at work like maybe a faulty transformer in the neighborhood.

I believe that the way my current steel is built has something to do with it: It has a wood neck all the way up to the changer, no aluminum tail piece even. I am theorizing that an alum. neck, or even a tail piece around the pup would help cut a wee bit of the hum.
Likewise a shielded lead wire might help.

I made two pickups for people in the UK, where they have 50 cycles/240V power. These two guys report back to me: Hardly any hum to worry about; and: no more hum than in my ZumSteel singlecoil.

Also, most steelers in Norway love their single coils. They are used for recording as well as live.
Same power supply there, 240V/50HZ. One thing that I was told by a steeler there: He thinks that since most of the wiring is buried, that this makes a difference as well.

I scatterwind the pups clock- and counter clockwise, makes no difference. I choose the inside wire as ground.

Here is how I shield my pups: first a winding of tape around the coil, then copper foil around it that gets grounded, then more tape. I also tried lining the pup cavity with foil, which didn't help at all. The insulated leads get wound together. This seems to help a bit.

I would think that the location of my guitar would be one of the worst: In my shop where it is surrounded by electric motors and fluorescent lights. Makes no difference; I have the same amount of hum in my house.

Suggestions for improvement would be appreciated!
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David Ball · From: North Carolina High Country

Alembic used to have a center "dummy coil" on their guitars that was wound backwards from the direction of the pickup winding. This coil had no magnets--it behavedike the second coil on a humbucker otherwise. The Alembic pickups were low impedance active single coils, I believe. The resulting sound was still very single coil like, but much quieter.

Just a thought.

Dave

Jim Pitman · From: Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA

A standing magnetic wave like the one emitted from a line transfomer is the cause of hum in a single coil magnetic pickup. It can be real loud. It's amplitude will be proportional to the strenght of the standing wave. Proximity to the generator (typically a transfomer) will affect the amplitude as the strenght of the wave drops off as the square of the distance.
I played a gig in a building that had such a strong standing magnetic wave that the hum was louder than the signal. You can affect the magnitude or reduce it by repostioning your guitar because the angle at which the wave hits your pickup also affects the amplitude.
There are three ways I know of to reduce hum in a single coil pickup:
1. Wire another dummy single coil pickup in parallel positioned such that its' magnets are opposite polarity. That is, if the pickup in your guitar has the magnets pointing with the south up then place the dummy pickup somewhat close by perhaps under the guitar with the magnets pointing north up. The magnetic orientation can be determined with a compass. You also have to experiment with the polarity of the new wires. One way will amplify the hum, the other will reduce it.
BTW this is how a humbucker works, only in the case of the humbucker, both coils also contribute to the amplitude of the guitar signal. Each coil in humbucker produces a hum signal opposite polarity so they cancel when hit by a standing magnetic wave.
I'm thinking the dummy pcikup method will change the tone of your guitar a bit though.
2. Make a farady cage around your pickup. Make a container that fits around your pickup out of mhu metal. Mhu metal stops standing waves. Make sure you leave the string side totally open or you will stop your signal too.
3. Play in a house that doesn't have any other electrical applicances turned on, is far away from other buildings, and place your amp far away.

Elton Smith · From: Texas, USA

That was a huge problem with early telecasters.Leo went to enamaled wire for some help.And wax dipping to stop some of that.I think the reverse wound dummy is the best.Have you tried the enamal wire along with all the other suggestions?
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Bent Romnes · From: London,Ontario, Canada

Elton, yes I use enameled wire as well as waxing or "potting" the pickup. Although potting helps cut microphoning, it doesn't do anything for the hum.

Jim, thanks for your tips..I should have gotten back to you a long time ago. I will cross-check on the stuff you mentioned. I am leery of a dummy coil, like you say it just might make my guitar sound like its got a humbucker on it and that wasn't the idea.

What's this mhu metal? Sounds interesting, I will find info on it as well. Who knows, eh?
Thanks again Jim
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Rich Peterson · From: Moorhead, MN

Here's a trick I learned from Bill Lawrence. I use it on the bridge humbucker of my Carvin TL-60.

The guitar came with coil tap installed, a three way miniswitch. Center did nothing To either side, the junction of the two coils is connected to either the hot or the ground, shorting out that coil.

The modification I made was to use a capacitor rather than a dead short across one coil. This dumps the higher harmonics of one coil, eliminating the phase cancellation the creates that "humbucker sound." But the power of the p/u stays strong and most of the hum is still canceled.

Gives me the sound of a humbucker and a really good Tele tone. The Strat sound (cap across the coil away from the bridge) is a lot fatter, which I like. I get lots of positive comments on the sound of that axe.

Experiment with different capacitor values to see which you prefer. I believe one pickup manufacturer employed this technique after Bill described it in a Guitar Player interview. They claimed to "tune" one coil of that particular model. But the concept would not be patentable, only the specific design of their pickup.

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