Electric pickup noise at part volume.

[JimCh]

Little bit of a strange thing with my home build. I've fitted a basic magnetic pickup and a volume potentiometer, and whilst it's reasonable at full volume, if I turn the volume knob down just a tad it quickly gets noticeably noisy with hum/general interference, with the noise dimishing slowly as it goes down to zero. The wiring is of the simplest, shielded cable to each end of a 250k volume pot, shielded cable to output jack. Strings aren't earthed (impractical with my bridge design) , but pickup and volume pot are.

It's the bit about no noise when on full volume and appearing when the pot is backed off that puzzles me.

[pops1]

The shielded cable should go to the end and middle, with the other end grounded to the pot. Try that and see what happens.

[rockies]

You will have to find a way to ground (earth) thoge strings by some method. It is essential if you are using magnetic pickups.
Dave

[Tom Wright]

I successfully grounded/earthed the strings of my first mandolin, the acoustic-electric Fender. A wire (E string piece) tucked under the washer on the output jack ran to the endpin, where it contacted the metal stringholder plate of the tailpiece by again tucking under.

[JimCh]

I duplicated the problem with an electric guitar, so it must be something very strange in the environment/amp/cable. As a result I've stopped worrying for the moment.

Earthing the strings would be ideal, but would mean completely reworking my tail piece, which is wood with individual metal pins.

[Simon DS]

I duplicated the problem with an electric guitar, so it must be something very strange in the environment/amp/cable. As a result I've stopped worrying for the moment.

Earthing the strings would be ideal, but would mean completely reworking my tail piece, which is wood with individual metal pins.

-could just use a shielded temporary external earth lead attached to the strings with crocodile clips to isolate the problem? If that works then go for it.