[Welladjusted]

I need something to alleviate single-coil hum. I just bought the guitar, and I like the sound of the stock pickups (minus the hum) so I don't see the need for a pickup swap.

What device would work best? I'm already thinking of an EQ pedal to add flexibility to my tone, so if it can reduce hum as well, that's perfect.

 

[GuitarsCanada]

I have heard some good things about the MXR noise gate. It's a pedal so that would fit in your chain.

 

[david henman]

...my experience with noise gates is that they seriously mess with your tone and, especially, your dynamics. however, if you always play with your guitar's volume control dimed, a noise gate may work well for you.

two other things to consider:

1. dimarzio's new area 58 and 61 noiseless pickups already have a good street buzz (sorry!) going for them.

2. take a look at this: http://www.suhrguitars.com/pickups.aspx#bpssc

i'm installing one of these in a g&l legacy, so that i can keep the stock single coils, which are astounding, and eliminate the buzz.

-dh

 

[Daeveed]

Shield

Have you looked at shielding your strat??

There are a couple of tricks that can be done to it to reduce the hum...

 

[david henman]

Have you looked at shielding your strat??
There are a couple of tricks that can be done to it to reduce the hum...

....another good option!

the cost of having a tech shield your strat is less than $100, i believe. you can also do it yourself if you're inclined.

it won't kill the hum completely, but maybe adequately.

-dh

 

[iggs]

I like my Boss NS-2 ... and I'm pretty snobby when it comes to pedals so it's the only Boss pedal that I like/use ... It does affect the tone but not a lot and not in a negative way, what I like the most about it is that it has a send/return loop for your noisy pedals and a separate control for Decay and Treshold.

The separate Send/Return works fantastic because you're setting the threshold based on your dry guitar signal and not the noise floor introduced by the pedals themselves ... when the Gate kicks in they are completely out of the loop ... the problem with in-line NGs is that if you place them before a noisy pedal you still get some noise even when the gate is on and if you place them after the noisy pedal your threshold has to be set to include the noise floor of the pedal as well which is usually too high and is problematic with dynamic picking or altering your guitar volume.

 

[Welladjusted]

I put some thought into the "diming your guitar" comment, and it appears that turning down the guitar volume 1/5th of the way or so actually kills the hum with a minimal output loss. That said, I might go for the NS-2 anyways to keep my signal in check

 

[iggs]

Just to add ...

NS-2 is a Noise Gate not a Hush type circuit that works at eliminating the buzz/hum from the signal while you're playing. It only helps eliminating the noise when you're not playing or in stops, breaks ... etc.

Noiseless single coil pickups are the best way to go for a noise-free playing.

 

[cohenj]

I replaced my stock fender pickups with the Fender Vintage Noiseless. They have been accused of being "toneless". I was not happy with them at first, but after a few months of regular playing I started to notice them warming up and taking on a much more traditional strat like tone. Now its been a couple of years and I'm pleased as punch with the sound, plus they are dead quiet.

Had I to do it over again, I might try another vendor's noiseless pickups. I should have had to wait for mine to "open up".

If you're going to do any recording with the strat, noiseless pickups are a real blessing...that is, unless your music is so dense or loud that the noise is mitigated.

Jeff

 

[PaulS]

Yes a good sheilding job will help. Still some cycle noise. I have heard of the dummy pickups but do not know of anybody using them. Alembic use to do that also so there must be something to it. Let us know if anybody tries this and how they make out.

 

[fuel37]

i have a rackmount processor that's got a noise gate built into it... it seems to work quite well. I'm actually looking to sell it... if your interested let me know and i'll give you some details.