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June 16, 2007

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

Telecaster Hum & Noise - ground problem?

I have been tearing my hair out over this one. At a recent gig, my Squier Telecaster in which I have Virtual Vintage Noiseless pickups, suddenly started to hum or buzz terribly. It sounds like a ground hum problem, and I figured it must have been the input jack that went haywire.

Well, after a replaced input jack, replaced 3-way switch, blood, sweat and tears plus a few hours of wasted time, I haven't gotten anywhere.

I kind of gave up. I was fed up with it, so I had my wife drop it off at a guitar repair place in Edmonton. It's currently there waiting to be fixed by next week. I talked to the tech, and he said it would just re-wire everything and it should be fine.

I am not a professional guitar tech, but I have learned quite a few things over the years, and installing pickups and soldering has never been any problems for me. This one though, had me stumped. I check everything, or so I think. I must have missed something, obviously.

It is so frustrating to have malfunctioning gear! The Squier Tele is a cheap guitar, but with these Virtual T pickups, it is very sweet sounding and it also plays perfectly. It is my #2 guitar, after my Fender Strat.

Here's to a sigh of relief when I get it back from the repair guy! He'd better fix it good!

By Robert Renman - www.dolphinstreet.com

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Posted by Robert Renman on June 16, 2007

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Comments on this blog entry

David Welsh said...

I have a 3 pick up mim Fender Deluxe Tele. When I rub my fingers over the lower third of the pick guard there is a static sound. Any thoughts? This is the only time there is noise, when I touch that part of the pick guard.

Comment added on January 08, 2011

federico carballo said...

well friends...i have a squier telecaster recently rewired and the problem still...i have change the pickups and nothing...help!!!

Comment added on December 23, 2009

Ryan said...

A lot of times venues just have really terrible grounding to their power in general. I have an American Standard Tele and I've had this trouble before at certain venues as well, but It's not the guitar in my situation. Your best bet to eliminate the problem would be to buy a nice power conditioner to run your stuff through. Monster actually makes "clean power" strips. Check those out.

Comment added on March 17, 2009

Robert said...

Yes, Ron, it fixed it perfectly.

Comment added on September 11, 2007

Ron said...

So the complete rewire fixed the hum and buzz?

Comment added on September 11, 2007

Robert said...

Yeah, I took it to a guitar tech and he totally rewired it from scratch. I am actually not sure what the problem was. Are you having noise issues?

Comment added on September 05, 2007

CRaab said...

I have a similar problem, was the problem fixed and what was done to fix the problem.