Pickup Hum on Humbucker

[GodWentPUNK]

I won a set of Charvel pickups on ebay the other day and have just completed the installation, however, my humbucker is humming quite loudly. The guitar is a H/s/s with a 5way switch and tone/volume pots. When I got the pickups it looked like the white and red wires were together so I kept them that way. I put the green and shielding to the ground of a pot and the black to the switch.

Here is the CHARVEL PICKUPS link to the pickups I won. Any ideas?

The single coils are working fine.

joe...

[pebber]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

2 things come to mind:

1) a winding on the pickup did break
2) when a humbucker is tapped (via a coil tap switch), it hums unless it is blended with another pickup via the blend control.

[GodWentPUNK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

Got the hum to go away by doing this but I'm just guessing here so maybe some else know the proper hookup.

Tied the green/white wires together.
red to hot
black/shielding to ground.

joe...

[Ace]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

A winding on the pickup breaking would not create noise, it would drop the output of the pickup VERY low, and the DC resistance would measure very high.

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

Jackson pups are wired just like a duncan. Red and white soldered together and taped (this links the coils together as a humbucker) green and shield to ground and black to switch. If it's still humming then there is an issue with the ground or the shield either being broken or a cold solder joint. If you have a multi meter you can unsolder the connections including the red and white and test the coils independantly. I believe it would be the white and black on one coil and the red and green on the other. Start and finish wire on each coil they both should give a steady reading close to the same. If one jumps or gives you a strange reading then its probably a bad coil on the pup. But like it was said if a wire broke the out put would be reduced greatly.
Gil

[GodWentPUNK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

I'll go ahead and test out the pickups. Just curious, why when I hooked up the pickups differently do they appear to be working correctly. I did bring my guitar to practice last night and it did sound good. Weird...

joe...

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

I think thats just wireing them in series. Which is stillhumbucing but thinner sounding like a single coil. If there was no hum that way it is probably just a solder connection. (although it might be out of phase with the middle pickup now). Id have to wire one that way and see.

[GodWentPUNK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

ok, here is what I'm finding out.

I can get a reading with my meter if I touch the black and white at the same time or the green and red. This appears to be the opposite of what should be happening. I have another Jackson pickup and I have to use white/green or black/red to get a reading. Could the Charvel pickups be setup differently? [img]/images/graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img]

joe...

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

It could be. Maybe it was rewound? Or from a differant generation and made differantly? I doubt it but you never now. When you test the coils on the one in question does it measure the same as the comparison one? Or reasonably close to it? If not then its a bad pup most likely
Gil

[GodWentPUNK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

My meter is reading 5.41 and 5.68 for each. Together 11.06. These pickup are epoxy filled. I guess I'll just have to go with what I have.

joe...

[JACKSONFREAK]

Re: Pickup Hum on Humbucker

Hmm sounds like it may be a wireing situation. If it sounds ok the way you got it and it seems to be working as it should then just leave it. I dont have a schematic for a Charvel pup. I do think theyre differant than the Jackson counter parts tho.
Gil