Suhr SSV and SSH+ pickups really noisy?

VidarAus

Experienced
Hi all,

Recently got my first Strandberg. Came with SSV neck and SSH+ bridge pickups.

Loving the guitar but the pickups are really noisy. I have Dimarzio high output pickups in my other guitars so the Suhr pickups are a first for me. Even with gobs of gain the Dimarzio’s are surprisingly quiet. The Shur buzz a lot, even in full humbucking mode. I have confirmed wiring is correct and guitar is well grounded and shielded. All positions the correct coils are activated so doesn’t seem to be any stray short circuits.

Anyone have these pickups? Are they just really noisy with gain? Perhaps there was a mismatch in coil windings?

As both the neck and the bridge are noisy, the chances of both pickups being dud is probably low. They sound terrific otherwise so maybe they are just noisy?

Wanted to ask knowledgeable people here first before I go back to Strandberg or Suhr.
 
Noise from both humbuckers usually means an incomplete ground in the guitar's circuit. If you have an ohmmeter or multimeter with this capability, check for continuity between the bridge or output jack and the volume/tone pots.
 
I just became an owner of a Strandberg Boden Prog NX6 two weeks ago with those exact pups and thought them to be very quiet in pure humbucker. A bit more noisy in split and the single split neck.
 
Thanks for all the help. Damn, seems like there must be a wiring issue of some kind. I’ll need to go do some more investigating.

So best bet is to make sure there is continuity between volume and tone pot and the output jack? I checked between strings/bridge and output jack and that was ok.
 
No it doesn’t. Touching strings or output jack has no effect.

I have checked all the wiring per schematics and is correct. Have checked ground continuity for every part, shielding, strings, everything metal and all checks out with almost zero resistance.

Bit of a head scratcher. Buzzing is loud in neck and bridge humbucking positions. Cool split positions are much quieter. Single coil position is buzzy which is to be expected.

Bit of a head scratcher.
 
Yeah all the right coils are on in each position. Tested by tapping the coil with an Allen wrench.

So I tried moving around the room a bit and the volume of the buzzing fluctuates a lot. Found one spot where the buzzing goes dead quiet even with massive amounts of gain. So there must be something spitting out EMI in the room right and the guitar might be fine? Might explain why touching the strings has no effect when they are clearly grounded as per the multimeter? Cause the wiring seems spot on and all bits are grounded.

With more in-depth testing with other guitars, one of them with a Dimarzio Air Norton in the neck seems to actually be really buzzy as well in the neck position when sitting in the same location which is buzziest for the Strandberg, but quiet af in the humbucker position.

Stupid room. Perhaps the other guitars are just better at shielding against whatever is throwing out the EMI?
 
Yeah all the right coils are on in each position. Tested by tapping the coil with an Allen wrench.

So I tried moving around the room a bit and the volume of the buzzing fluctuates a lot. Found one spot where the buzzing goes dead quiet even with massive amounts of gain. So there must be something spitting out EMI in the room right and the guitar might be fine? Might explain why touching the strings has no effect when they are clearly grounded as per the multimeter? Cause the wiring seems spot on and all bits are grounded.

With more in-depth testing with other guitars, one of them with a Dimarzio Air Norton in the neck seems to actually be really buzzy as well in the neck position when sitting in the same location which is buzziest for the Strandberg, but quiet af in the humbucker position.

Stupid room. Perhaps the other guitars are just better at shielding against whatever is throwing out the EMI?
I was going to bring this up in my first post, but deleted because I didn’t want to open a can of worms right away. I know for myself after not recording or even playing for a while I changed up my whole system all at once. A year and half ago I got the FM3 (first real modeler), got a new super Laptop, second monitor, new interface, speakers and before I had time to think about it clearly I had all this heavy EMI producing equipment sitting right in front of me while I sat on my new ergonomic comfy gaming/computer chair playing. Before I had a computer tower on the floor a good distance away. I used a mic in front of an amp and from years of playing that way I just intuitively knew to position myself to avoid EMI problems.

I don’t know how many people can relate to this, but I often wonder when I see people having issues with noise if they are experiencing the same situation and just don’t put it together right away. I have an electronics background so I was able to realize what I was doing pretty quickly. However, I’m old and prone to being lazy and want to just stay seated In the same position and not move. The second I get up and turn my back and move away it all pretty much clears up. Now there are some situations where it could be something else and that should not be discounted.
 
Did the multimeter register any resistance? Anything higher than 5 ohms can cause noise.
Thanks, this is really good to know. Yeah, it was well under 5 ohms for all the components I checked for ground (which was everything I could possibly check).

Seems like the wiring and grounds is spot on from a visual and continuity test perspective.
 
I hate to ask, but did you check for cold solder joints? I'm a jackass, so I've had it happen where the wiring I've done looks great, but I was using a tip so oxidized (even though I had used anti-oxidization compound) that it didn't get hot enough. Then, finally yanking on my wires (no pun intended) I found a solder joint that had looked great, but the wire came right out. Just a thought, but good luck on your troubleshooting!
 
I was going to bring this up in my first post, but deleted because I didn’t want to open a can of worms right away. I know for myself after not recording or even playing for a while I changed up my whole system all at once. A year and half ago I got the FM3 (first real modeler), got a new super Laptop, second monitor, new interface, speakers and before I had time to think about it clearly I had all this heavy EMI producing equipment sitting right in front of me while I sat on my new ergonomic comfy gaming/computer chair playing. Before I had a computer tower on the floor a good distance away. I used a mic in front of an amp and from years of playing that way I just intuitively knew to position myself to avoid EMI problems.

I don’t know how many people can relate to this, but I often wonder when I see people having issues with noise if they are experiencing the same situation and just don’t put it together right away. I have an electronics background so I was able to realize what I was doing pretty quickly. However, I’m old and prone to being lazy and want to just stay seated In the same position and not move. The second I get up and turn my back and move away it all pretty much clears up. Now there are some situations where it could be something else and that should not be discounted.
Thanks for your experience. It seems I can relate all too acutely.

In the interest of convenience and comfort I may have created a perfect storm and never noticed it until I got the Strandberg. This may be because it is not as good at rejecting EMI as my other guitars. Could also be because my other guitar that really experiences this has it occur in the neck position, and where I noticed it on the Strandberg was sustaining the note after a low e palm mute where the buzz really comes through (not something I would do in the neck position).

But the way I have things set up I have a large monitor, 2 x NAS chock full of hard drives, a rack full of gear, monitors, power supplies etc all sitting on the desk in front of me. Perhaps I have just created a noisy environment lol.
 
I hate to ask, but did you check for cold solder joints? I'm a jackass, so I've had it happen where the wiring I've done looks great, but I was using a tip so oxidized (even though I had used anti-oxidization compound) that it didn't get hot enough. Then, finally yanking on my wires (no pun intended) I found a solder joint that had looked great, but the wire came right out. Just a thought, but good luck on your troubleshooting!
This is a great point. It is brand new from factory (not that that means much with sloppy soldering jobs these days!) and it all looks pretty good visually. I haven’t tugged any wires but might give that a shot thanks.
 
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