"stupid" Wiring Question

[Emperor]

Hi guys... hopefully you can help a folk out.

I have a c-warpig and painkiller in my guitar, and the sound is very good, but there's hum if I don't touch the floyd rose, and it kinds of goes away when I touch it.

it's fairly annoying because my decimator will cut the hum, but it will "come back" as the note fades...  

I have some sort of metallic shielding in my guitar.  could it be the output jack wiring that is inversed?

Kind regards!
-S

Edit:  I should add that it's for my V... and the wiring lengh to my jack is very short (tight) , so I cannot see if it's the outside tip or not  :x

[WezV]

you wouldnt get the good sound if the jack was reversed...


sounds like the bridge is not earthed properly - do you have a wire from the trem claw to the back of a pot

[hermetico]

This kind of behaviour leaves no doubt: it's a grounding issue.

FIRST, some kind of shielding isn't enough. You need to have a GOODLY SHIELDED electronics cavity.
Every electronics device must be enclosed in some sort of Faraday's cage to catch the unwanted noise and throw it to ground. That means that the cage needs continuity in all walls AND tap, and all those must be grounded.

SECOND, check your grounds. The best way to ground everything is in an start design, in that way you can easily eliminate ground loops, that are responsible for lot of unwanted noises.
Be sure that at least each electronics device has its case in contact with the shielded cavity. Otherwise, throw a jumper between components to create a continuous grounding network.
Don't forget some typical grounding wires: Bridge's claw, Jack's sleeve, cavity shield's.
Check that every of your pickups are grounded in any part of the wiring. Bare / shield / braid wires must ALWAYS be ground.

THIRD, even that a good work in shielding and a proper grounded wiring can be remove the most of hum, there are still lot of others factors that can produce hum.
- single coils always produce some hum
- high gain selections in amps, introduce hum
- some effect pedals introduce hum, specially when gain boosting takes place
- fluorescent lights can produce hum
- bad ground in you electricity mains produce ground

If you are sure your guitar is properly shielded and grounded then:
- Try your guitar with other amp
- Try your guitar and amp in other building
- Check if any effect unit is introducing the unwanted hum
...

[FELINEGUITARS]

This kind of behaviour leaves no doubt: it's a grounding issue.

FIRST, some kind of shielding isn't enough. You need to have a GOODLY SHIELDED electronics cavity.
Every electronics device must be enclosed in some sort of Faraday's cage to catch the unwanted noise and throw it to ground. That means that the cage needs continuity in all walls AND tap, and all those must be grounded.

SECOND, check your grounds. The best way to ground everything is in an start design, in that way you can easily eliminate ground loops, that are responsible for lot of unwanted noises.
Be sure that at least each electronics device has its case in contact with the shielded cavity. Otherwise, throw a jumper between components to create a continuous grounding network.
Don't forget some typical grounding wires: Bridge's claw, Jack's sleeve, cavity shield's.
Check that every of your pickups are grounded in any part of the wiring. Bare / shield / braid wires must ALWAYS be ground.

THIRD, even that a good work in shielding and a proper grounded wiring can be remove the most of hum, there are still lot of others factors that can produce hum.
- single coils always produce some hum
- high gain selections in amps, introduce hum
- some effect pedals introduce hum, specially when gain boosting takes place
- fluorescent lights can produce hum
- bad ground in you electricity mains produce ground

If you are sure your guitar is properly shielded and grounded then:
- Try your guitar with other amp
- Try your guitar and amp in other building
- Check if any effect unit is introducing the unwanted hum
...

Pretty much sums it up

Hi Hermetico
Welcome to the forum BTW - you seem to have dived into the tech questions with some flair - what is your background?

It's a friendly place here - hope you like it

[hermetico]

Pretty much sums it up

Hi Hermetico
Welcome to the forum BTW - you seem to have dived into the tech questions with some flair - what is your background?

It's a friendly place here - hope you like it

Hi there,
I am sorry. I am a BKP user for one year more or less (memory fails) and I love Tim's pickups (I wish I had more funds to check them all).
Even being using BKP, this is the first day I chime in this forum.
I saw some guys in troubles and tried to help, that's all.

I am playing guitar for about 31 years. I started in three local bands and then, I hunged the guitar for more than 18 years. About 4 years ago, I sold everything and started from scratch. This time more in a tone chase way than just being worry about gigging.

My tone chase started by searching a tone that I had in my very fist axe and that I wasn't able to indentify (In those times, I didn't matter what guitar or pickups or amp I had, I just wanted to play. period.
I discoverd that that tone was created by something named PAF and then, my search of the right PAF pickup started. This lead me to Dimarzio first and to Seymou Duncan, where I am still an active member of their forum.
There I learnt a lot of things about pickups, wiring, caps, resistors, pots, switches, etc, from the hand of a real electronics wizard.

I am not electronics in any way but, I resulted to be skilled in wiring designs so, I spent more than 2 years helping the SD forum mates to design their crazy ideas. If you go to SD forum, you will see a ton of my designs there.
I did that for free, until the time that a guy made spent more than 6 days preparing several alternative wirings (he was changing his mind every day) and, the last day I was informed that this guy will use MY WORK to fee some customer.

I decided then no to draw more diagrams for free anymore. I like fair play. If someone uses my time to fee others, then fee me first.

I like to help others to achieve their projects but, I am taking it easy lately. I help when I can and if this doesn't takes me too much time (time that I need for my own projects).

I designed some really weird wirings for Session Guitarists that wanted a really versatile axe to record songs of well know people, as well as some wirings for just Guitar's Enthusiasts that wanted something where nobody else wanted to spent his time figuring it. To me those are an intellectual challenge that I dig.

I am running a blog http://hermeticoguitar.blogspot.com, that's more or less my own diary (I tend to forget everything), where I wrote some wiring basics. As I am spanish, my english is just cr@p so, I try to transfer the idea, without trying to be accurate with the language (foreign, to me).

I am not a great player but I like to demo my own guitars and wiring projects, from time to time, hunguing some youtube videos (http://www.youtube.com/hermeticoguitar). Only the very few late videos have some quality. Rest are really clipped. (I am also building my own home studio and learning step by step).

I don't really like to talk about myself, I even never know how to introduce myself so, I hope I answered your questions but, If some is pending, shot it, please.

[FELINEGUITARS]

Thanks
Just wanted to say Hi - you have had some good input already
Nice to have other tech heads on here

Hope you enjoy your time on here

Jonathan

[hermetico]

Thank you Johnatan for the welcome.
I also hope to enjoy it, as much as I am enjoying BKP's!.

[PhilKing]

Welcome to the forum and sorry to hear about someone taking advantage of you on other ones.  I think you'll find that the guys here are pretty friendly and when they need advice it is not to get someone to do a design for them.  A lot of the guys are experienced and so most of us try to help the newcomers or people who are venturing into changing pickups for the first time.  I hope you enjoy things here, you gave some great advice and you'll be an excellent addition.