neck pickup squeals when i put my fingers near it

[Lobsterdeth]

yes i know single coils hum when you put your hands near them, but my neck pickup straight up squeals
the problem used to be on my bridge pickup, so i opened it up and rewired a grounding that had come loose
now the problem is on my neck pickup
it squeals bad if i put my fingers/hand anywhere near the poles but the bridge pickup is just fine
please advise
this is a fender 62 avri with stock pickups btw

video example here

[seenoevil II]

Have you considered that your pickup may instead be a mouse? I once confused a mouse for my toothbrush and had a similar issue with squeaking (as well as tiny bites on my face).

Ok. Enough of that.

Reminds me of microphones feeding back when you "eat" them. Vintage style pups can be very microphone. The squeal sounds to me like an overtone saturated version of 60 cycle hum.

That's all I've got. Somebody smart should be along soon.

[Lobsterdeth]

Have you considered that your pickup may instead be a mouse? I once confused a mouse for my toothbrush and had a similar issue with squeaking (as well as tiny bites on my face).

well i can call it steamboat willie now without fearing disney's attorneys, at least

i decided to take out the brass shielding on the guitar and redo the soldering on it and i'm gonna wax the pickups as well

[Lobsterdeth]

good news everyone after taking out the brass shielding, redoing the soldering, wax potting the pickups, and switching out the pots now both pickups squeal like hell without needing me to put my fingers near them
yay
https://imgur.com/a/fg2VZdT

[DrippyReverbTremolo]

Sorry to hear that. Other than suggesting both pickups are microphonic (which at worst means they need to be rewound) I can't offer insight.

[Lobsterdeth]

Sorry to hear that. Other than suggesting both pickups are microphonic (which at worst means they need to be rewound) I can't offer insight.

oh well i guess i now finally have a good excuse to try out that j mascis set
wish it wasn't a 130 usd excuse but hey

[seenoevil II]

Bump to attract one of the smart dudes.

I'll take another stab though. I feel like this might be a ground loop issue. It only happens when you make contact.

Have you double checked the wiring diagram? Also, in the og, it happened when you touched the pole piece. Shouldn't the pole piece technically be insulated from the windings by the enamel coating? Maybe it's shorting out in there. Alternatively, maybe the pole piece was touching the shielding tub.

My only tip is to double check the wiriring.

Also, did you paint the guitar?

[GilmourD]

That sounds like an electrically induced squeal, not something vibration induced. Just touching it wouldn't cause feedback unless you're The Flash and you're vibrating faster than any of us can tell or the amp you have it plugged into is inches away from the pickup with the volume set to max and we just don't see it out of frame.

[alexpigment]

I've actually had this happen before, but I can't recall what my solution was at the moment. Here are the first two things I would try:

1) Ground the pickup to somewhere else on the guitar as a test.

2) Tape a piece of aluminum foil to the back of the pickup that connects the ground terminal to one (or all) of the polepieces. This sounds weird and dubious, admittedly, but when I ran into it a long time ago, I read several threads mentioning that the polepieces need to be grounded. This would be a quick way to assess if that is true; I don't consider this a permanent fixture to your pickup.

[Lobsterdeth]

Have you double checked the wiring diagram? Also, in the og, it happened when you touched the pole piece. Shouldn't the pole piece technically be insulated from the windings by the enamel coating? Maybe it's shorting out in there. Alternatively, maybe the pole piece was touching the shielding tub.

My only tip is to double check the wiriring.

Also, did you paint the guitar?

i have foam under the pickups so they don't touch the shielding underneath, i checked the wiring again but I'm not super duper well-versed in electronics so I made a really good diagram hoping somebody can help and then make fun of me.



yes i painted it with a rattle can of paint and a rattle can of primer, the finish was just way too f'ed on way too many parts, i'll show it off if i can ever fix it

That sounds like an electrically induced squeal, not something vibration induced. Just touching it wouldn't cause feedback unless you're The Flash and you're vibrating faster than any of us can tell or the amp you have it plugged into is inches away from the pickup with the volume set to max and we just don't see it out of frame.

nah the amp is at a sensible distance, i have another guitar with a dimarzio tone zone in it and it doesn't squeal at all, and i have a p bass and a j bass that i plugged in just to check if it wasn't the amp and neither squealed

I've actually had this happen before, but I can't recall what my solution was at the moment. Here are the first two things I would try:

1) Ground the pickup to somewhere else on the guitar as a test.

2) Tape a piece of aluminum foil to the back of the pickup that connects the ground terminal to one (or all) of the polepieces. This sounds weird and dubious, admittedly, but when I ran into it a long time ago, I read several threads mentioning that the polepieces need to be grounded. This would be a quick way to assess if that is true; I don't consider this a permanent fixture to your pickup.

1) should i just ground all of that shit that you're supposed to ground to the brass shield to one of the pots? sorry i'm no electrical expert

2) i'll try this if no other good ideas come lol

[NICQ]

on the diagram the ground just goes from the output jack to the tone pot - it then has to go from the pot to the brass shielding as well. If the output jack ground isn't continously connected to all the parts that need to be grounded then those aren't grounded.

did you do that or is it just missing on the diagram ?

[Lobsterdeth]

on the diagram the ground just goes from the output jack to the tone pot - it then has to go from the pot to the brass shielding as well. If the output jack ground isn't continously connected to all the parts that need to be grounded then those aren't grounded.

did you do that or is it just missing on the diagram ?

i literally just realized that after drawing the thing and looking at the old diagram i used, the one i used had no ground wire from the tone pot to the input jack
i removed the ground wire off of the tone pot and the ring of the input jack and now the squealing is gone!

only to be replaced by a ton of hum

i surmise it would be much better if i rewire the ground between those two again and then ground it to the brass shielding, huh?

as it stands, this is the wiring on my jm right now and i'm getting mad hum

[seenoevil II]

I also don't see where the ground goes to the bridge thimble. Maybe the brass tub connects to the bridge thimble, I've never had a vintage style JM, but ground has to go to the strings somewhere.

[GilmourD]

I also don't see where the ground goes to the bridge thimble. Maybe the brass tub connects to the bridge thimble, I've never had a vintage style JM, but ground has to go to the strings somewhere.

I usually pop a thimble out and then run a piece of copper shielding tape into the hole connected to the shielding tape I otherwise installed in the pickup routes. I also shield the inside of the trem route and run a piece of wire connecting the shielding in there to the shielding in the control route. Cover all the bases!

[alexpigment]

I also shield the inside of the trem route and run a piece of wire connecting the shielding in there to the shielding in the control route. Cover all the bases!

Not always easy to do covertly, but this is technically the best solution IMO. I find that during trem use there's the potential for a momentary loss of contact between the bridge leg and the thimble that is grounded, and this is very audible through the amp (especially since it's a quick intermittent change in noise levels). Grounding the trem ensures that there's always a ground to the strings. Some would probably say this is a bit overboard - and in most cases it is - but I think here on the forum we're specifically dealing with outlier cases a higher percentage of the time