Looking for advice on noise/hum issues

[Oldrottenhead]

Hi my new harley benton tele i love, however when plugged into my br800, when i have effects turned off there is virtual silence little or no background noise/static/hum whatever it's called. But when i put on effects most of them produce background noise, this noise often disappears when i touch the strings or any metal parts of the guitar.

is this likely to be a grounding issue, or do i need additional sheilding or better pick ups.


like i said i love the guitar, it feels like it was custom made and set up just for me. i have used the noise cancellation facility which can be adjusted in most of the effect patches, but on some patches, usually the more rocky ones, i have to turn the parameters of the noise cancellation way up, which in turn dilutes the tone of the sound i want.

or maybe it's just because i don't use a pick but strum with the flesh of my thumb, so guitar is usually turned all the way up as is input volume etc. spent hours trying to master holding a pick but struggling. have made some progress, but only have used a pick with the new guitar unplugged, might try using a pick with new guitar plugged into the br800 tonight to see if that changes things.

anyway any advice or guidance is welcome.

guitar is this one, and is exact same specs.

https://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbt1952.htm

[alfstone]

James, IMO you should try the SAME effects with a different single coil guitar...

Alfredo

[Farrell Jackson]

Jim, there are hum eliminator pedals (noise gates) available that can help with the hum problem but I find them a pain in the rear to set properly so as not to cut off the sustain of the trailing notes or cut the beginning notes too much. So I avoid them but a lot of folks use them.  Their job is to silence the hum in between the spots when your not playing or when you take your hands off the strings.

Single coil pickups are noisier than humbucking pickups so it's somewhat of a design problem but you should still be able to get the hum to an acceptable level. They do have pickup shielding kits that might help. However, I find that there is usually a sweet spot in the room where the hum is less. Such as when I'm using a single coil guitar with effects pedals, I have to turn slightly or move away from my recorder and the noise disappears completely. As you've found keeping your hands on the strings also lowers the hum. Look for a sweet spot in your room.

I'm not sure this helps in your particular situation but worth a try.

Farrell

[Mike_S]

Yes have experienced the same problem but very randomly. I guess depending on what pedals (virtual ones) or amps I have selected. I think I ended up just kinda resting the fingertips of the strumming hand on the strings during quiet parts of the songs where i don't want much background noise. That and trying a gentle amount of those Noise Gate thingys Farell is talking about seemed to deal with it. But like i say it was quite random and seemed to depend on the gear I was using.

Mike

[Oldrottenhead]

James, IMO you should try the SAME effects with a different single coil guitar...

Alfredo

it's not half as noisy as my woolies strat, lol. and i do sit very close to br800, longer headphone leads maybe?

[bruno]

Age old issue with telecasters - hence why humbuckers were invented! My squire tele behaves similarly. Simplest and cheapest option (probably) is that your BR probably has an noise gate on the input - you may need to switch that up a bit for that guitar. That's what I do on the Kemper anyway for my tele - you don't hear the noise on recordings anyway. Only when they are quiet parts and that's when the noise gate kicks in. I pretty sure that's on most multi-effect pedals and on my BR1600 have built in noise gates. Too much compression and distortion amplifies any noise as well!

Alternatively, you can shield the guitar internally, change pickups to stack hum buckers etc - there are books written about this and many, many opinions - but that sounds like too much effort :-)

B

[alfstone]

Age old issue with telecasters - hence why humbuckers were invented! My squire tele behaves similarly. Simplest and cheapest option (probably) is that your BR probably has an noise gate on the input - you may need to switch that up a bit for that guitar. That's what I do on the Kemper anyway for my tele - you don't hear the noise on recordings anyway. Only when they are quiet parts and that's when the noise gate kicks in. I pretty sure that's on most multi-effect pedals and on my BR1600 have built in noise gates. Too much compression and distortion amplifies any noise as well!

Alternatively, you can shield the guitar internally, change pickups to stack hum buckers etc - there are books written about this and many, many opinions - but that sounds like too much effort :-)

B

I completely agree.

It's the reason why my Strat has noiseless PUps; and since I record only (no gigs), if and when I will buy a Tele, it will be noiseless PUps-equipped. 

James, IMO you should begin to think to change the PUps...

Alfredo

[guitarron]

That is the unfortunate nature of the beast with single coils
I often used the 2 and the 4 positons on my strat which is noise cancelling-the middle position your tele might be noise cancelling
lighting can cause hum too
in my DAW i delete silent passages on tracks
i also will will listen before i hit record, and physically rotate my stance to get the lowest noise and then hit record
long headphone cords do help with that

post-signal processing can help too- record clean then add effects later-however i dont do that much -except to add reverb

one thing ive done is to use a dedicated power supply -true tone cs10- on my pedal board-made a world of difference-i got rid of all the wall warts

[alfstone]

Interesting thread here:

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1706123

Alfredo

[guitarron]

Interesting thread here:

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1706123

Alfredo

good info there
my old gigging strat has seymour duncan vintage stacks are very quiet and sound great. To my ear, it is a very different tone tho.
the single coils in my american professiona strat have thinner more quackier tone-which is heaven to me-ring like bells