[jpmack]

I have a strat and play through a twin reverb.I hear a buzz on every position except when switched at the neck and middle at the same time,which I think is the forth position.Is it a bad five way switch?Thanks

[Kirk Lorange]

Until I bought Seymour Duncan Stack pickups, humbucking pickups, my Strat always had some kind of buzz going on. It was usually neon lights, but could be anything .... fridge (you hear it going on and off), soemone next door with some appliance. But the pickups fixed it all.

[matt]

Usually it's 60-cycle hum, which is common on strat pickups. There are a lot of different types of noiseless strat pickups though which get rid of that, but preserve the tone.

There could be a grounding issue on your guitar though. A continuity tester might help you out there. Crackling (if you've experienced that) is usually oxidation either on your input jack or in your pots.

I want to take a second and recommend an awesome dvd (you can also get it in vhs) by Tracy Longo. http://www.metalmethod.com/guitar-repair.htm

He does guitar setups for a lot of the big acts out in California. This video gave me the confidence to fully set up my instruments by myself. He basically goes over every possible thing relating to guitar setups (electric), but the same principles apply to acoustic guitars as well.

[allthumbs]

thanks matt. I ordered the dvd , just what I was looking for. I have texas specials in my strat and have no hum that I can hear.

[Spyder F16]

As said, it's the 60 cycle hum that tends to occur on stock single coil pickups. Either a guitar rewire, or pickup change can eliminate it.

[gtech]

I have Texas Specials on my homemade Strat, and it is normal to hear hum or buzzing in these 1-3-5 positions.

It's the same for all sigle-coils pick-ups, and it is better or worst depending on the shielding in your guitar, and where you are playing it.

I know that I have a bad spot in my house with a lot of electrical wires in the walls. So when I don't want too much of that noise, I go elsewhere in the house.

That's the price to pay to have the sound of single-coils...

Gilles

[BKStone]

I currently play a Special Ed. Lite ash strat and its normal to have some hum in 1-3-5
but it could be the ground control
sow take the backplate of your guitar
6screws with a strat an see if there is a wire disconnected to the springs inside
ifsow reconnect them and your problem is solved excuse my spelling mistakes

[Rockerbob]

Well, single coil pickups buzz and hum. It's the nature of the beast. Using a noise gate might help, at least by turning off the line when you are not playing. I like the sound of single coil pickups, but it is always a battle against buzz and hum. Adding some shielding might reduce the problem, but the single coil pickups themselves just pickup noise. One thing you can try to reduce the noise is to rotate yourself around. You will probably find a polar alignment that has less noise than others. Not so useful live, but helpful in the studio. Also, stay way far away from any CRT, like a TV or CRT tube type computer monitors. These things put out huge amounts of interference that your single coils will amplify. I fianlly went to all LCD flat panel monitors in the studio. It really helped reduce the noise my guitars pickup.