Weird guitar grounding (?) issue [halp!]

[midwayfair]

I've got a tele with Kinman pickups in it, and despite having grounded the bridge plate, I still get some buzzing that disappears when I touch the strings. The buzzing isn't super loud, but it's something that wasn't there years ago when I first installed the pickups.

I've gone through this thing about 10 times with a multimeter and I can't find anything out of place. Is there something I'm missing that could cause buzzing (not hum!) with noiseless pickups?

[pryde]

How about the control cavity? Any conductive paint or copper tape?

If so, is it all connected to ground?

[midwayfair]

How about the control cavity? Any conductive paint or copper tape?

If so, is it all connected to ground?

I *think* there's copper paint in there, but it's not shielded. I hadn't bothered because the pickups are humbucking. Will RF cause buzz similar to (but quieter than) a disconnected ground?

I guess it doesn't hurt, and I have a big roll of copper tape.

[jimilee]

How about different outlets in the house or different amps? I know my amp hums like that sometimes at rehearsal because of where we rehearse and some nights it's worse than others.

[oldhousescott]

Jon, have you checked out the GuitarNuts article, "Shielding the Beast"? You've probably already done most of what's in the article, but there might be something worthwhile to glean from it.

[pryde]

How about the control cavity? Any conductive paint or copper tape?

If so, is it all connected to ground?

I *think* there's copper paint in there, but it's not shielded. I hadn't bothered because the pickups are humbucking. Will RF cause buzz similar to (but quieter than) a disconnected ground?

I guess it doesn't hurt, and I have a big roll of copper tape.

Yes it can. Even though the pickups are noiseless, proper sheilding is still necessary in many cases. The article linked by oldhousescott is golden. that should get you sorted.

[midwayfair]

Okay, I'll do that tomorrow night.

The DQcaster is sheilded like crazy (and I've read that article). This one never was.

[gtr2]

I used that article and shielded my tele's that way.  I don't use noiseless single coils and I'm very happy with how quiet they are.  My Les Paul standard hums worse... but I have not done anything to it, yet...

[midwayfair]

It was the lack of shielding. I gave it a very thorough copper taping tonight (and I have the cuts on my fingers to prove it). There is still a tiny bit of RF when I'm two feet from the amp, and the noise still goes away a little when I touch the strings, but it's pretty quiet now.