Nice guitars!
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Suhr SSV and SSH+ pickups really noisy?
- Thread starter VidarAus
- Start date
Thanks for all the help everyone. So just to summarise and check my work so I am not missing anything:
1) Strandberg is brand new and appears to be well grounded at all points when checking with a multimeter.
2) Noisy in humbucker positions and quieter in split coil positions. Otherwise the tone is loud, clear and glorious.
3) Tried different cables to no effect.
4) Touching strings/output jack or not makes no difference to hum.
5) Visual inspection of solder joints looks good and confirmed wiring is correct as per Strandberg wiring diagram.
6) I have another guitar which, in neck position only, buzzes similarly in same playing position. Other humbucking guitars seem quiet though in same circumstance.
7) I am an idiot it seems and have been sitting in front of a lot of EMI noisy equipment and never thought about it till now, including 2 x NAS full of drives, big monitor, rack with gear, power supplies etc on desk right in front of me facepalm
8) If I move around the room I can find locations where the problem disappears completely and guitar is quiet even with massive amounts of gain. Having pickups parallel with the ceiling is actually the best but not great for playing!!
9) There is a breaker box not too far from where I sit. Holding the guitar close to that gets some extreme buzzing happening!!
So from all this, is it most likely an environmental problem and not an issue with the Strandberg wiring or pickups? Perhaps some of my other guitars just reject noise better (but not all given the noisy neck position described of one of the other guitars)?
When I get some time next I will turn off all the equipment on the desk and test again. Will then turn on gear one by one to see if I can isolate the major cause or if there is a heap of causes environmentally lol.
Strange I haven’t noticed any of this before though having other guitars.
Does this sound about right?
1) Strandberg is brand new and appears to be well grounded at all points when checking with a multimeter.
2) Noisy in humbucker positions and quieter in split coil positions. Otherwise the tone is loud, clear and glorious.
3) Tried different cables to no effect.
4) Touching strings/output jack or not makes no difference to hum.
5) Visual inspection of solder joints looks good and confirmed wiring is correct as per Strandberg wiring diagram.
6) I have another guitar which, in neck position only, buzzes similarly in same playing position. Other humbucking guitars seem quiet though in same circumstance.
7) I am an idiot it seems and have been sitting in front of a lot of EMI noisy equipment and never thought about it till now, including 2 x NAS full of drives, big monitor, rack with gear, power supplies etc on desk right in front of me facepalm
8) If I move around the room I can find locations where the problem disappears completely and guitar is quiet even with massive amounts of gain. Having pickups parallel with the ceiling is actually the best but not great for playing!!
9) There is a breaker box not too far from where I sit. Holding the guitar close to that gets some extreme buzzing happening!!
So from all this, is it most likely an environmental problem and not an issue with the Strandberg wiring or pickups? Perhaps some of my other guitars just reject noise better (but not all given the noisy neck position described of one of the other guitars)?
When I get some time next I will turn off all the equipment on the desk and test again. Will then turn on gear one by one to see if I can isolate the major cause or if there is a heap of causes environmentally lol.
Strange I haven’t noticed any of this before though having other guitars.
Does this sound about right?
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secondwindow
Experienced
Thanks!
I've thinned the herd this year, so now, for Electrics, I have those two plus the Knaggs Kenai that's my avatar.
RevDrucifer
Fractal Fanatic
Totally off topic, but I forgot I had an SSH+ sitting in my closet (no, it’s not noisy at all), I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with one of my Strats, I’m totally putting that in there! Thanks!
secondwindow
Experienced
I think you'll like the SSH+ in your strat.
Andy Eagle
Fractal Fanatic
If everything is wired up correctly the humbucking positions should be the quietest regardless of external conditions. My guess would be a dry joint on an earth somewhere or a partial short on the screening of the coil that is not fully hum canceling in the noisier positions.
Fro68
Experienced
Does the noise go away when you touch the bridge or output jack? If so your output jack is wired backwards.
Touching anything makes no difference. Moving the guitar around the place drastically changed the loudness of the hum though.
As a bit of an update, I spent a few hours troubleshooting everything. Unplugged and turned off EVERY electronic device in the room except for the AXE III. Tried different power outlets on different circuits. Tried all my guitars. Tried lots of cables. Resoldered the grounds for the Strandberg to make sure no cold joints. Checked all wiring again many times, cavity shielding ground etc.
It seems I have an environmental noise problem as I get the same hum in all my guitars, but some are so near silent it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately the Strandberg is really loud with gain. As I said some others are a bit loud in some pickup positions, but the Strandberg is the worst by far.
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with the guitar, but it is just not as good at rejecting EMI?
Sigh. Frustrating problem that I have run out of ideas to solve except for building a full faraday cage or something in the room lol.
Oh well, will have to rely on a strict gate and maybe a surgical eq cut at the offending frequency. What a pain as the Strandberg is beautiful.
Only thing I haven’t tried is the AXE III in another room at the end of the house. A real hassle given the way I have it wired up but might need to try one day.
It seems I have an environmental noise problem as I get the same hum in all my guitars, but some are so near silent it doesn’t matter. Unfortunately the Strandberg is really loud with gain. As I said some others are a bit loud in some pickup positions, but the Strandberg is the worst by far.
Perhaps there is nothing wrong with the guitar, but it is just not as good at rejecting EMI?
Sigh. Frustrating problem that I have run out of ideas to solve except for building a full faraday cage or something in the room lol.
Oh well, will have to rely on a strict gate and maybe a surgical eq cut at the offending frequency. What a pain as the Strandberg is beautiful.
Only thing I haven’t tried is the AXE III in another room at the end of the house. A real hassle given the way I have it wired up but might need to try one day.
Doing some more reading it definitely points to airborne EMI. Different guitars same issue, turning off all other devices same issue, turn down guitar volume and it goes away completely.
Except for moving house or playing in a different room there doesn’t seem to be much cure for airborne EMI. Damn.
Except for moving house or playing in a different room there doesn’t seem to be much cure for airborne EMI. Damn.
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GitGuy513
Power User
Have you read this information. Also the blurb on the second link about “string ground” correlates. Have you changed to different strings or gauge?
https://support.strandbergguitars.com/article/23-grounding-issue
https://support.strandbergguitars.com/article/14-zero-frets
https://support.strandbergguitars.com/article/23-grounding-issue
https://support.strandbergguitars.com/article/14-zero-frets
Greg Ferguson
Axe-Master
There’s the problem, you were too comfortable and not serious enough. Get a straight-backed wooden chair without padding, that hurts after 10 minutes, preferably made by an Amish craftsman on a bad day. You won’t notice the noise then. I have one and have never been as uncomfortable in my life and don’t care if there’s EMI.
GitGuy513
Power User
LOL, I live in south central PA, right near the heart of Amish country. I will seek a wooden pillow too. Actually, the “Shakers” (a sect that had some settlements in the area) slept on a slab of wood for a pillow. I remember as a kid visiting a community and seeing how they slept and realized that I wasn’t going to be a Shaker.😉There’s the problem, you were too comfortable and not serious enough. Get a straight-backed wooden chair without padding, that hurts after 10 minutes, preferably made by an Amish craftsman on a bad day. You won’t notice the noise then. I have one and have never been as uncomfortable in my life and don’t care if there’s EMI.
Update:
As I thought about it I feel it might be prudent to correct a possible mistake. It may have been a “Cloister” community that did the wooden pillow thing. I wouldn’t want to connect the wrong puritan tradition to the wrong sect.
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Greg Ferguson
Axe-Master
Some guitars and pickups do better than others.
I kind of suspect that the more switching options the pickups offer, the more noise I get when in my room. My Strats are SSS and are silent in positions 2 and 4 and 1, 3, and 5 are very noisy. My humbuckers all have coil taps and have varying levels of noise. When I take the guitars to a venue then they’re all much quieter, even the Strats.
I suspect it’s because it’s an adobe house from 1938, with original rheostats in every room, and most outlets are not grounded. Rewiring to code would be ridiculously expensive so it is going to remain how it is. I can move my gear to the garage and build a Faraday cage if it bothers me enough.
Dave Merrill
Axe-Master
Maybe just replace the rheostats in the room where you play with simple switches, if you can live without dimming capability. That will likely help a lot.
And maybe ground just the outlets in that room? Depending on how things are laid out and wired etc that may or may not be prohibitively expensive.
Greg Ferguson
Axe-Master
That's my plan.
Two outlets are grounded, the rest are the old-style two-blade outlets, and my computer, drives and modelers run through the same Furman conditioner connected to one of the grounded outlets, so that part's good. At first, I thought the problem was that the grounding was bad, but it checks out. The next thing I suspected was the iMac Pro, but the problem continued when I powered it and the drives down, leaving me with my suspicion that it's the rheostat.
I did just think of one other possible way the computer could be involved. Powering down most computers these days doesn't remove power because they are using software to control the main power, so the computer is always "live", it's just doing a lot less. I'm going to power it down and turn off its power strips and see what happens.
rcm78
Inspired
Is the DiMarzio you're comparing to a Super Distortion or Dual Sound? Those pickups are quiet by design. The coils are symmetrical, the pole pieces are all the same allen head slugs. They are uniform from one bobbin to the next resulting in maximum hum cancellation.
The Suhr pickups are not. The windings are asymmetrical, they use screw and plain slugs. The differences between the bobbins allows some hum to get through.
Also, The Dimarzio will lose some frequencies the Suhr will let through... Both designs are compromises.
The Suhr pickups are not. The windings are asymmetrical, they use screw and plain slugs. The differences between the bobbins allows some hum to get through.
Also, The Dimarzio will lose some frequencies the Suhr will let through... Both designs are compromises.
toneseeker911
Experienced
OMFG !
This is what I have: A Suhr guitar with SSH+ and SSV and recently bought a Strandberg with the same pickups.
I have the exact same problem as you, all symptoms match . This happens only with the strandberg and not the Suhr. It also only happens at my rehearsal studio, not at home.
I went through weeks of trying to figure out what the issue is. My conclusion was the same, some EMI at my studio. The strandberg with the same pups isn’t able to reject it while my Suhr is almost noiseless.
I don’t know - is it a strandberg problem then ? Not enough shielding maybe in the cavity ?
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GitGuy513
Power User
Pull off your control cover and look what’s inside of the Strandberg. The best shielding job I have seen on a production guitar. Actual copper foil on the front side and shielding paint on the rest. I don’t really feel my Boden Prog NX6 is any more EMI susceptible than other guitars I own. Having said that each of my guitars have different levels of EMI susceptibility. There’s 3 Core PRS in that bunch. Probably the most silent guitar I own is my McCarty that I removed all the controls, used thick copper foil all around and backplate and made sure it was all grounded. It’s silent except when coils are split.