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hey, guys

so, let's get real

i'm stacking dirt. I've always been a stacker. aand as you know, Jazzmasters + stacked dirt = noisetown. I'm talking about the hum

my question is - how do you battle it? do you even battle it? Should i just man up and embrace the shit or is there an affordable way out?

EHX Hum-debugger?

I dont use jazzy pickups but on my teles this is why I almost always have both engaged so they hum cancel....jazzys don't do this?

they do, but i don't always need the middle position tonality, do i... i use all three positions a lot

anyway i'm talking about a lot of gain here... like fingerprint into a rat, both pretty cooking... maybe there's nothing to do but turn stuff off very tightly on time etc?

why not just use a noise gate?

yeah, that's why i'm asking about the hum debugger as well... i've always been wondering about thet one - does anyone have any experience?

I choose just to embrace it and turn down as soon as I stop playing. Imperfect, but that's the curse of single coils.
The most you can really do is get new pickups that are humbucking, but that isn't cheap.
No experience with noise gates though, sorry.

DarkAxel wrote:yeah, that's why i'm asking about the hum debugger as well... i've always been wondering about thet one - does anyone have any experience?

From what ive heard it kinda sucks and adversely affects your tone. Your best bet then would be run a noise gate, gated fuzz (like the frazz), or even a volume pedal after the fuzz to kill the sound when your not playing. There isint much you can do the fix it while playing.

the tone suckage is my real fear when it comes to noise gates and whatnots...


okay, sorry for the redundant topic i'll see how things go in the future. right now, i'll man up

To "help" with the noise you can shield the entire cavity and under the pickguard with copper tape, but your best bet is going to be running a noise gate (I've had great success with the ISP decimator before) at the front of your chain to kill the feedback. If set correctly there's no tone suckage, but notes can decay oddly especially if sustained, under high gain conditions though its hardly noticeable as long as its at the front of your chain.

Aluminum pickguard or a layer of aluminum under the pickguard? It can change the tone a bit (not just some TGP hypochondria) but it nukes a lot of hum.

[Ah, I see AA beat me to mentioning shielding. I forget the reasons, but just the flat plane of aluminum at pickguard level is often sufficient to do a lot to help. I'd go that way since I don't trust gates, but then again I've never tried the ISP stuff.]

ah, good idea! thanks

Gone Fission wrote:Aluminum pickguard or a layer of aluminum under the pickguard? It can change the tone a bit (not just some TGP hypochondria) but it nukes a lot of hum.

An aluminum pickguard is a good call, I put a squier gold p/g on my classic player jazz and it helped quite a bit actually. It changes the tone by helping remove the some of the mid range muddiness caused by really quiet feedback which is cancelled out by the shielding. So yes its not just TGP hypochondria.

DarkAxel wrote:ah, good idea! thanks

If you want a good noisegate without tone suckage I can't recommend the MXR Smart Gate enough. I have also used a Boss NS-2 in the past, and it was really good. I didn't dig the whole effects loop thing, tho. (MXR Noise clamp also has a loop, smart gate does not). I've heard bad things about the hum debugger, so I always avoided it, but if you're looking for a noise reduction pedal, the rocktron hush is pretty good and not too pricey, IMO.

I embrace it and roll the volume off like FancyMike!

Shield that jank, man. Aluminum pickguards look cool but I don't think they're necessary if you cover all of the cavities in shielding tape, connect them together with a little more tape, shield the bottom of the pickguard, and connect that to the cavities. It should be much quieter afterward.
You can cheap out and do it with aluminum foil but it's more of a pain in the ass.

YEAH I MISSED A COUPLE POSTS WHATEVER