I have a Clapton Custom Shop Strat that hums whenever I use an effects pedal like the BD-2 or Sigma Drive or the MXR Phase 90. No pedal and the sound is genuine and keen. Love it.

However, if I use my Nashville Power Tele, or G.E. Smith Tele or my two Les Pauls with the same pedals I get zero hum. Sometimes you want the pedals.

Is the Clapton guitar too hot to handle the pedals and that's why I get the hum? Or is something more nefarious happening?

The Clapton guitar is my favorite, but if I can play the other guitars with pedals without getting any hum -- why bother with the Clapton?

Would a pedal that specifically removes the hum help the Clapton -- or would it just dull down all the others?

I get the Clapton hum on all my amps: Fender Amp Champ, Fender Blues Jr. NOS and the Blackheart Killer Ant.

Thanks for your experience and insight!

You are sending a preamped signal to a bunch of other preamps. Consequently, line noise will be exponentially increased. A noise gate type pedal will simply dull it all down.

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Thanks for the quick feedback!

If I removed the battery from my Clapton -- would that make a difference?

My Nashville Power Tele also has a battery -- but there's no hum with the battery active.

The Clapton doesn't hum through the Boss TU-2 or the Boss CH-1.

Would an Ibanez Tube Screamer pedal help or hinder the Clapton?

Would the ISP Decimator work -- or is there a better pedal out there?

You're quite welcome.

The Clapton guitar's circuit itself wouldn't function properly without the battery as the circuit's component values are based on the circuit being active whenever the jack is plugged in.

The preamp in the Clapton Strat is designed as a signal booster. This is the key factor here in context of your issue. The Nashville's preamp powers the piezo to merely make it work, not to beef up an existing signal. The same holds true for your tuner and in the case of the chorus, it is designed to simply "hold back" the played note or notes it hears and plays it a split second later, altering its original pitch. So here too, no signal boosting is involved.

In terms of which overdrive, distortion (et. al) pedals would serve you the best, you have found my, "Achilles Heel". Although I am thoroughly familiar with their design and function, I am from the old, "Plug In Direct and Play School", right down to using only 100% tube amps (usually modified) for my overdrive. And except for my occasional use of a wah-wah pedal back in the late 60s and early 70s for playing that psychedelic music of the time, I, to this day, still don't use pedals and couldn't advise you to any competent degree what sounds good, better or best with anything. I'm sorry I can't help you here.

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I appreciate your fine tutorial, thank you.

I'm not big on pedals, either. A friend of mine gave me several to play around with and I have learned I prefer the pure sound of the guitar. I suppose that's my acoustic background speaking. I'm rather new to electrics.

With the TBX removed from the current batches of Masterbuilt Claptons -- would that mean they won't hum as much as the regular production and Custom Shop models or is these still something else going on that I'm missing?

Glad to help (such as it was).

IMO, the TBX is an utterly worthless gimmic. If you remove it and replace it with a normal 250K audio pot, it will quiet the circuit down a bit but don't expect dramatic results. Again, the crux of your issue is more a consequence of all those signal boosters in series and how your amp is set. Believe it or not, cheap cables, even just the ones ganging those pedals together can add to the line noise too.

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I agree the TBX is useless. Not a big fan of it. I learned today reading an older article on Clapton that 1-5 on the TBX is the same as 1-10 on a regular pot then the TBX boost from 5-10 is beyond human understanding as "Something Else." SMILE!

I live in an apartment so I can't get very loud. My favorite amp right now for dulcet, chimey, sounds is the Blackheart Killer Ant. At 1 watt and with the 10" Eminence speaker, it really sings at 3-4 and sounds downright fine between 1-2.

I have Mogami cables throughout including the SilentPlug cable directly into my guitar so I'm sure the hiss isn't coming from the cables.

How do you feel about the S1 setup in the HSS strats? Is it useful -- if so, in what way -- or is it just more snake oilmanship?

With these S-1 systems, I find the dedicated components to be extremely frail and are time bombs waiting to go off in terms of breaking down because eventually, they indeed will. This is a nuisance in itself but then comes the next one in trying to obtain replacement parts which are grossly overpriced and if this doesn't rattle you, the cost of shipping will. But wait, there's more! There are no superior, direct replacements for this stuff and so, you have to replace these substandard items with the exact same substandard items. The only way around this is to substitute different electronic components to achieve the same end which, IMO will make the guitar look rather hideous

Finally, I personally have no use for the majority of the additional tones/combinations available with the S-1. This is NOT to be construed as a knock on them as many players enjoy them immensely and their opinions are equally as valid as mine. Having said that, I have never had a problem with the original wiring of a Strat since I owned my very first one. In time, the only thing I wanted it to have was the ability of the neck and bridge pickups to be on together. As we all know, this is a simple modification where it can even be 'invisible' on the pickguard if required and there are several durable and even reversible ways to accomplish it.

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I'm so glad I found you when I did!

I'm in the mix for getting a second strat to compliment my Clapton and I was considering the HSS S-1 setup because it was unique and because the bridge and nut and tuners are different from the Clapton.

What are your feelings about the '57 Hot Rod Strat? Any worthless gimmicks there? If so, is there another strat you can recommend that would be a good compliment to the Clapton?

I also am enamored with the promise of the Gilmour NOS and even the Beck Custom Shop model rings with me -- but I prefer the sound and feel and vibe from a maple fretboard.

I thank you!

I thank you and you're welcome!

I think it is a mighty nice guitar overall where they upgraded from '57 specs with lots of good stuff except for believe it or not, their choice of the DiMarzio Tone Zone. Unfortunately, all this particular pickup does is puke lower midrange at very high output, thereby making the guitar sound like a student level instrument through a bad bass amp. I can appreciate what they are trying to accomplish here but not only will no Strat tonality be had from this pickup but naturally, it will not blend well with the other two. You will find yourself setting your amp to optimize either the SCNs collectively or the DiMarzio, one at the expense of the other or at worst, so they all sound 'tolerable'.

If I owned the guitar and I wouldn't mind at all, believe me, and I wanted a higher output bridge pickup but for it to still sound like a Strat and most importantly, be compatible with the SCNs, I'd choose from one of DiMarzio's Virtual Vintage Series. YMMV.

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Thank you, my dear friend, for all the help!

I'll keep my eye on the 57 Hot Rod Strat -- it seems like a good backup/bridge guitar -- while I continue to drool over the race for the Gilmour. SMILE!

Glad to be of assistance, good luck!

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Martian
its unlike me to question your pickup knowledge and your opinion of the tonezone is your own and not open for discsussion. I would however ask you to reassess the tonezone/scn balance issue. I found they match up pretty nicely in the bridge/mid position, kind of like a p90 though not quite. I agree with you on the tonezones excessive mid range focus though find it quite usable with some drive. I certainly think it would meet the OP's requirements being a regular user of a hotrod and my frankenclapton (incidentaly i put a FS2 in the bridge position of that guitar. Its a monster with the mid boost on it).

What i did find with the tonezone is that its particularly useless with a wah pedal, very undefined and bland.

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Specifically, I meant that just like most OEM, full sized humbuckers in guitars, and using Gibson as a prime example, the pair aren't truly compatible. For example, if you want a really ripping bridge pickup out of say, a Les Paul, you have to set your amp to cater to that. Now and conversely, if you want all the farty mud out of the neck pickup to where it really sounds smooth and crisp, again, you have to set the amp for it where the bridge will wind up sounding anemic. Unfortunately, in these situations, if one pickup wins, the other has to lose and if you try to strike some compromising balance between the two, the both suffer; this is what I meant. Even in a Strat in this particular situation, you can side step the middle pickup in combo with the bridge pickup as the more powerful one will easily dominate so sure, you'll get that easily identifyable Strat sound 'with attitude' not because they are a great pairing but exactly like in this case, because the bridge pickup (the Tone Zone) is infinitely more dominant. Now, consider a neck position SCN optimized through your favorite amp. Flip to the Tone Zone. You'll immediately notice that the amp must be tweaked again. Now that you've retweaked and got the Tone Zone exactly where you want it, see what happened to the sound of the neck SCN. This is what I mean. I'm not saying the Tone Zone NOR the SCNs are mutts. They indeed do have their places. Rather, I'm merely saying there are infinitely better pairings. Or to put it another way, the TZ is ALL midrange with nothing else other than brute strength whereas the SCNs have very little midrange which clarify the highs and lows but are of quite conservative output. IMO, this dooms the pairing from the start. FWIW, the one thing both pickups do have in common is the rare earth (ceramic) magnets.

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Yep your bang on about the neck to bridge switching woes. Fortunately i only use the bridge bucker for certain lead parts that neccessitate pedal activation too. I cant think of anything my band play where a drive pedals tone control cant sort the problem.

Your insights as always are a pleasure to discover.

Cheers mate.

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