Alnus Rubra
Loving nature’s wonders
What is that? It looks like those two terminals are connected, and should not be.
Good eye!
Paul's Guitar grounding issue
- Thread starter Goodsal
- Start date
Good eye!
docteurseb
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- Feb 24, 2018
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Hard to tell but it looks pretty clean/original from that picture alone.
What is that? It looks like those two terminals are connected, and should not be.
I checked tonight and what you see is some lint, definitely not a connection. So the wiring seems ok. One thing I notice is the buzz on the neck pickup is much louder than on the bridge pickup. That makes no sense to me either.
Nice F Holes
New Member
I had a buzzing issue with my SE HB II. I thought the same - why would such a nice guitar not come shielded? But, it turned out to be related to the cable, interference in the room, etc. I changed cables and amp location and the buzz is totally gone.
Maybe the strings are picking up interference and transmitting to the pickups? And maybe the pickup height has something to do with why the bridge pup is louder? Or, it could just be that it's a higher pitched buzz, and bridge pup has more treble response?
Just some thoughts, I wish I had a solid answer to help.
Maybe the strings are picking up interference and transmitting to the pickups? And maybe the pickup height has something to do with why the bridge pup is louder? Or, it could just be that it's a higher pitched buzz, and bridge pup has more treble response?
Just some thoughts, I wish I had a solid answer to help.
I have the exact same issue as you described, i have a lot of hum when playing with some gain/drive and my neck pickup is even noiser. I’m gonna call the guitar store where I bought it and see what they say. No way this can be normal in my opinion. I’ve tried different cables, and a buffered outlet, Something else is going on. The mini toggle switches are like antennas for picking up noise. Let me know what you find and I’ll update here as well.
Hey @Travis907, glad to have someone to commiserate with. Mine is in the shop right now and I should have a diagnosis some time next week. Please keep me posted re yours and I'll do the same.
Drlepp
New Member
Interesting read - I’ve noticed my PG is somewhat noisier than both my Cu24 35th and 594 (all core), same setup etc, but it has never been an issue. I’ve been thinking it’s just the nature of the pickups. Please share the diagnosis, it’d be interesting to hear if this is normal. I might have a go at shielding one of these days.
Any update
I just got back from my tech, he said he didn’t think there was anything wrong with the guitar, that’s just the way these pickups are. He noted that the noise drops when you turn the tone knob or volume knob down, he thought that was just the way the guitar was designed. He didn’t think shielding would help.
Hi, I just bought a new PRS Paul's Guitar SE yesterday. As soon as I got home, I plugged it in and was disappointed to hear that humm/buzz noise you get when something is not grounded properly on a guitar. I did some troubleshooting and found that the ground wire they tried installing between the stop tail post insert and the tone knob casing was not making proper contact at the stop tail post. I fixed the problem by carefully pulling out the ground wire that was in the hole going toward the stop tail post, and screwed in a small screw in the hole until it started touching the post. I then backed off the screw a bit, stripped and wound the original ground wire to the screw then screw the screw back in until it made good contact with the post. The guitar is as quiet as any other of my guitars now, thankfully. In hindsight, I probably should have had this done on warranty, but I didn't want to spend my time bringing the guitar back and trying to explain all the details to some clerk who may or may not know what grounding does in a guitar.
From the pictures I'm seeing of your electronics, I can't seem to locate the ground wire going to the bridge or stop tail post to the back of one of the pots... and this ground connection to the stop tail is not shown in the PRS wiring diagram either. A quick test for you would be to set a multimeter to test continuity and touch one lead to the bridge and the other to the back of the tone or volume pot. If you don't get continuity, that's your problem. You bridge is not grounded. Another test, if you don't have a meter; when you have your guitar plugged in, does the humm/buzz get worse when you touch the strings and bridge, or does it diminish? If the noise gets louder, your bridge is not grounded.
In any case, good luck and let me know the results if you try any of these recommendations.
Cheers,
Phil
From the pictures I'm seeing of your electronics, I can't seem to locate the ground wire going to the bridge or stop tail post to the back of one of the pots... and this ground connection to the stop tail is not shown in the PRS wiring diagram either. A quick test for you would be to set a multimeter to test continuity and touch one lead to the bridge and the other to the back of the tone or volume pot. If you don't get continuity, that's your problem. You bridge is not grounded. Another test, if you don't have a meter; when you have your guitar plugged in, does the humm/buzz get worse when you touch the strings and bridge, or does it diminish? If the noise gets louder, your bridge is not grounded.
In any case, good luck and let me know the results if you try any of these recommendations.
Cheers,
Phil
Charles Saporito
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- May 23, 2021
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If you take a meter and test continuity between all metal parts in the cavity, to ground, that will tell you if its grounded or not. Touch one lead to the pot, and one to the bridge, if it rings out, its grounded.
rwandering
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- Oct 22, 2022
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I know this is now an old thread, but for anyone with this same issue I thought I would post my recent experience. I recently acquired a Paul's Guitar and felt it was really noisy. On another forum someone said that they aren't grounded at all and had his modified by PRS to ground the bridge to the electronics; but that was not the case for my guitar. An ohmmeter proved that quickly enough.
I did turn off lights in my space and that solved the problem immediately. I have to do more testing, but I think it is the dimmer switch on my lights. I'm probably just going to remove the dimmers. I did try plugging the amp through an old RackRider conditioner I have, and it made zero difference. A better power conditioner might solve the problem too. If someone has practical experience eliminating hum with a conditioner, I'd love to hear about it.
BTW, I was pretty sensitive to whatever might be wrong with this guitar since it is new and pricey, but I pulled out some other guitars and noticed the same thing, almost to the same degree. For example, my Les Paul with BurstBuckers definitely has the same issue. I just hadn't noticed it before. I think the TCI pickups in the Paul's are more sensitive, but once I turned off the lights it was very clean.
Now I don't know if shielding would improve it. My feeling about these things is that we are often looking for *the* solution, but it can be several different things stacking up. So with shielding I might not have noticed it, but there is definitely something wrong with my power quality too.
I did turn off lights in my space and that solved the problem immediately. I have to do more testing, but I think it is the dimmer switch on my lights. I'm probably just going to remove the dimmers. I did try plugging the amp through an old RackRider conditioner I have, and it made zero difference. A better power conditioner might solve the problem too. If someone has practical experience eliminating hum with a conditioner, I'd love to hear about it.
BTW, I was pretty sensitive to whatever might be wrong with this guitar since it is new and pricey, but I pulled out some other guitars and noticed the same thing, almost to the same degree. For example, my Les Paul with BurstBuckers definitely has the same issue. I just hadn't noticed it before. I think the TCI pickups in the Paul's are more sensitive, but once I turned off the lights it was very clean.
Now I don't know if shielding would improve it. My feeling about these things is that we are often looking for *the* solution, but it can be several different things stacking up. So with shielding I might not have noticed it, but there is definitely something wrong with my power quality too.
Buddy Shagmore
New Member
My (core) Paul's Guitar is quiet. OP, have your tried taking your gear elsewhere and trying it out there? Might be a dirty power issue that a power conditioner may solve.
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