I just installed a set of Noiseless Samarium cobalt pickups in my 93 Mexican Strat, they work in all positions properly but the hum is terrible in all positions . Any idea what i did wrong ? This is my first pickup swap. Thanks

Check all your ground wires and make sure they are solid. Did you connect both the black and green wires to a good ground? SCNs should be dead silent.

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Bill

can you draw us a diagram of how you installed? or take pictures of underneath the pickguard.

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

If it IS the pickups causing the hum, and it happens in every switching position; its got to be a bad ground. Does the hum change when you touch something metal, like the tremolo or strings? You either didn't ground something when you switched them, or there is a cold solder joint. Since it hums in every position, id start out by checking the ground that goes to the jack, thats the one that seems to be where most of the grounding issues come from whenever whole sets of pickups are changed, its an easy wire to overlook after you just finished soldering a bunch of small wires, I've done it myself and I changed the wiring in my strat 3 times this weekend, and once /PRS (ended up burining out the heating element in my Weller).. Use a piece of wire, and touch it from ground to ground until the hum goes away, then either hook up the wire that isn't there, or touch the soldering iron to it so the solder will stick.

* this of course is after you've isolated the guitar as the problem, and not a pedal or your amp.

+1

Nary a peep from mine even when standing next to a TV.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Speaking of SCN's and TV's; I had an American Deluxe over my shoulder one day a few years ago. There was a television where I was, i walked up to the TV stand to get something, i stepped back, and the color in the bottom right hand corner of the television was shot for about 4 months. Like when you hold a magnet next to a screen.
Those sumarium magnets can pull the metal fillings out of a audience member in the 3rd row.

Even a cheap smiley-face refrigerator magnet will do that.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Yeah, but when you pull them away, they tend to go back to normal after a few minutes. This TV was like that for MONTHS. Matter of fact, now that i think of it, the only reason it went back was because i did the thing where you put a magnet at the end of a drill and turn it on and kind of pull apart the discoloration.
And Im not talking about it was "oh yeah, i can kind of see it if I look at the corner." It was always "holy s*^$, dude what the hell is wrong with your screen!?"

Perhaps you'd have been better served by remaining awake during high school physics class......

And don't monkey around with any loudspeakers while wearing a mechanical-movement wristwatch.



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

I want to thank everyone that helped me with my Pickup hum issue it was a bad ground solder joint , I repaired it using your advice Windwalker 9649 .Many thanks ! Fender players rule!( the Samarium pickups sound awsome ,clean and silent )

Good to hear, Matt.

I have SCN's in two guitars and they're quite versatile, especially with the S-1 switching system.

Rawk on!



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Good to hear.

BTW, out of curiousity; where was the bad joint? Back of the pot, jack, or the claw?

The SCN's are a definite jump up from the stock pup's on a 93 MIM, if that's what you had. Be glad you didnt have to work on the S1 switch. Only after the Gibson Varitone is there a switching system that's a bigger pain in the #*@ to work on. Though they both are great when they do their thing.

It was a Bad solder joint on the jack.

Wow, lucky guess huh. When whole sets of pickups get changed, and there's hum, 4 out of 5 times its that connection. Like I said, after soldering a bunch of wires, the last one is easy to overlook. I've probably put in 60 sets of pickups in the last year, and forget that wire every once in a while.