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Single Coil Noise Question

Bongolation

Bongolation

Nov 9, 2001
8,047
148
California
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No Bogus Endorsements
#1
I've been thinking about this for a while and am too tired to figure out the answer.

A guy has a SCPB and says it's 60Hz noisy, so he replaces the stock single-coil pickup with a higher-output aftermarket single-coil pickup of the same basic design -- no other changes.

He says there's less noise.

Is he imagining the improvement?

Does a higher output pickup improve the signal/noise ratio or does it increase the noise level concomitantly with the signal output?

This question even becomes a bit more complex with thought, but this is good for starters...
 
#5
Some pickups of the same basic design may be quieter than others. It may be the result of better shielding around the conductor, whatever.

But if a single-coil pickup is fairly noisy in one location (my basement for instance), guaranteed that a different one will still exhibit some noise, it won't be dead silent. I owned a Sting bass and both Duncan & Lollar single-coils both were too noisy for my tastes. Replaced them with a Fralin humbucker and was totally satisfied, zero noise. I'm a fan of humbuckers for bass, the noise is so insignificant it's a total non-issue.
 
#6
Emibass said:
If it really has a higher output and the 60hz noise is the same as the original pickup than indeed it has a higher signal to noise ratio.
Click to expand...
That was my original thought, but the technical point about which I am ignorant (as I stated in my OP) is whether or not [1] the 60Hz hum increases directly proportionally with the increased output of the hotter pickup or [2] stays at the original baseline while the signal increases.

If [1], the SNR hasn't improved except in his imagination and if [2] the SNR really is better.

There are no significant differences in the pickups in terms of shielding or anything else; we're talking about the hotter SD Quarter Pounder v the lower-output OEM Dyna '55 vintage copy.
 
#7
I'm thinking that maybe upon installation of his new pickup, the grounding job might be better now than it was before. He may have had some cold or bad solder joints, and that would certainly contribute to noise. In my experience More Output always equals more noise in Single Coil designs.
 
#8
placebo effect?

given everything equal 60Hz hum will increase proportionally to sound/ there will be no change in noise-to-signal.

in reality there might be a significant difference in noise due to other factors, s.a. shielding, frequency response curves, etc. If you have florescent lights, dimmers, etc around they have large high freq noise component transmitted at 60Hz interval..

It is amazing what you can do with a little bit of household aluminum foil and soldering, esp if the pups were not wired correctly :)
 
#10
There's really no need for pics, though I'm sure you could find tons of tutorials with google.

Basically, you cover the control and pickup cavities with aluminum/copper foil and connect it to ground. You can use regular household aluminum foil, but you'd need to glue it. There is also aluminum foil tape you can get at hardware stores, but each strip of tape will need to be connected someway. They make copper tape with conductive backing that works the best and is easier to solder to than aluminum.
 
#11
I don't think that the aluminum-tape shielding job will do much on a SCPB. The problem is that there's a totally unshielded, non-canceling pickup hanging out there looking for ESI and trouble. ;)

But thanks to those who confirmed my initial supposition that hum increased concomitantly with output.
 
#12
i think that the noise increases with coil windings, not with actual output.

the QP pickups are certainly overwound, but they also have huge magnets; the magnets would increase output, but i don't think they add to noise.

that said, i would suspect either placebo or better shielding.
 

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