Loud Hum. Bad Wiring?

[robertmendeziii]

My guitar squeals and hums like a mother. When I touch the toggle switch or the input jack plate, or even the metal around the pick up the noise stops. I opened the back plate of the guitar and when I touch this certain wire the noise get even louder and then i touch the toggle switch and again it goes away. The pickups I have are emg's and I looked at the diagrams for them and everything looks correct. Should they have used a thicker wire or thicker shield around that one wire. Any takers on the problem. Thanks

[basile865]

sounds like a bad grounding wire maybe. Make sure nothing is loose in the jack connections as well.

[jcmjmp]

My guitar squeals and hums like a mother. When I touch the toggle switch or the input jack plate, or even the metal around the pick up the noise stops. I opened the back plate of the guitar and when I touch this certain wire the noise get even louder and then i touch the toggle switch and again it goes away. The pickups I have are emg's and I looked at the diagrams for them and everything looks correct. Should they have used a thicker wire or thicker shield around that one wire. Any takers on the problem. Thanks

EMGs should be quiet. I don't even have a ground on the strings on mine and its fine.
Are all the pickup cavities properly shielded?

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

I had a similar problem with my rig a while back, like the ground noise when you take your hand off the strings, but extremely prominent, and still present when touching the strings. Turned out my Variac lost it's grounding at some point. I now only use it slaved, so the missing ground isn't an issue, but without another amp to ground it it's noisy and a menace. I'd check the amps grounding too. (Not that I got nasty mic shock or anything. ) I'm not running EMG's, so I'm not sure it's the same, but I'd check anyways.

Travis

[fillmore nyc]

My guitar squeals and hums like a mother. When I touch the toggle switch or the input jack plate, or even the metal around the pick up the noise stops. I opened the back plate of the guitar and when I touch this certain wire the noise get even louder and then i touch the toggle switch and again it goes away. The pickups I have are emg's and I looked at the diagrams for them and everything looks correct. Should they have used a thicker wire or thicker shield around that one wire. Any takers on the problem. Thanks

Sounds to me like its wired backwards... like you connected the ground to hot and hot to ground. That would explain why the noise goes away when you touch anything thats assumed to be grounded, like the toggle, jack plate, etc.
Its not gonna have anything to do with wire thickness, etc. What wire are you touching when the noise gets louder?

BTW, you mentioned the noise stops when you touch "the metal around the pickup"... what metal are you referring to? Did you get those newer EMG's with the chrome / gold covers, or are you talking about metal mounting rings, or foil grounding tape? Touching any of those things, and having the noise stop would be indicative of reversed wiring.

One thing about EMG's is that they are known to be dead quiet, so my guess would be something in the way its wired.

[JimiJames]

I had a similar problem with my rig a while back, like the ground noise when you take your hand off the strings, but extremely prominent, and still present when touching the strings. Turned out my Variac lost it's grounding at some point. I now only use it slaved, so the missing ground isn't an issue, but without another amp to ground it it's noisy and a menace. I'd check the amps grounding too. (Not that I got nasty mic shock or anything. ) I'm not running EMG's, so I'm not sure it's the same, but I'd check anyways.

Travis

So... you didn't have a ground wire from the bridge or spring claw ?

[ohmygodtheykilledkenny]

No, I had one going to the bridge, but I think it may have come loose at the time, it was on my Les Paul. I've fixed the bridge ground a few times on it. I think Fill's probably right, with the backwards wiring in this case. I just remember god awful hum when I wasn't touching the guitar (I remember it was better touching the pickup covers then the strings) and that I got a nasty shock off a microphone when I leaned in to it. I'm running Wolfetone Legends, so their really nothing like EMG's. When he mentioned that the hum was loud, it reminded me of when my amp lost it's ground.

Travis