HELP - Neck Humbucker humming problem? New pickup suggestions?

**MHoranzy** · 01-03-2021, 12:41 PM

Hi all, I just picked up a 2016 D'angelico EX-SS yesterday. Great condition, plays flawlessly, sounds fantastic, until this morning when I plugged it in and the neck pickup started humming.

It's just the neck pickup. It hums when the volume knob is up, and goes away when the knob is rolled off. No issues with the bridge pickup. Hum persists but less so in the middle position. Video below to demonstrate. Any ideas??? If the pickup is shot and needs a replacement, what would you all suggest for a new neck pickup in an axe like this? Really going for that kurt rosenwinkel sound.

Thanks

**jads57** · 01-03-2021, 02:54 PM

If it's humming you probably have a ground issue. A local guitar tech should be able to fix it easily enough.

**Jimmy Mack** · 01-03-2021, 09:45 PM

If it's not the grounding issue, I know a lot of DA's come with Duncan Seth Lover p/ups, and they sound great. I bought a SL from a dealer on Reverb and it was defective. It hummed, and was extremely bright. Assuming it was brand new, I returned it and was satisfied. I now have another set of SL's that I will be installing. There is nothing wrong with SL's and they are highly regarded by many many players. Maybe you got another defective one?? (if it is indeed a Set Lover?)

**MHoranzy** · 01-03-2021, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by Jimmy Mack

If it's not the grounding issue, I know a lot of DA's come with Duncan Seth Lover p/ups, and they sound great. I bought a SL from a dealer on Reverb and it was defective. It hummed, and was extremely bright. Assuming it was brand new, I returned it and was satisfied. I now have another set of SL's that I will be installing. There is nothing wrong with SL's and they are highly regarded by many many players. Maybe you got another defective one?? (if it is indeed a Set Lover?)

pretty sure these are Kent Armstrong’s, though I’m sure they’re not actually handwound ones

**Tal_175** · 01-03-2021, 10:20 PM

If it's humming, touching a grounded metal part on the guitar should make it go away. Humming would also respond to moving around, changing positions or just putting the guitar on the stand and moving away from it.

I would first diagnose whether it's a humming/grounding issue or not. If it's not a humming issue, it could be metal debris from a possible recent fret job attached to the magnetic areas of behind the pickup. I would remove the neck pick up, inspect it, clean it with an old toothbrush.

The next logical thing is to re-solder the wiring, making sure everything is alright. You can test the pickup by-passing the pots to see if the humming still there.