Hi all, I know this has been posted before but I can't find it.

Anyway, I have recently installed some American vintage 57/62 PUPS into my MIJ 54ri Strat, but I have a problem.

The pups sound great with the exception of a 60 cycle hum through all of the pickup positions.

Have I not Earthed (Grounded) it properly?

Any help would be appreciated as I have a gig coming up soon and I would like to use this Strat.

Cheers.

If what you're asking is what I think it is, my Road Worn has the same problem.

What is 60 cycle hum?

First off check and recheck your earth wires. You could have a cold solder (google it).

Secondly, you need to make sure your middle pickup is reverse wound reverse polarity if you want to lose 60hz hum in positions 2&4.
The easiest way to do that is to take a old pickup and lightly pass it over all 3 pickups. Dont turn the pickup in anyway. You should feel a slight pull on the 2 outer positions and a repulse on the middle position. Or a repulse on the two outer positions and a pull on the middle position.

3 If your middle pickup's magnet is reversed to the two outer magnets, check you have the thing wired in correctly. You could be undoing the RWRP by wiring the pickup in backwards.

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No no and no

The power coming into your house is 60 hertz AC,meaning it alternates direction back and forth 60 times a second.It has a vibration to it....that's the noise hum you hear through single coils.

Thanks Niki, I appreciate your expertise.

Mate it's now I am a bit frustrated.

I did as you suggested, but I am still getting noise on 2 & 4.

Here are the PUPS..

If the pickups pictured are the ones with the hum,it looks to me as if they all have white power wires,does this not indicate that the mid pickup is not reverse wound reverse polarity?should it not have a yellow wire if it was RWRP?

Yeah good point, according to Fender Japan, these are american vintage pickups.

Like I said they sound awesome and definately sound vintage, but the hum is a pain given the fact it's on 2 & 4 as well.

At the moment it is wired as pictured.

Cheers for the responses guy's, any further help would be appreciated.

hum in positon 2 and 4 Only? Not in pos 1 and 3 ?

My advice is to just get on with it. RWRP sets sound horrible to my ear. I just cant see the point in having a vintage set of pickups with a very un-vintage sounding positions 2&4. If you want noiseless, buy noiseless. If you want vintage, buy vintage.

I'd bung em in and forget the hum. Anyone who tells you that will ruin the guitar for live use or recording is not talking sense. A million noisy strats must have been gigged by now. Anyone with half a brain knows that the hum isnt audible when playing, so lower your volume when your not. Any Recording studio worth using will have £££££ worth of equipment to zero out hum. Or an engineer capable of nulling it prior to mastering.

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No no and no

Your first question is about hum in all the positions

Fix the fist problem

1- Leave your center pickup like you put before ( original instal). see 3-

2- Hum all positions : ground lead missing or bads solders

3- All your pickups should be installed in the same way ( direction ) ie wires going to pots.
So if you put this way the center pickup ( you know which is wich ?) evereythig is ok and find your bad solder or missing wire ( or broken one )

This is the way the 57/62 pups are supposed to be. No RWRP middle pup in this set. You are going to get hum even in positions 2 & 4. You have installed them correctly. Don't worry about it.

The middle pickup wasn't RWRP in the 50's and 60's. These are vintage spec pickups. The hum in 2&4 is the price you pay for vintage tone. If Buddy Guy, Clapton, Hendrix, and all the other greats back in the day could put up with the hum...so can I

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

Thats exactly my thinking on it. Theres a load of emphasis been put on hum thats made it into a bigger problem than it really is.

I like the sound of some noiseless pickups so I use them in 2 guitars. I have 2 guitars with regular pickups (without RWRP middle), they see the same amount of action.

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No no and no

Sorry to hijack, but it seems that the issue has been answered now...

I am very curious, where can I get one of those STRAPS? The only place I've seen them were on John Mayer's Monterey Pop Strat on the 'Where the Light Is' DVD, and in your picture of your guitar, there. I have an Olympic White/Maple American Standard, and I think that color scheme would compliment it nicely. I looked under the accessories part of Fender's site here, but couldn't find that color. Does it only come with certain guitars, perhaps?

Anyway, good luck with the hum, and nice axe!

Those straps are nothing special and are in all the guitar shops I've been to lately. Onlilne too http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=361204

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

I've been playing a long time. When I first started - if it wasn't humming, it wasn't working! There are ways to minimize it, but you won't get rid of it. Watch someone like Gary Moore playing a vintage Strat. As soon as the last note dies, he shuts the volume off, and cranks it just before he starts the first note of the next tune. Sometimes you can just turn a litlle and the hum with die quite a bit. Also try using a different outlet if that is an option. HumX makes a plug in line filter that may help some, too, but the hum is going to be there to some extenet.

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Frank
A legend in my own mind.