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I am struggling with hum on my archtop that has a Kent Armstrong HJGS-1 floating pickup. If we touch the outside plastic covering of the pickup or to the ground lug on the pickup, the hum reduces dramatically so it seems like a grounding issue.

What I've tried:

  • I replaced all of the wires in the guitar but no change.
  • I pulled the pickup off the guitar and soldiered new 4" wires directly to a jack, the hum is still evident.
  • We've tried multiple amps. We've moved the guitar around the house. We've compared the hum with another guitar on the same amp with the same 1/4" cable. No hum.

I've done a ton of reading on the subject but I'm stumped.

Questions:

  1. Is it possible that the pickup is indeed generating the hum? Maybe there is some grounding issue internal to the pickup?

  2. Any addition ways we can test the pickup to make it is the problem? It shows something like 7.9k ohms and I've figured out the polarity using the metal whack test but otherwise i'm not sure what to try.

Thanks for any help.

Gray
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  • My guitar is able to be kinda radio, catching waves. Some guys suggested me to isolate "hardware stuff" in body with a foil. – max.kuzmentsov May 19 '16 at 06:27
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  • Typically hum is due to faulty grounding, but this could possibly be because of a faulty pickup. 2) What happens when you touch the strings, or when you switch the pickup in and out? 3) this is really the important question here - I'd suggest asking it separately. Grounding is essential - doing it wrong will give hum.
    • – Doktor Mayhem May 19 '16 at 08:40
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    Thanks for the feedback @DrMayhem. I've moved my #3 question to it's own: http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/44613/proper-way-to-use-a-shield-and-ground-wire-when-rewiring-a-guitar – Gray May 19 '16 at 20:01