Dealing with 513 noise

[enjoycappy]

Hey everyone, first time poster here ^_^

So I've had my 513 for a little over a ear now and it's without a doubt my favorite instrument I've ever owned (granted, it's only my 4th electric guitar as I'm a broke college grad lol). Unfortunately, I don't get to play it out as much as I'd like, mainly because my band isn't well established yet and I don't feel comfortable bringing it to most of the venues/shows we play. The other main reason i don't use it though is because of the noise. The single coil hum is to be expected but it is very noisy on the humbucker and heavy humbucker settings when used with distortion. I play in a prog rock/metal band that plays throughout the dynamic spectrum and we often venture into high gain territory. The noise gets really bad and I can't bring myself to use the in between pickup positions because they have too much quack and chime.

What do you fellow 513 owners do for noise? I've considered trying a different shielding method in the control cavity other than the existing paint. I dislike using noise gates/suppressors because of the way they suck tone and kill sustain. Any other tips?

Thanks

 

[watelessness]

Welcome! But hmmm, I don't have any noise issues with mine.

 

[justmund]

Welcome!

I've had a couple of 513s too and have never had any noise issues either. Does the noise go away when you turn the volume down? Are you the original owner?

 

[Dancing Frog]

They do pick up light dimmers and TV's a little more. The only time I have had problems with noise was when a switch got messed up.

 

[enjoycappy]

Thanks for the responses everybody! The noise issue really only happens with distortion. With my RAT, it's bad. With my Tube Screamer, it's manageable. With my Big Muff variant, it's horrendous. I believe it does go away when you turn down the volume knob and I got it used from a Guitar Center.

 

[jfine]

Do you play places with lots of neon lights? I used to play a club in Woodland, California where the owner was too cheap to install stage lights, so she hung neon beer signs (free from the beer companies!) all over the stage. You could pick that stuff up on your teeth fillings! First gig I played there, I took my Strat, and had to ride my volume knob all night. The next gig there, I took a G&L with hum-cancelling "Z-coil" pickups, and it was noisy in there as well. I think an unplugged acoustic would have buzzed in that place...

 

[Dancing Frog]

Are these pedals all on battery?

 

[jfb]

Welcome to the forum. Wish I could assist. I've never really tried a 513.

 

[Mirox]

Hi,

I'm just new to the forum and I've stumbled upon this thread while I was looking for a solution for this. I have the very same issue with my 513, there's an awful buzz with the humbucker position. It's only there with high gain profiles (I use a Kemper) and it goes away when I turn the tone knob all the way down.

So, did you find any solution for this at the end?

Thanks

 

[Maertl513]

Question: When has your 513 been assembled? Has it a PCB or Hand wiring aboard?

 

[Mirox]

It's made in 2008, not sure about the wiring though.

 

[JTroska]

Can't really help but I had a 2008 513, too, and it was noiser than regular humbucker guitars. So you're not alone. The noise is one of the reasons I returned it.

There was also something peculiar about the feel of the plugged-in sound. Can't remember it well enough to describe accurately now. But I remember feeling a little disconnected from the sound being output.

 

[Rider1260]

I am new to the 513 and mine is dead silent in ALL the modes with pedals and or amp gain , I had to change the input jack ( i got it used , and the connection was iffy even after a cleaning ) and found a loose cable when I was poking around the wiring mine also has the PC board.
If you have overall noise I would look at a grounding issue and or bad solder joint lots of wires in there.
Mine has both shielding paint in the body and shielding foil on the plastic cover.

 

[Maertl513]

I asked for the date, because PRS changed something in the electrical compartment with introducing the 513 production line of 2014. PCB has been exchanged to hand wiring. Hand wiring (antenna principle) is more sensitive to external impact than a PCB.
A friend of mine has had a 2014 513 with hand wiring and he suffered from severe buzz noise. He turned the guitar back for warranty.
At that time Paul personally donated me the modification from PCB to hand wiring.
First installed aswell noizy as hell.
With a comprehensive approach of PRS Europe's technical branch, PTC, PRS R&D, etc. they improved shielding and grounding.
They had success. My friend changed to DGT in the end.

I'm convinced that you have to check all the grounding of your 513.

 

[Mixstar]

Also, unplug anything that isn't amplifier or guitar and see what happens. I had noise issues with another PRS and amp and it turned out to be a noisy pedal power supply. The issue didn't affect any other piece of equipment so the antenna (or solder joints etc.) inside the guitar obviously liked whatever the PSU was kicking out.