Mira 25th Anniv pickup hum

echos

New Member
Joined
Apr 30, 2012
Messages
9
I have a PRS Mira 25th Anniv with P90s. Love the guitar but it has the loudest single coil hum I've ever heard. Okay, maybe a little exaggeration but it is loud. Anybody else with this problem? If so, any pickups that have same tone without as much hum?

Thanks.
 
P90s are big single coils, hence the big hum. You can get lower/zero noise options e.g. Fralins/Kinmans etc. I did read somewhere Kinmans are too deep for the PRS cavity which I intend to confirm some day soon.

Hope this helps
 
P-90s hum. In fact, ALL single coil pickups hum, but Fender style single coils are quieter, so hum less.

Hum is caused by appliances (refrigerator motors are an example), lighting, amps, TVs, pretty much anything using AC current, as the alternating current affects the magnetic fields of the pickups. House wiring can be enough when appliances are on.


As Justmund says, they are louder than regular single coils, so they hum louder. This isn't unique to PRS P-90s, it's part of every P-90 guitar going back long before PRS got into the game. My '65 SG Special with P-90s has plenty of hum.

In fact, this is the reason humbuckers were invented way back in the early 50s for guitar pickups (there had already been humbucking coils for microphones 20 years or so earlier). The pickups are wired 180 degrees out of phase, and this causes hum cancellation (and also affects the high end of the pickups to a degree).

As you probably have realized, you can turn in a circle and find a spot where the hum quiets down. This is sometimes called "facing Mecca" by P-90 aficionados. I love P-90s, they definitely have their own cool thing happening, but they do work best if you find the right spot to play in.
 
Putting a noise gate in your pedal chain will help mitigate this somewhat, although there's a tradeoff in "feel" sometimes - it may take a while to dial it in so that it works how you want it to. I use an MXR SmartGate with my P90 equipped guitars.
 
Yeah, I knew they would hum, but I just wasn't expecting that much. Really don't want to go the way of a noise gate as just just don't like the trade off in feel. I look into the Fralins.

Anybody know if the P90s in the Ted McCartys are the same as the Mira?

Thanks for the response guys. Have a great day.
 
Last edited:
AFAIK all P90s in PRS production guitars are Seymour Duncans. You can specify other types in PS builds (seen at least one with Lollars, for example) but SD is the way forward with anything 'off-the-peg.'
 
As far as I know, all the P90s in the US models are the same. CU22 Soapys, McSoapies etc are all Seymour Duncan's and I don't think they were specially wound or anything. The SEs are different of course, and some people even prefer them in certain body styles.

I want to try a set of Kinman Nasty 90s in my CU22 Soapy, but there's other priorities on "my list" at the moment (e.g. 2 channel custom).
 
I've been interested in the Duncan P-Rails for some time and likely due to Ty Tabor's endorsement. They are hum size vs traditional P-90 though.
 
Yes they hum a bit I don't find it too bad, no worse than my strat if yours is really bad check your wiring also consider shielding the control cavity , it is also important that you have good grounding on your rig
 
The problem with a noise gate pedal is that there really isn't a way to set the threshold to eliminate the noise without losing some of the pick attack. This is what changes the feel.
 
The problem with a noise gate pedal is that there really isn't a way to set the threshold to eliminate the noise without losing some of the pick attack. This is what changes the feel.

+1...and the noise largely disappears in a live setting playing with others, anyway.

FWIW, triple P90 guitars (like the CU22 Soapy) often have the middle PU RWRP, so you lose the hum in positions 2 & 4.
 
Back
Top