Still having serious buzz on my tele. Help?

[chiro972]

My tele has a bad buzz on any high gain setting on my amp. I don't think it is the normal single coil hum. It is worse on the bridge or neck only compared to mixed, but when I turn the volume pot all the way down, it is still there.

 

If I touch any metal on the guitar, including the strings, it stops. Is the tele just unable to handle distorted settings on the amp or does it sound like I have a bad ground or something else?

 

If I set the amp on a clean setting, the problem goes away. Or at least I can't really hear it. I hear a tic on those settings if I take my hands off and on a metal part, but there is no buzz.

 

I hate this because this is the tele I just finished building a couple of weeks ago and I don't really play it due to this.

 

Any suggestions?

 

Pups are Kent Armstrongs. Pots are mini 500K if that makes any diff.

[pedalpat]

i would re check the grounding for both pickups and then check that the control and pickup cavities are shielded properly.

 

teles are noisy guitars in general, as are strats. but with some proper shielding techniques you can quiet them down considerably.

 

excellent information on shielding teles:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/tele.php

[theManfromAlabam]

What amp do you have?

[chiro972]

Amp is a Vox AD50VT

[ECFan]

It definitely sounds like you have a problem with the ground hookups. If you have an ohm meter, check for continuity between the output jack (ground) and the bridge, the back of the volume and tone pots, and the pickups (through the switch).

[Soulgolem]

Sheilding a tele sounds like a great idea, not sure i would do it myself though.

[fretmonster]

You haven't installed a new input jack lately have you? Putting that puppy in backwards will cause some nasty ground issues.

[Wyatt]

Your grounds may be fine. That's why the buzz goes away when you ground yurself through the strings. The string ground is working the way it is supposed to. Though I an surprised the buzz does not go away when you turn the volume all the way down.

 

Your guitar may benefit from some better sheilding, but you may not be able to get rid of all of the buzz. The fact that you can't hear it when playing clean shows how faint it really is. That buzz is always there, it is just the high gain channel compresses the signal so much, it moves to the forefront. THe compression will make all sounds, but the buzz and the guitar's normal output about even in volume.

 

A lot of studio players tie a length of old guitar string onto one of the fingers and run it to the bridge or somewhere. This way the are always connected to the string ground and the buzz/hum is nominal while recording.

 

-Y.