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Topic: Grounding a rickenbacker Horseshoe pickup |
Alan Simon
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 2 Nov 2015 9:36 am |
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I just bought an Ace lap steel with a Rickenbacker horseshoe pickup. The body is bakelite as I suppose all are. It sounds wonderful but it buzzes if your picking palm is not resting on the top of the pickup to ground it out. It is a stringthru body and I'm not sure how to ground the strings to the pickup so I don't have to rest my palm on the pickup to stop the buzz. The strings are seperate and string thru the back of the bakelite body. This one has got me stumped. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in Advance, Alan
Last edited by Alan Simon on 2 Nov 2015 11:00 am; edited 1 time in total |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 2 Nov 2015 9:54 am
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| this is a common problem. hopefully someone has an easy fix for it. |
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 2 Nov 2015 6:36 pm
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The pickup is ground properly ... If not it would get very noisy when you touch it ...
What is going on, is that you are acting as a EMR/RF "antenna" and when you touch the grounded magnets ... Your "noise" shunts to ground ...
What's making matters out of hand for you ... Aces and Academy's have a metal backing (covered with felt) ... That plate isn't grounded ...
You can either remove it ... Or drill a small hole and bolt on a ground wire and run it to the sleeve of the jack ...
That will help that buzz/hum a lot ...
As for grounding yourself ( some people are more staticky) than others ... You could get one of those static wrist bands ... Used by computer guys ... And clip it to the sleeve of the 1/4" plug ... It's worse in winter with low humidity ...
It is true that the strings are not ground (like prewar bakelites) ... Some folks have rigged a thin metal shim to put on ... Between the ball end and the loading Bakelite area ... Then run a wire from that to the sleeve of the 1/4" jack ...
But most folks don't bother with that ...
Anyway ... fix that back plate ... either ground it, or remove it ... That should help ALOT ...
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Alan Simon
From:
Tennessee, USA
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Posted 2 Nov 2015 7:26 pm
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| Hey Rick, Thanks for your in depth reply. I removed the back, as you suggested, and I still have the static buzz. No hum by the way, just a single coil, loud buzz. I took some solder wire and wrapped it around the strings and wrapped it around the horseshoe magnet. It quieted down the buzz but it was still there but when I touched the strings it was dead quite. That will work for me so I think I will make a plate for the strings to pass thru in the back of the guitar and run a ground to the plate as well as the fuzzy back guitar plate. Hope that works cause I really love the tone on this guitar and want to play it with as little buzz as possible. |
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