A little something I noticed...

[GuitarIv]

Hey guys,

whilst I was playing guitar a few minutes ago I didn't fail to notice a hum related issue with my pickups. When I play my Jackson Dinky (Painkiller Bridge, Coldsweat Neck) on the bridge position, I don't have any noticeable hum at all, just the standard noise you get when sitting too close to the TV, as soon as I flick the 3-Way switch into the middle position it increases a bit and in the Neck it gets even more noticeable. It's not like it's disturbing or anywhere near the hum a Singlecoil produces, I was just wondering could it be that due to the symmetrically wound coils of the Painkiller and the asymmetrically wound ones on the Coldsweat the humcancelling isn't as perfect? Just a thought of mine, feel free to share your knowledge.

Cheers

[darkbluemurder]

Pickups that have coils with different numbers of turns are a bit more susceptible to hum than those with the exact same number of turns.

BTW: is your bridge pickup covered and the neck pickup is not? Covers provide for some shielding.

Cheers Stephan

[richard]

Asymmetrically wound pickups buck less hum than than symetrically wound pickups. Part of one coil does not have the equivalent winds on the other coil. There will be a bit more hum and a bit more 'single coil-ness' with an asymmetrical pickup.

[Lucas]

I`ve experienced something like that a while ago while having CBomb in bridge position and Dean Michael Angelo Batio signature pickup in neck. BKP was producing that specific 'hum' while on distortion when switching to the neck pickup was completely silent.
Don`t honestly know if Dean Hands without Shadow pup is asymmetrically or symetrically wound pickup (the only thing what I know is that is not as good as it sounds on the Dean website... really)

[Dave Sloven]

The interesting thing about this for me is that:

1. I thought the Cold Sweat neck was symmetrical, while the Painkiller was asymmetric
2. Ditto with the Nailbombs, I've always thought they were asymmetric

For what it's worth I've had a Cold Sweat neck with both an A-Bomb and a Cold Sweat in the bridge on an unshielded guitar and never had this problem, even standing in front of my Peavey.  I know what 60-cycle hum sounds like as I have an SG Junior with a single P-90 and that makes quite a bit of noise

The worst I've ever gotten out of any of my BKPs is squealing if I get to close to the amp using the lead channel (but what would anyone expect!)

[darrenw5094]

Man, what does the Painkiller like in the Dinky?

[ericsabbath]

the neck cold sweat is definitely symmetrically wound (intel from Tim himself)

I don't think the coil asymmetry on the offset models are big enough to be the culprit

I think the most noisy BKP I had was my first holy diver, and that's a symmetrically wound model
the nailbomb, miracle man and VHII sets I had were probably the most quiet

[GuitarIv]

@Stephan: Both Pickups are covered

@darren: I actually play the guitar in E-Standard and find it, as opposed to what others have experienced, great sounding, not harsh at all. The guitar itself has an Alder Body with a Maple Neck and Fretboard but sounds very balanced and dense, the Painkiller really contributes with grinding mids, clarity and tightness :)

Hmm, seems like my initial thought was wrong then. As said I don't know what it is, but the CS Neck definitely develops some more hum in my axe than the PK Bridge...

[Dave Sloven]

My A-Bomb was definitely quiet, except when being played!

I just played my BKP SG (CS set) A/B with my P-90 SG Junior and I know what noisy sounds like.  The CS pickups are dead quiet.  The P-90 on the other hand, wow!  Quite noisy.

[darkbluemurder]

If both pickups are covered and the CS neck is symmetrically wound then the source of the increased hum must be something else. I would check all the ground connections related to the neck pickup, especially for the bare wire - it may have come loose. The guitar would function normally but have more noise.

Do you have separate volume controls? If so, check the volume control for the neck pickup.

Good luck,
Stephan

[AndyR]

And the pickup selector switch maybe?

I've had funny cr@p going on in the past where I fiddled with everything and eventually found it was the wretched switch. They have "magical powers" when they start failing...

[Dave Sloven]

I had some horrendous fizz tonight and then the sound died out altogether.  I thought at first  that it was a bad bridge lead in my guitar but then I disconnected the loop and the problem was gone.  I hope that it's just a power cable and my ISP Decimator hasn't died

[GuitarIv]

It's not annoying or disturbing at all, just as said something I noticed. I have one master volume and one master tone, so if anything contributes to this phenomena it will be the switch. No need to change it though unless the hum increases to the point where I really start to notice it  :P