Getting rid of the single coil pickup 60 Cycle Hum

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A good Friend of mine recently posted this on Facebook, “Okay guitar player friends… Let me know what you think about this. Its a pretty pricey mod but it seems to really kill the single coil hum without changing the tone.” And then he posted a video of Suhr’s Silent Single Coil System Backplate SSC BPSSC Demo:

 

The tag on the advertisement also states, “The Suhr Silent Single Coil System is a revolutionary way to run your single coil pickups. You get all the tone of single coils but without the 60 cycle hum!”

It’s a little hard to tell on the video but it sounds like the high end is cut slightly when he engaged the mod. Pretty cool trick though and Suhr stands the test of time as high quality stuff. However there more traditional ways of getting that hum under control too.

 

First, you can  shield the inside of your guitar pickup cavity and bottom of your pick guard with conductive copper tape.

This website also has a handy how-to for you too: http://www.stewmac.com/tsarchive/ts0052.html

Secondly, hums also can also exist in cables and bad/improperly conditioned power as well. In fact, I recently conquered a hum that had to do with a pedal power supply providing inconsistent milli-amps (mA) to one of the pedals. The power supply needed to give a consistent 100mA, but the giving 94mA, just enough for the pedal to cause a hum, on or off.  (mA measures the strength of voltage, so a 9 volt could only need to see 50mA, or a larger pedal, like the Eventide Timefactor, needs to see around 400mA)

The point is that there are so many factors in the single coil hum, that getting rid of it entirely may take several changes in your rig, not just your guitar. Moreover, most guitarists I know play in such varying conditions, that putting a Rocktron Hush or ISP Decimator pedal on the board is an inevitability.

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2 thoughts on “Getting rid of the single coil pickup 60 Cycle Hum”

  1. Josh Barrett on Facebook says:

    Wow- that’s a great tip. I’ve got a Strat so I might have to give that a shot. I’m actually a little shocked that even to this day, Fender hasn’t figured out how to fix that.

    Reply
    1. Robert says:

      Yeah, the issue really lies in the pickup itself, the design acts like and antennae for light, video screen noise, etc. I have Lace sensors in mine, so they are pretty quiet

      Reply

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