Help: Wiring Fender Noiseless

[Jeffrey Cohen]

I installed a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups on my '91 American
Standard Strat. I used the stock wiring diagram that came with the
pickup set. The one discrepency in the product is that it comes with a
resistor, but the wiring diagram does not indicate where the resistor
goes. Everything else is installed exactly per the diagram, including
the capacitor. In testing, I get sound out of all three pickups and
from the middle positions, as expected.

The problem is this. I am hearing about as much hum and noise as I
heard from my original pickups. When I touch the bridge, the hum
decreases a bit, as it was with my original pickups. What is most
disturbing is that as I roll back the volume control, a low hum starts
and gets progressively louder as I roll back volume. About half way
through the curve, there is more hum than there is signal.

So, either I did something wrong, the fender-provided wiring diagram is
wrong, or that resistor was supposed to go somewhere.

I have the ground wire from the bridge and body soldered to the volume
pot ground. I don't get it.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Jeff Cohen

[Mark Garvin]

In <39F381DE...@umich.edu> Jeffrey Cohen <coh...@umich.edu> writes:

>I installed a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups on my '91 American
>Standard Strat. I used the stock wiring diagram that came with the
>pickup set. The one discrepency in the product is that it comes with a
>resistor, but the wiring diagram does not indicate where the resistor
>goes.

From the top of the volume control to ground. (Across the two 'outside'
connections on the volume pot). But...

>The problem is this. I am hearing about as much hum and noise as I
>heard from my original pickups. When I touch the bridge, the hum
>decreases a bit, as it was with my original pickups. What is most
>disturbing is that as I roll back the volume control, a low hum starts
>and gets progressively louder as I roll back volume. About half way
>through the curve, there is more hum than there is signal.

Check to see if you have something closeby that is generating hum.

Also consider using a 500k audio taper pot instead of the Fender
1 Meg + 1 meg resistor. The combo of the pot in parallel with
the resistor is 500k, but using a 500k pot (without resistor)
provides a lower resistance to ground when the pot is in the
middle. So a bit less hum.

You may have it wired wrong, tho'.

>I have the ground wire from the bridge and body soldered to the volume
>pot ground. I don't get it.

Check thru all wiring again, Jeff. If you have some electronics
background you'll be able to see if there are problem. If not,
then have someone else check it. I know it's a silly question,
but you do have the black pickup wires hooked to ground, right?
If you reversed the hot/ground, they might hum a bit more...not
sure, as I've never tried that with VNs.

MG

[Jeffrey Cohen]

> Hi Mark. Thanks for your response. See mine below.

> >I installed a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pickups on my '91 American
> >Standard Strat. I used the stock wiring diagram that came with the
> >pickup set. The one discrepency in the product is that it comes with a
> >resistor, but the wiring diagram does not indicate where the resistor
> >goes.
>
> From the top of the volume control to ground. (Across the two 'outside'
> connections on the volume pot). But...
>

I will try this. It wasn't in the diagram that came from Fender (oddly
enough), but it seems to make sense.

> >The problem is this. I am hearing about as much hum and noise as I
> >heard from my original pickups. When I touch the bridge, the hum
> >decreases a bit, as it was with my original pickups. What is most
> >disturbing is that as I roll back the volume control, a low hum starts
> >and gets progressively louder as I roll back volume. About half way
> >through the curve, there is more hum than there is signal.
>
> Check to see if you have something closeby that is generating hum.

I have the typical 60 cycle hum sources in a house. The noise and hum I'm
getting is radically different than before the modification.

> Also consider using a 500k audio taper pot instead of the Fender
> 1 Meg + 1 meg resistor. The combo of the pot in parallel with
> the resistor is 500k, but using a 500k pot (without resistor)
> provides a lower resistance to ground when the pot is in the
> middle. So a bit less hum.
>

I will consider this after I've tried your suggestion of where to put the
resistor.

> You may have it wired wrong, tho'.
>

I've checked the circuit against the schematic many times and know that the
signal paths are correct. However, I can't vouch for the quality of my
soldering work. It seems solid enough, though.

> >I have the ground wire from the bridge and body soldered to the volume
> >pot ground. I don't get it.
>
> Check thru all wiring again, Jeff. If you have some electronics
> background you'll be able to see if there are problem. If not,
> then have someone else check it. I know it's a silly question,
> but you do have the black pickup wires hooked to ground, right?
> If you reversed the hot/ground, they might hum a bit more...not
> sure, as I've never tried that with VNs.

I have enough experience to know that it's wired correctly, with the
exception of my ommision of that resistor. Funny that it isn't mentioned in
any of the standard strat schematics that I have found on the web. I'll try
it, though.

Yes, I do have the black pickup wires hooked to ground (all connected to the
ground side of the volume put.

Question: In the fender provided schematic, the volume and two tone pots are
connected at ground. In others I've found on the web, they are not. I tried
it both ways and it didn't seem to make a difference. What do you think it?

Thanks very much for taking the time to respond.

Jeff Cohen

>
> MG

[Jeffrey Cohen]

Gavid, your suggestion worked, along with a couple of other things. Firstly,
igoring Fender's suggestion of daisy chaining the grounds from pot to pot
helps. It seems to be more quiet if all of the grounds are connected at one
point...on the volume pot.
Second, when I was testing before, I was doing so with one string on the
guitar. Silly me! It appears that the total capacitance is affected by not
having all of the strings on. With all of the strings on, the new rig is
dead quiet and sounds very good.

I have to say, I'm not sure that the tone of these Fender Vintage Noiseless
are as sweet as the original pickups, but I still have to balance the pickup
heights and get used to the tone.

I might also consider a more useful tone circuite than that stock one, which
doesn't seem to do much and doesn't control the center pickup at all.

Still, the noise is gone and the sound is good, so I can now record decently
with my strat. I play very sutble music, so quiet pickups are important.

Thanks again.

Jeff Cohen