Strat Buzzing when tone is not rolled off

[charlieparker]

My strat has a horrible humming sound when the tone is not rolled off with the neck pickup.

For the middle and bridge pickups it's always present. Amy suggestions about how I go about diagnosing and fixing. Is it likely a loose ground wire?

[sgosnell]

Probably a loose wire somewhere. Connections can fail even if the wire is still held in place by solder, but a bad connection inside, usually from a cold solder joint. Worst case, reflow all solder connections. But just a close physical inspection might show the problem. That's always the first troubleshooting step - just look and see if anything is obviously wrong.

[charlieparker]

Well, I tried to take the pick guard off without taking my strings off not realizing the pickups and stuff are kind of stuck to it. Gave up and re-tightened everything and the hum is gone.

However, in the process. I messed up the heights of some of my pickups but at least the hum is gone.

[sgosnell]

Yes, with Fender-style solid-bodies, the pickups and everything else is attached to the pickguard. It makes some things easier and some things harder. You don't have to take the strings off, but you do have to loosen them by a lot. It's not hard to adjust the pickup heights, you just turn the screws.