G&L CLassic S with MFD pickups very noisy .. is this normal?

[guru4you]

I just picked up a 2016 G&L CLassic S with MFD pickups and find it to be incredibly noisy on any single pickup setting. On the two pickup settings there is no hum at all. I had an ASAT Special that was fine and I tried the same amp/cable with a Legacy and the noise was not an issue. Is this normal for these smaller MFD pickups? It is noisy enough to actually be heard in concert with the playing ... a bit disturbing. Any guidance here would be appreciated.

[neutralomen]

Any single coil will have hum. There are two kinds of hum, both of which can be heard through singles. There is cycle hum, which sounds almost like a phase shifter as you bring the pickup closer to the amp. Then there is the actual signal buzz. Both of these types of noise decrease significantly the farther away from the amp you get, and the more you face the pickups away from the speaker.

Forgive me if you knew some if not all of that already.

There may be other things affecting your hum. Make sure your cables are relatively high quality, and make sure all the pots on all your inputs are secure, tightly screwed, and clean.

If your cabling is very long, you lose signal strength and signal clarity. Some noise may be exacerbated by excessive cable length.

If you're using any kind of compression or gain on your amplifier, that will bring the levels of your quiet pitches up, but it will also increase the inherent hum.

The only way to use gain and get around hum is with humbuckers.

If you're using single coils, however, the buzz, while noticeable, shouldn't be very loud if you're using clean/lightly overdriven signals.

I replaced the MFD on my ASAT special with an aftermarket humbucker by rio grande. It wasn't any louder than a P90, in fact, it's quieter than a P90, but P90s are REALLY loud, so that's not saying much.

For anything medium to high gain, go with humbuckers. It's the only way to truly eliminate hum.

In the short term you can also use a noise gate pedal, but that doesn't do anything for the cycle hum that continues while notes are sounding.

But don't drive yourself crazy. Single coils make noise. The nature of the beast.

I hope this was helpful, and again, sorry if some of it is too rudimentary. Due to the nature of your post, I'm not sure how much you know about basic pickup stuff. I don't know much myself. In fact I've probably just shared everything I know

[mutts]

In my experience the smaller mfd p'ups are not any louder than other designs.
My Skyhawk is relatively low noise as compared to say a Strat. Likewise the bridge pickup in my Bluesboy 90 seems fine too- perhaps a bit microphonic but no excessive hum.
I would tend to think something might be wrong with your guitar.

[DanDoulogos]

Do you note any difference when your fingers are on the string vs. when they are not? If so - the ground wire may not be secure.

[FluffyDog6]

Please expand on the ground wire comment.

[DanDoulogos]

If you find your guitar seems to produce a lot of hum, that goes away when you touch the strings or bridge - that is indicative of a missing (or broken) ground connection. The reason the hum dies down (in such a situation) is because you've become the path to ground. If you're amp is plugged into a circuit that isn't properly grounded, and you're touching the strings when you touch something that is grounded - the consequences can be very bad - even lethal. Modern amps come with a third prong (ground), but there is no guarantee that the outlet you plug into is properly grounded.

The safety issue is more of a concern for people who play out in a lot of different venues - venues where you can't be as sure that the outlet you're plugging into is properly grounded. There is no guarantee that every three pronged outlet has been properly grounded. Some musicians will not play a venue unless/until they test they are grounded (good practice - this is a good practice by the way Keith Richards, for example, was electrocuted on stage (he lived through it) when his (ungrounded) guitar strings accidentally came in contact with a mic stand - Keith was sent flying - which probably saved his life.

Ungrounded strings act as antennas which pickup EMI, long-story-short: they add this EMI hum to the signal. That is why when you ground them out (by touching them) the EMI in the strings drains to ground through you rather than gets transmitted into the pickups. If you do notice the hum decreases when you touch the strings - you should definitely check that your bridge is grounded properly -- not just to get rid of the hum - but for your safety's sake.

You may want to read this article over at Basses By Leo (author: Ken Baker) for more info. What is discussed there is true of all electric guitars, not just basses.

(edit: expanded comment in case someone didn't want to click through the link)...

[Pangloss]

Agreed...check the ground wire. I recently bought a G&L Legacy from the on-line store and the ground wire was disconnected when the instrument arrived. It's pretty easy to diagnose this problem...each time I touched the jack insert plate, nasty static/noise would go away. Hence, I opened the back and found that the ground wire was indeed disconnected from the vibrato spring holder. I re-soldered it and all the noise vanished.

It actually took me a fair bit of time to even realize that I had a problem because I generally use clean tones. It wasn't until I plugged into a higher-gain amp that the problem became obvious.

--Dr. Pangloss

[Al Evans]

The safety issue is more of a concern for people who play out in a lot of different venues - venues where you can't be as sure that the outlet you're plugging into is properly grounded.

If you play out and plug in, your gig bag should contain one of these:

http://www.sperryinstruments.com/en/gfi6302

They're cheap (< $10). Not only do they provide an extra margin of safety, but they can save you considerable money. A friend of mine started carrying one after plugging a 1200 watt power amp into an outlet wired "sideways" and smoking it.

--Al Evans