Humm/buzz on splitted pickups

[pm33]

Hi all,

This is my first message on this forum.

I own a TA Grand Am (01-15-90) that I really love.
It has a H3 pickup on bridge, a SK1R and a SK1. I don't have any information about the SK1 and SK1R since they're not listed on the TA Tone Reference page. :confused:

Since I bought this fabulous guitar, I had just used the switcheroo to switch between series and parallel wiring. But last week, I tried to change parallel position into split position (just desoldering one wire from ground and adding a push-pull on the tone pot).
And theses sounds are great !! They are clear like the parallel positions and they sound round and hot like the series positions. :)

But they generate more noise than a strat !!! :(

Is there a way to use these cool sound without feeling like if I was playing sitting on the cathodic screen of my computer ? :confused:

Maybe a trick about the way of wiring it ?
Or is there any more actual pickups that could bring me this kind of tone without the helicopter sound ?

Thanks for you answers.

Pascal :)

[tom]

split means true single coil, which means hum. split they are a bit hottet than the stock fender pickup, so the hum will be louder as well. one potential problem you may have created, is if you are using the parallel setting but have just lifted the black wire form the stack, is that you have left the unused coil still connected to hot( the white wire), which may be adding some noise. you could try removing it to see if you get a change. but it will never be as quiet as the series sound.

[pm33]

Thanks for your answer.


one potential problem you may have created, is if you are using the parallel setting but have just lifted the black wire form the stack, is that you have left the unused coil still connected to hot( the white wire), which may be adding some noise

Excellent remark and great idea! I'm going to test that tonight and I'll tell you if the hum is more acceptable. :)

I had never had problems with hum considering I just used series and parallel wirings. But the new tones I've discovered with split wiring worth a little hum.

I already loved this guitar (I've owned it since 2002) but with this new sound I rediscover it! ;)

Thanks again.

Pascal :)

[tom]

it is easy to get spoiled with no hum what so ever, but there are tones with dealing with it for.

[pm33]

I have tried another wiring, according to your advices.

When splitted, the unused coils are now routed to ground, which greatly reduces the hum.

Finally, I use this wiring with a push-push tone pot, which allows me to switch between parallel and split modes, and to bypass the unused coils to ground when in split mode.

My TA Grand AM was the best guitar I had played among hundreds... but now it's even better !

Thanks for your precious advices.

Just another question... considering I don't have any information about the SK1 and SK1R pickups...

Are there some actual TA pickups which SK1 and SK1R could be compared to ?

[tom]

the sk1's were our first stacks. they were followed by sl1, sd1 and sa1. i would say they got progressively fuller sounding and gained a bit of output.