Humming sound unless I'm touching the strings

I can also keep it from humming if I touch the metal plug on my cable but as soon as I lift my finger off, the hum starts again. I’m thinking that it’s a grounding problem but I don’t know what to do to prevent it.

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I used to suffer from this hum although I have my setup connected through a power conditioner which should take care of ground loops etc. . For me the solution was to buy a good cable. (in my case D’Addario stage cable)

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According to Fender on their not so “noiseless” pickups, that’s normal and it’s supposed to happen. Your mass touching the strings complete the loop canceled the hum. Needless to say I hate it.

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Thanks for your input @Al1885 . Perhaps Fender should also put quotation marks around their description of noiseless pickups. :roll_eyes:

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Ha ha, that the first thing I said when I called them. They said well it’s not silent it’s just less noisy after they diagnosed how I setup they said, yep that’s sounds about right, lol. The Emg jvx i put on before made no humming noise.

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This sounds like a shielding issue.

Here is a reference…
Solving Bass Hum Problems (Grounding vs. Shielding) – No Treble

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It sure does Eric, Thanks for the link!

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Thanks for linking that, I love this thread. I’ve had this problem in the past as well but had no idea what was wrong.

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You also might want to look at anything in the room that might be creating interference for the bass to pick up.

Like, if the wall plug is on the same circuit with a dimmer switch, this is known to cause hum.

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Interesting. I’ll look into that.

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Is it possible for an entire room or multiple rooms and it’s plugs to be on the same circuit too? When the fan gets switched off in the bathroom my monitors make a clicking sound.

I do notice when I lean in with my headphones & it’s wire, it also makes interference sounds through my signal if it’s too close.

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It’s been a couple of decades since I looked at residential wiring requirements but I’m pretty sure “best practices” said not to do that. If I was laying out the wiring I wouldn’t do that. But crazy stuff happens when houses get built and builders will take shortcuts. It also depends on the age of the home and what the rules were at the time.

So, yeah, it’s possible.

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Thanks, I thought the guys that built the house definitely took shortcuts, those cheap bastards. I always knew there was something up with the electricity.

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It certainly does.

In the same vein, about 10 years ago touch lamps were a big thing ie. to turn it on or off you just touch the lamp. These introduced so much noise.

Also with all the high tech involved in gear these days equipment that is Wi-Fi/Bluetooth enabled can be affected by outside sources. So many gadgets, such as TV remotes and cordless phones, in the home, operate in the 2.4Hz frequency range and the risk of interaction/interference is bound to be a concern. IMHO

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Actually, there’s absolutely no audible interference from the 2.4GHz band. Most of the stuff in it plays extremely well together except microwave ovens as it’s extremely broadband interference when they leak. Everything else was designed with the ability to avoid interference issues.

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Multiple rooms are regularly on the same circuit in Australia. Most houses have one or two here. Occasionally, if the house is three phase wired, you’ll get a circuit on each phase.
If you want to see how many circuits are in your house, just go out to the fusebox and have a look at how many circuit breakers are labeled with Power or GPO. You’ll also likely have a Stove dedicated one if you have an electric stove and also a couple for lighting. Maybe even one for the electric hot water.
What you have is almost certainly a grounding related hum. There is an absolute bucketload of information on the internets about it and there are some excellent explanations of how and why to wire earthing leads to avoid them becoming sources of interference. Jump on youtube after searching for Earthing Hum and you’ll likely get walked through how to check things.

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You might need to run a wire from the ground on your jack to something metal on you guitar. I had to do this to two of the lap steel guitars that I built that used coil pickups.

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