The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    I have, for a limited time sadly, access to a friend's d'angelico archtop with a floater ..In his home it's clean as a whistle but in my house , depending on where I sit or even a slight change in direction I point the guitar I get humm....None of this on my other guitars..How does one shield an archtop ? just using shielded wiring? or???

    As far as I can tell it has shielded wiring already...like this one:

    Thx

    S

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  3. #2

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    A way you could start to sort it out would be to borrow your friend's amp and cable for a day, with which the archtop is quiet in your friend's house, and try the friend's gear in your house. If it's noisy in your house then the problem is likely not the guitar.

    There's not a lot to shield on an archtop with a floater. The pickup itself is likely already shielded, as is the control network. But I wouldn't go modifying your friend's d'Angelico, particularly since you say it doesn't hum in the owner's house.

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by dconeill
    A way you could start to sort it out would be to borrow your friend's amp and cable for a day, with which the archtop is quiet in your friend's house, and try the friend's gear in your house. If it's noisy in your house then the problem is likely not the guitar.

    There's not a lot to shield on an archtop with a floater. The pickup itself is likely already shielded, as is the control network. But I wouldn't go modifying your friend's d'Angelico, particularly since you say it doesn't hum in the owner's house.
    Ah Thx, I should have mentioned I used the same headphone amp in either homes...some places in my house it's quiet some others it's not, no issues with my other instruments....And of course no mods to his guitar just wondered why and if there's a solution other than moving to find the noise free spot...

    S

  5. #4

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    Is this a single coil or humbucker? That is the biggest factor for battling noise. There isn’t much you can do to add shielding to the entire circuit of an archtop. The pickup coil is an antenna and it’s prone to picking up EMF interference from lights, ballasts and transformers, especially from the power grid outside your home. The braided tin cable provides an avenue for any metal within the circuit (including the pickup cover) to shunt noise to ground. Metal will shield frequencies from a coil but if it’s not connected to earth it will amplify the surrounding EMF, or sometimes even RF. If you touch any metal parts on the guitar and noise either increases or decrease then that means some of the metal is not grounded and needs to be. All that to say if it’s a single coil pickup there’s not much you can do other than sit in a null position where the noise is minimized.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by BigToe
    Is this a single coil or humbucker? That is the biggest factor for battling noise. There isn’t much you can do to add shielding to the entire circuit of an archtop. The pickup coil is an antenna and it’s prone to picking up EMF interference from lights, ballasts and transformers, especially from the power grid outside your home. The braided tin cable provides an avenue for any metal within the circuit (including the pickup cover) to shunt noise to ground. Metal will shield frequencies from a coil but if it’s not connected to earth it will amplify the surrounding EMF, or sometimes even RF. If you touch any metal parts on the guitar and noise either increases or decrease then that means some of the metal is not grounded and needs to be. All that to say if it’s a single coil pickup there’s not much you can do other than sit in a null position where the noise is minimized.
    Floating mini humbucker......no change where I touch the guitar..

    S

  7. #6

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    Quote Originally Posted by SOLR
    Ah Thx, I should have mentioned I used the same headphone amp in either homes...some places in my house it's quiet some others it's not, no issues with my other instruments....And of course no mods to his guitar just wondered why and if there's a solution other than moving to find the noise free spot...
    S
    Try surveying what electronic equipment, including lights and motors, stoves, computers, and just about anything else, that is nearby the noisy locations. Such things might be through walls in nearby rooms. or on the floor above or below. Sometimes, for example, the electronics associated with fluorescent lights can induce noise in guitars.

    But, of course, the simplest solution is to play in the electronically-quiet spots.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by dconeill
    Try surveying what electronic equipment, including lights and motors, stoves, computers, and just about anything else, that is nearby the noisy locations. Such things might be through walls in nearby rooms. or on the floor above or below. Sometimes, for example, the electronics associated with fluorescent lights can induce noise in guitars.

    But, of course, the simplest solution is to play in the electronically-quiet spots.
    Thank you both, Indeed there's some equipment running just about everywhere in this apartment complex.....and the first quiet spot I found is in front of a window....

    S

  9. #8

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    Wifi routers are very noisy. Fluorescent and LED lights can be noisy, especially if there are dimmers. Computers and TVs are very noisy. All emit lots of EMF interference. We live in an extremely high EMF level world, and it's only going to get worse.

  10. #9

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    Tangential to the topic
    used to know a couple of people on a forum who claimed to be physically affected by emf. To the point where they lived in an isolated village somewhere in Scandinavia where emf is not allowed. Never understood how they were on an Internet forum.

  11. #10

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    EMF is not allowed? How do they enforce that? Huge amounts of it come from the sun and the rest of the universe, more than one would typically get from the devices in a typical US home. You can find all sorts of cranks in the interweb tubes.