# Horrible buzz when touching pickups



## Knorre (Feb 8, 2011)

Hey guys, i'm new here so i'm sorry if this is in the wrong place or anything.. Well, here goes.

About 4 months ago I changed the pickups in my Ibanez RG7321, and recently, they started buzzing when I touch them. This gets even worse when i play with high gain... I've brought it to the local music store, but they forgot to send it to their Tech, so after 2 weeks nothing had been done to my guitar. I went to pick it up again today as I really couldn't miss it anymore.

Here are my specs for reference;

-Ibanez RG7321 fitted with a DiMarzio Crunch Lab 7 in the bridge position and a Dimarzio LiquiFire 7 in the neck position, the Crunch Lab is fitted with the bar facing towards the neck.
-There is still 1 volume and 1 tone knob, both 500k pots. 
-I hook my guitar up to my Boss ME-50, and I use a Peavey Vypyr 75 for amplification. 

What can be done to fix this problem? It's really getting on my nerves because i use the bridge pickup to rest my pinky on while playing. I've decided to consult this forum as the tech is most likely busy this whole week.


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## Mordacain (Feb 8, 2011)

sounds to me like your ground wires aren't attached correctly. The fact you get noise when you touch it means you're grounding something. Where exactly are you resting your pinky? Is it on one of the pole-pieces or on the pickup mounting tab (or the mounting screw)?


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## Knorre (Feb 8, 2011)

I touch several parts, mostly the bar pole piece and the side of the pole piece.

Bad pun ahead? Hehe.


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## Mordacain (Feb 8, 2011)

Nah, I try to avoid puns when I can. What kind of pickup switching is in effect? Also to note that you're bound to have some noise at any point when you touch the actual pole-pieces (or bar) on any pickup. The higher the output, the more noise you'll deliver. Personally I would advise trying to adapt to placing you pinky outside the pickup, either on the pickup ring or near the tab slot (if direct-mount).

The noise could be increased due to poorly done wiring, cheap switches, pots, etc. That is one of the reasons I replace electronics whenever I rewire a guitar, higher quality stuff delivers less overall noise.

/edit - to be clear though, even if you perform the best wiring in the world and replace everything with the best quality, you'll still get noise if you touch the pole-pieces on a pickup


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## Knorre (Feb 8, 2011)

Ah i see, the switch and pots are still stock, could it really help if i'd upgrade them? I instructed the tech to leave the pickup switching stock too, just like an unmodded RG7321.







Also, as of now i've adapted my picking hand a bit to avoid noise, but strangely, this only started occurring recently.. I've always had my pinky on the (side of the) bridge pickup.


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## Mordacain (Feb 8, 2011)

Knorre said:


> Ah i see, the switch and pots are still stock, could it really help if i'd upgrade them? I instructed the tech to leave the pickup switching stock too, just like an unmodded RG7321.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The side is no problem, provided you avoid touching the pole-pieces. Does the noise happen in every switch position? 

Upgrading electronics might not help eliminate this issue, but quality electronics always reduces noise over what is conventionally used in most production guitars. Higher end guitars tend to ship with the best quality stuff already, but even some do not (Ibanez Prestiges for example still have shit electronics).


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## Knorre (Feb 8, 2011)

I get noise at the middle, middle-bridge and bridge position. The most noise comes when i use the bridge position and touch the bar of the pickup.

Also, i do still get noise when touching the side of the bridge pickup.


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## Rook (Feb 8, 2011)

It's not upgrading the electronics;

You either have a dry joint somewhere or something isn't grounded, and you're effectively grounding the pickup when you touch it.

Get a soldering iron and touch all of the solder joints until it melts then let it dry again. Make sure nothings shorting, make sure there aren't any wires that are hanging on by a thread, and make sure everything on your jack is connected correctly and the right way round.


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## Mordacain (Feb 9, 2011)

Mordacain said:


> sounds to me like your ground wires aren't attached correctly.





Fun111 said:


> It's not upgrading the electronics;
> 
> You either have a dry joint somewhere or something isn't grounded, and you're effectively grounding the pickup when you touch it.
> 
> Get a soldering iron and touch all of the solder joints until it melts then let it dry again. Make sure nothings shorting, make sure there aren't any wires that are hanging on by a thread, and make sure everything on your jack is connected correctly and the right way round.



 Grounding was my original though as well, and I thought I had been clear that electronics wouldn't be causing it, but seems more than one person misunderstood me. I was just saying upgrading electronics can reduce general noise, not what OP was describing.

That being said, Fun's instructions should help you isolate the problem at least (if not fix it outright).


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## Knorre (Feb 11, 2011)

Thank you both for your help and advice, strangely I get less noise now compared to when i posted this thread... Oh well, at least now i know what to tell the local tech!


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## Knorre (Feb 23, 2011)

I'm bumping this topic because the problem still isn't fixed.

The tech fully grounded my guitar, he even rewired the pups to add grounding to them. I STILL GET THE [email protected]#(@#*ING BUZZ. 

I'm desperate now, i've tried so much and nothing worked.. Does anyone else have an idea what could be wrong? I'm 100% positive that the problem is on my end, i tried the guitar at the store with high gain and i got no buzz at all, please help...


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