I think I have a grounding problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Clay K
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Clay K

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I put emgs in my dean and it hums. Emg told me it was because of the shedding paint in the cavity. What do I do? Maybe I should just put passives in there?if so, what passives sound like an 81?
 
I used to be a straight EMG guy and made a steady migration to passives a while back. Still have 2 or 3 EMG guitars. I loved the fact that EMGs were dead silent in all the years I used them playing out and what little time I got to spend in what old-timers used to call a recording studio.

Before going passive, I hit a stretch were ALL my EMG guitars were humming and buzzing like crazy. I tried everything and could not track it down - until I set up a spot to practice in a different room of the house. (We had recently moved to anew house) Came to find that the room where I kept all my gear had some sort of overlap or bleed over with the spare breaker box that feeds the HVAC. Literally any time the fan for the home HVAC system would come on (furnace or AC) any guitar plugged into any amp in that room would buzz. Go upstairs with the offending guitar to another room and fire up the practice amp - no buzz. Period. Point is, do check out wall power in the room where you are playing.

Also, with my EMG SA (stacked single coil) equipped guitars, I did need to ground the trem claw even though EMG swears that is not necessary with their design.

Hope any of this helps. I cannot imagine that flaking shielding paint in the control cavity is the culprit.
 
I put emgs in my dean and it hums. Emg told me it was because of the shedding paint in the cavity. What do I do? Maybe I should just put passives in there?if so, what passives sound like an 81?
Nope that’s not it. Just need to start going through the trouble shooting process. One guitar, one cable, one amp… go from there and start adding stuff till you figure it out. First try another guitar and see if it’s making noise. Then try the emg’s with another cable, then through a different amp. Computer nearby? Led lightbulbs in the room? Run an extension cord to an outlet on a different circuit than the room your in. Lastly if nothing works plug everything up and turn the volume up and play. This is how I patented my wet/wet/wet system… just don’t tap your heels three times while playing like this though….
 
Nope that’s not it. Just need to start going through the trouble shooting process. One guitar, one cable, one amp… go from there and start adding stuff till you figure it out. First try another guitar and see if it’s making noise. Then try the emg’s with another cable, then through a different amp. Computer nearby? Led lightbulbs in the room? Run an extension cord to an outlet on a different circuit than the room your in. Lastly if nothing works plug everything up and turn the volume up and play. This is how I patented my wet/wet/wet system… just don’t tap your heels three times while playing like this though….
Ohhh and swap in a new battery… see if that helps you…
 
I think I figured it out. Stupid me put the tone pot in one of the volume pots place. Gotta wait for Dean to send me a control compartment cover first though.
 
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Got it fixed!!!! Just had a stupid moment but I got it all back together now and it rips.
 
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