Alembic Guitars Club
Connecting => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: hb3 on July 24, 2011, 11:16:22 AM
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On my Fender Jazz, the strings pop when I touch them...this is a grounding issue, right? It seems like it's gotten a little worse over the last couple years. None of my other basses do this...
Is there a quick fix to stop this problem? It's very bad for recording/solo performance....
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Sounds like it..could be dry solder joints, I would lift the scratchplate and check the joints and resolder, sometimes the bridge ground wire snaps underneath the bridge and it does'nt make a good connection.
I would fix this ASAP as it can be dangerous if the amp has a grounding problem too, you can fit a 400V polyester capacitor to the hotwire output, I cannot remember the farad value but this acts as a protector incase to do get voltage passed thru' the guitar.
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I just checked, and it's doing it on my Hagstrom a little too. You know, pretty much nothing in my house is grounded....
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Can't get rid of dem basses!
Quick fix?
Try getting a new house.... hehe!
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Sounds like domestics wiring problem..get a technician to check the electrics in your home.
No earth grounding is pretty dangerous especially here in the UK where we run at 240V although you guys are 110v(55V out of each pin I gather) but it would still cause problems
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I've heard of at least one fairly extreme solution to this problem. If you are confident in the quality of your home wiring, you can run a lead from the third prong of an outlet to an alligator clip that you would attach to your bridge. Obviously, this would work better in a recording situation than a live setup.
I've played though vintage Fender amps for as long as I've been playing, and they almost always have a three-way grounding switch for which I've learned to have a healthy respect. The right setting means no popping when I touch the strings, but in the wrong setting, I've had a fair taste of 60hz zap. Location and age of the venue has made a huge difference. I'll take a little bit of popping over the outright sizzle any day.
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Hmm, it's not the guitar. Looks like I have at least one outlet in the house that is actually grounded....
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How old is the wiring in your home?
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I'll take a picture that should represent this...
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Ok, here's the outlet I was plugged into.
(http://club.alembic.com/Images/449/109862.jpg)
So? What's wrong with that? :D
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HOW OLD IS YOUR HOUSE?!?! I think Jesus used to plug into one of those outlets to shave...and I thought the outlets in my house were old when I replaced them...it probably doesn't even fit a modern 2-prong plug! I think we found your problem...Tony
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IN the USA from the feed to the electrical service in most updated residential circumstances there are 2 hots 110 volts AC each and a neutral, both hots give you 220 volts AC . With one leg of the feed you get 110 volts AC . Inside the Service panel on the neutral bus there should be earth ground connection per NEC (National Electrical Code) spec ground rod and /or inlet cold water supply. The 110 volts AC does not split down between the HOT and the Neutral. It is good to have 12 gauge Hot/ Neutral/ Ground ; on the plugs. Just because you SEE a 3 conductor plug always means your OK . Check the plug with a tester :_____ Don't have a hot/neutral conflict . Make sure your ground is really ground !
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=ground+tester&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5917360384558955116&sa=X&ei=0oAuTtW3EKzZiAL6l9Er&ved=0CDMQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=ground+tester&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=5917360384558955116&sa=X&ei=0oAuTtW3EKzZiAL6l9Er&ved=0CDMQ8wIwAA#ps-sellers)
(http://alembic.com/club/messages/449/109882.jpg)
I tried to make it simple
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I bring one of those to every gig...there's some wacky wiring in small bars.
...good to hear your making progress hb3,
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Looks like the old style two prong sockets that graced homes in the 50's here in the UK..USa stuff I definitely don't know about, I always thought you guys had 55V out of each pin but apparently not.
UK stuff is 240 from the one pin(live), neutral pin and an earth pin.
Talking of grounding, modern houses have alkathene water inlet pipes so builders are going back to the earth rods that historically were used in Edwardian/Victorian houses
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Here is an explanation of versions for the UK ;
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_household_AC_electrical_power_service_in_the_UK (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_household_AC_electrical_power_service_in_the_UK)
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There is important info here regarding 230 VOLT AC 50HZ SINGLE PHASE VOLTAGE in Europe:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_explain_about_the_use_of_the_neutral_wire_in_240_volt_hookups (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Can_you_explain_about_the_use_of_the_neutral_wire_in_240_volt_hookups)
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Be afraid, Hugh - be very afraid! I love old houses - am almost done restoring my second 100+yo one - but period authenticity is not always a good thing. You need a complete rewire to current code before you plug anything in! I'm betting there's knob-&-tube wiring behind that outlet, and modern devices can easily draw enough juice to overheat that stuff to the point of fire. If you rent, make the landlord fix it, or sic the building inspectors on him.
Peter
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Oh, well, it's not so bad. It's more updated than that -- all the plugs are converted except that one and one next to it, as they were covered up for years and years. I'm definitely gonna buy one of those testing things, though -- didn't know those existed. That should be useful.
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Ah - you were going for shock effect! It worked. Do check the wiring behind the outlets, though; I've seen many a brand-new 3-prong socket hooked to ancient wires.
(Edited to confess I honestly didn't catch the pun until after I'd posted)
Peter
(Message edited by cozmik_cowboy on July 26, 2011)
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Well, that one does look shockingly old. Hee hee.
I'm more and more concerned about noise, though. I'm trying to record with my pedals, and there's a hell of a lot of buzz that doesn't seem so loud when you're first listening to it, but that shows up very badly on a recording.