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Post subject: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:02 pm
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Hello all. i have a mexican powerhouse strat bought 15 years ago. i plug it straight to a roland cube 80X. i have a huge noise problem when i use the distortion settings of my amp. gain at around 7/10, amp volume at 3/10. the guitar had 3 single coils originally and i always have the boost activated. i thought there is a ''dummy coil'' system to prevent the noise but still it didnt seem to help at all. noise was just too much. i just had the bridge single coil replaced with a seymour duncan hot rails, beacause i thought that a humbucker pickup would be much more noiseless than the single coil. i was wrong! :( the SD hot rails gives much more noise than the previous single coil when i use distortion. with or without the mid boost activated! what can i do? i want to play with a van halen-type of drive/distortion but without any noise! is it possible? any suggestions? thanks! :(


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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 12:59 pm
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diamond82 wrote:
...i have a huge noise problem when i use the distortion settings of my amp...


Hi diamond82,

Sounds like maybe it's normal for this particular amp/guitar combination, your amp will be noisy when using a lot of gain, most amps are like that when using the gain.

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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 1:17 pm
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thx for the reply! i dont think it is normal..my friend has a strat too, an american special model and he had installed a humbucker in it and with his guitar i get much less noise! also his guitar doesnt have this ''dummy coil'' but on the other hand his doesnt have mid boost circuit. maybe this mid boost is what is causing my problem in the first place?

also i forgot to mention that i have tried some other cheap guitars with humbuckers like an ibanez 170dx or an epiphone special II and they are all VERY noiseless even with the distortion and gain maxed out! i am starting to believe that the problem is caused by the mid boost system, to such degree that even the dummy coil has no effect.


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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 2:48 pm
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diamond82 wrote:
thx for the reply! i dont think it is normal..my friend has a strat too, an american special model and he had installed a humbucker in it and with his guitar i get much less noise! also his guitar doesnt have this ''dummy coil'' but on the other hand his doesnt have mid boost circuit. maybe this mid boost is what is causing my problem in the first place?

also i forgot to mention that i have tried some other cheap guitars with humbuckers like an ibanez 170dx or an epiphone special II and they are all VERY noiseless even with the distortion and gain maxed out! i am starting to believe that the problem is caused by the mid boost system, to such degree that even the dummy coil has no effect.



You should say that first too .

Not easy to say what is wrong without listen and testing guitar by ourself .

Any mods in your guitar before you put the SD pickups ? .
Some pickgard ( American made) had shield between the tree coat they are made ( your friend's American Special ? ) . Look for wiring or/ and bad ground , bad solder or bad shielding .
Or pickups too close from strings ?

Any picture inside your guitar ?


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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 3:33 pm
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The dummy coil is intended to enable the single-coil pickups to reject spurious noise caused by their inherent design when the pickups are in close proximity to other electro-magnetic devices. It has no effect whatsoever on any internal noised generated by the 12-dB boost module if the circuitry is malfunctioning or someone unfamiliar with such technology has monkeyed around with it.

I own such a guitar ('06 edition in Caramel Metallic with rosewood fretboard and totally stock electronics) and it's as quiet as my three Strats fitted with noiseless Virtual Vintage DiMarzio's and my two Strats equipped with noiseless Fender SCN's. And yes, I have several high-gain devices on my pedaboard and use them all often.

Arjay

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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Sat Apr 05, 2014 9:05 am
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Bad wiring is one of the most common causes for which the battery drains so fast. The noise problem has also to do with dreaded batteries.

Check the ground wires and put a fresh battery to see if the problem persists.

In your place I would remove the two resistors from the MDX pot to unlock the full 25dB boost.

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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Mon Apr 07, 2014 1:12 pm
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i think it s better to keep your guitar far from your amplifier cause of the magnetic interference , me too i had the same problem with my fender stratocaster when i did install a new active pickups , and i was thinking the problem comes from the pickups but with time i did find out that it comes from the magnetic interference between the active pickups and my amplifier , now i try to play a bit far from the Amplifier or i put it behind my back and now all work fine . i hope this can help you .


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Post subject: Re: Mexican powerhouse noise problem
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2014 5:53 pm
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Get the wiring, pots, caps, etc looked at. I think you either have a bad solder joint or loose ground...

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