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EMG J-Set Hum

#21
I've had a pretty long history with EMG J's. IME, I've noticed that outside electrical conditions effect these pickups more than anything. As an example, fluorescent lighting always gave me more hum on the EMG J's than passive J's. I'm a big advocate for shielding everything, everywhere, regardless of the impedance and powering of a pickup. Shielding of cavities helped mine out a lot. Different bass amps can interfere with the grounding of a bass, as well. Make sure that the input jack on your amp is truly grounded with the face of the amp. Shield everything! :)
 
#22
Jamie, I've tried all sorts of different things with the shields including not connecting them at all so I don't think it's that.

One dark secret that EE's have is that grounding and shielding is a mystery to most of us too. More often then not these problems are solved by trial and error and then a explanation for the problem is crafted afterward.
 
#23
I had the same issue, but noticed that the pups were quiet at gigs, but hummed like crazy at home. Then I realized that I practice right under a ceiling fan. Turn the fan off, blissful silence. I guess the pups were picking up the fan motor.

Of course, now I'm sweating more when I practice. ;)
 
#28
Howdy all - I took my bass back to the store where I bought the EMGs - dead quiet there :)

In my house, there is one area that is particularly noisy (the basement) - even a level above I get the hum/buzz, and the pickups are wired properly. BTW, grounding the bridge while using EMGs should NOT cause any issues - it is simply not required/a safety recommendation re: shocks from mics and such. I disconnect it myself, but know others who haven't and have no issues.

However, when I move to an area of my house NOT over the basement (we have an addition on the main level with no basement below) - dead silent.

The ONLY chnage in my house recently was insulation in the basmeent (exposed sinc eit is unfinished) which is made of compressed fiberglass with an ALUMINUM covering. My theory is that this aluminum is acting like ungrounded shielding - i.e. a noise antenna/generator.

I just completely shielded my bass with copper foil (had paiont, but wasn't complete/applied well). I have been flipping between Nordstrand NJSV pickups and EMGs over the last while, and with the Nordies in I have ZERO noise buzz now anywhere. I am going to try it now with the EMGs and see if the noise is gone.

FYI - while the EMGs are dead quiet in other environemnets, I have some friends who have used EMG J for years and they have said these pickups are often susceptible to picking up buzzes in noisy environemnets, even though they are quiet in "good environments".

Jamie
 
#29
hfader said:
Thanks for the info everybody. Yes I'm absolutely sure I have these wired as specified. I'm using the controls that come in the pickup kit.

For the folks that say they get no hum -- I just want to make sure you're doing the same test as me. Do you turn the volumes all the way up and the tone pot fully treble?

Thanks again,
Click to expand...
You stated that you shielded the bass.

-Did you shield the p/u cavities and control cavity?
-Is the shielding from the p/u cavities and control cavity connected?

If they are not connected, this may cause a hum.

I LOVE EMG pu's. I have them in about 4-5 of my basses (J's and 35/40J's) and for the most part they are quiet. It also depends on the environment that I play the bass. A lot of the bars that I play the bass, they are quiet. There have been some places that make the basses noisy as hell. florescent lighting, computers, TV's, refrigerators... etc....
 
#32
Nino Valenti said:
I just went through the whole thread... another thing I saw is the battery.

Do you place the battery in the control cavity and allow it to touch the shielding? Roger Sadowsky told me that if the battery touches the shielding, it can cause all kinds of unwanted noises.
Click to expand...

Hey Nino - appreciate you wen through all these posts to offer assistance :)

Can't be sure in hfader's case (though I think it is the same as mine), but I have the battery wrapoped in electrical tape and no metal exposed/touching the shielding (in my case this was with shielding paint - still have to try them with the copper shielding I just finished). Also tried it with the battery outside of the cavity - no difference there.

Another thing I will do is borrow back my old bass that has an EMG DC in it - that bass NEVER made a noise in my house, but also was never in my house AFTER the aluminum-faced insulation was put in the basement. If THAT bass is quiet when brought back in, then I'll just have to accept the Js are more susceptible to noise (not talking preamp noise/hiss - the DC is quieter than the J in that respect for sure). My DC-euqipped former bass also had ZERO shielding - just the DC and pots surrounded by pare wood.....

Jamie
 
#33
I thought about the battery before. It's wrapped in foam but possibly touches the shielding. I did have a listen with the battery hanging loose and had the same buzz, but that was with the cavity open. I'm surprised this could make a difference. I might be wrong but I don't think the case of a battery is connected to it's internals. Since Sadowski's seen it as a problem, I'll give it a try to fully insulate it and see what happens.

So far my conclusion is that there are electrically noisy environments where the pickups buzz a bit with treble all the way up. They sound good and unlike the stock Jazz pickups you can use them independently without increasing the noise. So I'm keeping them.

I never have the treble all the way up. One of the EMG docs says you can change the rolloff of the tone control by adding an additional cap. I might do that.
 
#34
i've owned various emg pickups over the years and here's what i've observed:
no buzz whatsoever...even without shielding at all....on model P,J,and humbucker.the only one that gave me problems was a DC45 humbucker for 6 string that buzzed like mad from the beginning....i went to the shop and changed it with another one....dead quiet....
all this with no shielding in some basses or with conductive paint in others...no copper shielding or other things and no ground wire...
dead quiet with computer screens,in front of big amplifiers with toroidal transformers,on many stages with big stacks of lights,etc....
i don't know how to solve your problems....the only one i've seen was a faulty pickup...
 
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#35
I've done a few EMG installs myself. I will admit that at certain places and certain directions of standing will produce a hum. I can stand in my practice room facing the door, no hum. Turn to the window (90 degrees left), hum.

No matter where I have hum, it always turned out to be environment. Which is frustrating to say the least. I've tested the bass I have the most trouble with: noise is audible when the pre-amp is showing 0db peak (while playing) and when muting the strings (not grounded) I had to turn up to just about gig levels to hear it, but its there.

Using a battery powered amp about 15 minutes up a state park road (nearest electrical device I know of other than the car and amp was about 10 miles away) Not a single bit of noise at any volume. Same amp in the practice room, noise.

I found my source of the electrical noise was actually more than one source. The fridge, the hot water circulator pump, the furnace's water pumps, and most of all the computers in the house. I just started with all the circuit breakers off, except for the practice room, and kept turning them on one at a time till I got noise. I found it even more frustrating when I found that the only things that make noise are critical household things and not something I can turn off all the time.

Solution for me:
My home has a metal roof and siding. I was just joking around with my friend about grounding the whole house. um... yeah.... It didn't do anything (except make my already crappy cell phone signal level drop to nothing). I knew it was stupid when I was doing it. :)

I re-grounded every piece of electrical equipment in the house to only a slight improvement.

The thing that made the most difference was removing the water pipe-connected ground that goes to my electrical system and replacing it with a real 5 1/2' copper ground rod driven in to the ground and connected to the panel. Also some idiot went to the trouble of grounding the two of three steel beams under the floor (doesn't do anything but hurt)

Not sure if that was it, I believe it was re-grounding the appliances AND the fresh new proper ground. This also had the side benefit of improving the picture quality on my older CRT based TV's.

hfader:
Your solder joints from that far away look ok. But I notice first that your sheilding is grounded off the case of the first pot. Maybe try a star ground off of the jack?

Your ground from the battery goes to the jack, through the 1/4" plug, out the ring, stops and each pot, (through 6 solder joints total unless that is one wire making each hop to the last pot), then to your pickups. (if there is even any measurable resistance between the battery neg and the pin on the pikcup you'll get buzz).

Also you left quite a lot of extra wire that you could shorten and/or ditch the friction connection, soldering the wiring directly to the pickup (I've done this on every EMG equiped bass I have after I decided to keep them in that bass. Just remove each contact from the connector, put it over the proper pin, and solder it on). Be realistic, how often do you swap pickups even with that friction connector there? What choice would you have other than another EMG just like what you took out without soldering anyway?
 
#37
Nino Valenti said:
I just went through the whole thread... another thing I saw is the battery.

Do you place the battery in the control cavity and allow it to touch the shielding? Roger Sadowsky told me that if the battery touches the shielding, it can cause all kinds of unwanted noises.
Click to expand...

This is a good point....Try wrapping the battery in the thin foam rubber from the box that the pickups come in to totally isolate it. I used EMG's exclusively for about 10 years ( p's and jj's) and NEVER had any noise problems at all. Never did any extra sheilding and I always cut the ground wire to the bridge as per instructions. If you still keep getting the hum, I'd recommend a set of DiMarzio's and I'd pretty much guarantee they'll be dead quiet. P's and J's. That's all I'll use now and no battery to worry about. )-(
 
#38
hfader said:
Hello all. Long time listener, first time caller.

I just installed an EMG J-Set on my Fender Japanese 70's style Jazz. I was tired of having to keep the volume controls equal to cancel out hum. I've been disappointed that there is still a considerable amount of hum with pickups and tone pot turned up. I've been over my installation job with the EMG tech and he could find nothing wrong. I've been over this with a fine tooth comb. The cavities are shielded with copper foil so it ain't that. Not trying to impress anybody with my credentials but I'm an electrical engineer and also trained as an electronics tech. So I pretty much know my way around this sort of thing.

It's not unbearable hum but I expected dead silence. I asked the EMG tech to check a few basses and he said they were quiet for all pot positions. I also went and plugged in another stock Jazz into the same amp. It's quieter than the EMGs when volume controls are turned all the way up! Maybe it's the definition of quiet. I'd say quiet would be the same amount of hum from the amp as with the guitar totally unplugged. I'm wondering if my expectations are too high. I don't want to return these for another set just to find the same issue.

So what are other's experience with these pickups? Are they dead silent or quieterER?

- Hugh
Click to expand...
I've put in 2 diff. sets of the JV in my 5 string jazz and they have both has some hum. For while i thought it was my SABDI but i don't think so. Chris P.
 
#40
I'm sorry to once again dig up an old thread. I'm planning to get the EMG J-Set but I hear stories here where the pickups seem to pick up on 'noisy' areas. I live pretty close to train tracks with high voltage power lines. I suppose that makes this place the definition of noisy.

However, am I not right in assuming that these pickups are humcancelling in the same way humbuckers or two single coils on equal volume are? I have no issues with either of the above anywhere in the house. The only problem that ever occured was a lot of interference when I tried to use flat EBS patch cables due to them not being a coaxial design.

My other thought is that EMG pickups are used by a lot of big artists playing big shows where there would be a lot of interference and you don't hear them complain.

I'd suggest people with problems here simply had faulty pickups but that seems to contradict the problems remaining when getting new sets. Unless of course they got another faulty bunch.

I guess I'll just have to try and see. Being able to dial in different pickup volumes without hum is one of the reason I'm interested in the EMGs in the first place.
 

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