NV 400 w/mod+true tone P/U.....Unhappy marriage?

Jordan Shapiro · Post by **Jordan Shapiro** » 13 Apr 2004 7:33 am

I recently purchased a new Mullen with a true tone picku in it.

Needless to say I was excited to hear this pickup that so many are raving about, however I got a pretty bad hum from the amp with ths combo. I plugged my 'bud in and as usual it was pretty quiet(it has a gearge L in it). I checked the solders and they looked and felt solid.

Before you ask, yes, I tried a different outlet to plug the amp into, I moved it from room to room, tried different cords, volume pedals.......etc.

I ended up just putting a George L 10-1 in the Mullen and all seems fine now. When the amp is turned up really loud now there is a little hum, but nothing like the true tone.

Anyone else have ths single coil grief? Also, Ken Fox, any soldering tips? The hum is reasonable now, and only there when the amp is cranked up LOUD, but should my new George L be silent nomatter what?

Also, there is a little buzz comng through the speaker when I really lay into the strings, like maybe the speaker is fuzzing out a little, what should I check, and how do I go about that?

Thanks all,
Jordan

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 13 Apr 2004 8:14 am

Jordan. First of all you need to accept the fact that the True-Tone is still a single coil pickup, not a humbucker. It will never be as quiet as your George-L's pickup. That's the great pickup dilemma. Single coils have a better tone, but they will hum. I can say that the True-Tone has less hum than my stock single coil Emmons pickups. Also the hum is mellower with less buzz. It's not a soldering issue most likely. It's the nature of the beast.

I recently put a True-Tone in my Emmons push/pull and it's never sounded so good.

Brad Sarno

Randy Pettit · Post by **Randy Pettit** » 13 Apr 2004 9:26 am

Brad,
I've experienced very similar issues with my TT as Jordan. Now, even my Geo L 12-1 produces some 60hz hum - enough that it's causing problems with the sound guy (and me too). Is that right?

Brad Sarno · Post by **Brad Sarno** » 13 Apr 2004 11:55 am

If your humbucker is humming, I'd first check the wiring. On a pickup, usually there is a hot wire, a cold wire, and a bare ground or shield. It's common to tie the cold(black) wire to the ground wire and make that the ground connection. The other color wire, typically white or red, would be connected to the hot. If you've got the ground or shield connected to the hot side and the ground wire all alone, this could make it more succeptible to hum. I'd double-check the pickup wires first. Usually those humbuckers are dead quiet.

Brad Sarno

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 13 Apr 2004 12:51 pm

What kind of volume pedal are you using? Are you using a steel driver, or other preamp?

Randy Pettit · Post by **Randy Pettit** » 14 Apr 2004 9:30 am

Donny,
It produces hum plugged directly into the amp (both high and low gain inputs), even with the pre-gain set at 2 or 3. Neither my Fender Strat nor my Ovation acoustic/electric produce as much hum. I've also re-checked the solder points at the jack (can the jack go bad?) and everthing looks OK there, too. BTW, it also hums in my Pod XT.

John Floyd · Post by **John Floyd** » 14 Apr 2004 10:14 am

There are way too many variables involved to to trouble shoot a hum problem on a forum post.

I use Single coil pickups exclusively in all my six string guitars and have been through the hum thing backwards and forward. The key to it all is experimentation . Most of it is common sense, If you have your guitar 2 feet away from a TV set, you are going to get hum, if you have light dimmers or neon lights in the electrical circuitry in the general area, you will probably get some hum from that, you just have to eliminate things one at a time. Find out what is different between the Sho-bud guitar and the Mullen in the wiring, Are the strings and metal parts of the Mullen , grounded?

Just because one ground is good , it doesn't mean two will work twice as good, quite the contrary, it most likley cause more noise problems.

Hope some of this helps. Like Brad said , its the nature of the beast, but the beast can be managed, if every part of your rig is correctly grounded [This message was edited by John Floyd on 14 April 2004 at 12:15 PM.]

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 15 Apr 2004 3:45 am

My effects units have a noise suppressor in them, this could help you also. Try a stomp box noise gage.

Larry Behm

jerry wallace · Post by **jerry wallace** » 16 Apr 2004 12:39 pm

Jordan,I agree with the info that eveyone is giving you.

A single coil pickup is more prone to noise/hum than a humbucker..Thats not to say they WILL have more noise but they will not cancell it as will a humbucker.The noise problem is the reason humbuckers came into being..

The positive with a single coil is usually better frequency response, sound , and tone.

The negative is they are more prone to noise/hum.

The positive with a humbucker is they are usually quite in about any situation.

The negative is that they cancel out part of the frequency response along with the noise/hum.

So its a compromise either way you go..If the method used to check a pickup for noise is to open the volume wide open while not playing , a single coil pickup is probably not for you..The humbuckers will win out everytime.

If the noise is not excessive most players agree the better sound/tone is worth any small amount of noise..However, if it is excessive or if the situation requires zero noise/hum, a humbucker is the way to go.

In most cases using a single coil pickup the signal to noise ratio while playing is acceptable or not noticable..

I agree with all of the advise the guys have mentioned as ways to improve excessive noise.

In my opinion a single coil pickup is NOT for everyone due to their tendency to have more noise..In many cases, the noise/hum is related to other factors such as a ground loop, floresent lights , AC wiring etc ..But the great thing about a humbucker is it will cancel the noise even if it is cause by something thats not correct or not working properly.Unfortunately in my opinion there is a price though.

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Jerry Wallace-2001 Zum: D-10,8+6, "98 Zum: D-10,8+8,Nashville 1000,Session 500 ,Session 400 head only amp,Tubefex,ProfexII, Artesia, New Mexico
http://www.jerrywallacemusic.com

[This message was edited by jerry wallace on 16 April 2004 at 01:42 PM.]

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 17 Apr 2004 11:46 am

I had two Mullen guitars that absolutely would NOT accept ANY single coil pickup that you tried to put into them. All had excessive hum. Yet when the same pickups were installed on a push/pull there was negligeable hum. Very acceptable. This was witnessed by two other steel players.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 17 Apr 2004 12:03 pm

Not having a Mullen nearby to look at, maybe someone else can answer this. Does Del "ground" his changers to the endplate?

Nicholas Dedring · Post by **Nicholas Dedring** » 17 Apr 2004 1:25 pm

This should work, and might show what the problem is... try switching the neck selector to turn on both necks of the guitar, if you have a D10. If the hum goes away, it might just be single coil humminess you are getting (switching them both on makes just one really big humbucker, effectively)... I think a grounding problem would still hum even with both necks on.

Mark Herrick · Post by **Mark Herrick** » 17 Apr 2004 5:00 pm

Hey, Jordan. I sent you an e-mail on Thursday to see if you still have that True Tone pickup. I live close to you and would like to try it out in my Mullen if you still have it and don't mind.

Let me know if this might be possible.