[pinetr33z]

Hey guys,

Im doing a homebuilt guitar and got a Bluesbucker and PAF 36th Anniversary Bridge humbucker pickups for it.
I wired it up with a push/pull pot to get a coil split and the pickups sound great but there was a nasty buzz that went away when I touched the pickups/any ground wires. I figured its a grounding issue due to bad solder joints or incorrect grounding wiring. So I took everything out and re-wired everything with new pots (I bought 2 of each just in case I have problems with one) but there is still a nasty buzz. All the pots/switchs/pickups were grounded.
So again I took everything out and decided to test each pickup directly wired to the jack. Each pickup alone has the same nasty buzz when directly wired to the jack and the buzz goes away when I touch the pickup. I think its obviously a weird grounding issue and tried touching a wire connected to ground to the baseplate of the pickup and nothing changed.

 I then thought that maybe my amp (Vox AC15C1) was a little weird so I plugged in my Fender Strat and Gretsch Hollowbody and both were COMPLETELY silent.

Any suggestions? The pickups are brand new. Are they just naturally noisy? Although that would seem a little weird since my Strat's single coils are much quieter.

Thanks!

[buddroyce]

Try wiring it without the coil-split. See if that changes anything.

[Strangeman86]

Are you using one grounding point for everything?  I've accidentally used two before and that made some terrible racket come through my amp.

[DarthPhineas]

Going to have to run down the process of elimination.

[pinetr33z]

I did try to wire the pickups directly to the output jack (ie. no vol pot, no tone pot, no coil split) and they were still buzzing so i don't think its the pots/switches or the coil tap. I also did make sure that I was running one grounding spot.

I think next I'll try some shielded cable (I kinda cheated out and got some unshielded stuff since this is my first build).

[Shooweri]

Here's a few things you may want to check out:

#1 Do you have pickup color codes wired up correctly. If using SD or other color codes pickups don't work as designed. DiMarzio's color codes are:
Red wire - hot output
Black/white - coil split, soldered together whether used split or not
Green/bare - ground
Check your pickups with multimeter to check if they give you correct reading. You can check normal DiMarzio kOhm readings from their website.

#2 Check all the wiring for cold solder joints. Cold solder joints can cause grounding/output issues. Good joints are shiny, bad aren't. Here's a small guide: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-O2TGoArrY

#3 Check your soldering for ground bleed to hot output. This means that if you have a slightest bit of ground touching any output connection you'll get some grounding buzz.

Hope this helps & good luck!

[pinetr33z]

So I figured it out. Theres alot of EMI in my area (huge power lines running by my house) and I just needed to shield the crap out of everything with some copper tape

[buddroyce]

I was just about to mention some shielding. Glad to hear that it got fixed.

[DarthPhineas]

I was just about to mention some shielding. Glad to hear that it got fixed.

Yeah, power came to mind as well. I was in a place once with no grounded outlets and had a constant buzz. But there are so many variables, it’s usually a matter of just tracking it down until you eventually find it.

[buddroyce]

Yeah, power came to mind as well. I was in a place once with no grounded outlets and had a constant buzz. But there are so many variables, it’s usually a matter of just tracking it down until you eventually find it.

I'm pretty sure this problem has plagued many of us who have lived in older homes lol

When I first started wiring up my own guitars, I had the same problem and couldn't figure it out until I tried the guitar at a friend's place, only to discover there was no buzz/hum there.