pickup buzz when touched. help!!

[midichlorine]

i wired everything to schematic.
but the pickups buzz when i touch them. LOUD!!

anyway its 2 single coil chi-sonics with 2 vol and 1 tone.

do i have a week solder? i checked them all twice.

i would ask hanson but its late and they are closed and im trying to get this done tonight.
thanks

 

[sunbeast]

The pickups buzz when you touch their casings? Are you sure you didn't wire the hot/ground wires in reverse? Many pickups will ground the metal pickup chassis/casing or polepieces with a wire that merges with the ground connection lead. If you reversed the leads, then the metal components would be in the hot signal path instead of directly grounded which could cause the buzzing. I would suggest attempting to switch the leads on each pickup and see if that solves it. Sometimes a pickup will actually have 3 leads (so a seperate one for grounding the metal components and shielding in the pickup itself), but I'm guessing the Chi-sonics only have the two...

 

[bdgotoh]

This happened on my ChiSonic Glaub and I tried switching the leads and it didn't work. I then talked with the factory. They recommended copper shielding foil on the underside of the pickup to ground the cover and reduce noise. The foil has to have electrically conductive adhesive, then you run a ground wire from the foil to the controls.

Noise dropped way down to almost nothing and no buzz when I touch the cover anymore.

 

[midichlorine]

thanks bdgotoh that sounds exactly like my problem.
so i just attach copper shield directly to bottom so that its touching casing and the whole bottom?

 

[sunbeast]

Its interesting that they failed to do that when constructing the pickup. I'm surprised there haven't been more threads from people with Chisonics having this problem!

 

[Ray man]

This happened on my ChiSonic Glaub and I tried switching the leads and it didn't work. I then talked with the factory. They recommended copper shielding foil on the underside of the pickup to ground the cover and reduce noise. The foil has to have electrically conductive adhesive, then you run a ground wire from the foil to the controls.

Noise dropped way down to almost nothing and no buzz when I touch the cover anymore.

This will do it.

Have a look at this.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[bdgotoh]

thanks bdgotoh that sounds exactly like my problem.
so i just attach copper shield directly to bottom so that its touching casing and the whole bottom?

Yep, just cover the bottom of the pickup out to the edges of the cover and attach a ground wire.

 

[midichlorine]

i did it and now the front pickup doesnt work.
but when i turn it up the back pickup turns off.
also tone knob has no effect.
***??
this is not cool!!
this should be simple.
its 2 single coil pickups with 2 volumes and 1 tone!!!!!!
why why why??

 

[SamanthaCay]

Sounds to me like at this point you need to reverse the wires on the neck pickup as the one that your using for the hot is going to ground.

P.S. I was assuming by front pickup you meant neck.

 

[midichlorine]

when i reversed the pickups are out of phase.

but i did try that as well.

thanks mang

 

[SamanthaCay]

If you are connecting those pickups together and using the proper wires per the manufacture they should not be out of phase nor should the hot lead be going to the pickup casing. The only reasons I can see for this to happen is.
A: you bought two pickups that where not made to be linked together in this fashion i.e. two bridge pickups or two necks
Or
B: you bought a set that was improperly setup so that they ended up out of phase.
So with that said I would say your best bet might be to contact Hanson.
The only other thing I thought of is that it might be that your magnets are out of phase and not the coils them selves. If this is the case you could either turn the magnet around if the pickup will allow for it with out to much trouble. Or you could just simply turn the whole pickup around. Also I’d like to say (as if It’s not obvious) if these are new pickups don’t try and modify them just call Hanson explain your situation and see if you can exchange them for a set that will work.
Best of luck,
Samantha.

 

[midichlorine]

thanks

 

[sunbeast]

So the only thing you changed was that you added foil to the bottom of the pickup covers, soldered a wire to the foil, then to ground- you left the other leads as is?

It sounds to me like when you put foil on the front pickup, part of the "hot" lead must have been in contact with the foil, grounding it out. This would explain why the other pickup cuts out when you turn the front pickup up, because you are basically blending in a grounded signal rather than a live signal (when its turned all the way up, the shorted hot wire has no resistance in between it and your main hot output signal, so it cuts out all signal from the bass).

To fix it, either try to locate somewhere where the bare hot lead might be in contact with the conductive foil (like a torn wire cover, or right where the hot lead exits from the pickup casing), or else reverse the original two leads on BOTH pickups- this will mean the short to ground that you are experiencing now will be directed to ground anyway instead of the hot connection. And the tone from the pickups should be the same with the leads reversed.

 

[4to5to6]

Hi midichlorine.

Just wondering how this turned out and what the solution was?

Thanks

 

[bdooijes]

I have exactly the same problem right now. I had two CS humbuckers recently installed and have the same pickup casing ground problem although the installation is exactly the same as in the diagram. When i hold a bypass wire from the volume pot to the pickup casing it dissapears. It concernes both bridge and neck pickups. When i put my hand on the strings, the problem is gone.

 

[Muzoid]

Gee...at this point, I think I'd be removing the CS pups, and putting in some that don't have this 'seemingly common' issue.

 

[bdooijes]

Well, they are a little to expensive to not try and solve it. And they do sound very nice. I hope to get a email back soon from them with a answer on how to deal with this.

 

[Muzoid]

I'm sure they'll have a reasonable fix for ya....seems like several have had this issue.

Did you check if there's FAQ on the CS site?

 

[sunbeast]

I have exactly the same problem right now. I had two CS humbuckers recently installed and have the same pickup casing ground problem although the installation is exactly the same as in the diagram. When i hold a bypass wire from the volume pot to the pickup casing it dissapears. It concernes both bridge and neck pickups. When i put my hand on the strings, the problem is gone.

Why not solder a wire to the bottom of each pickup casing and run it to a ground connection? Or do as bdgotoh suggested above (as was suggested to him BY THE FACTORY), and ground the casing with a wire and some conductive shielding tape? Neither is difficult, since you must already have access to a soldering iron to have wired them in the first place. The problem that the original poster had when attempting the copper foil method must have been a matter of accidentally grounding one of the hot leads on the bottom of the pickup with the foil.

 

[bdooijes]

Yeah i tested that out two days ago, and it works, but somehow that seems more like a workaround to me. I thought there would maybe be something else that should be done or something like a reaction from the factory. I e-mailed them, so maybe in a couple of days i know more about whats causing it.