Pickup replacement for Guild X-175 NS

[revgsmall]

Hi: Guild Forum Newbie here, and for that matter Newbie to Guild guitars. Of the dozens I have owned over the years this is my first Guild, I love the guitar!! I am using it for my trio doing Blues, Surf, and Vintage styled R&R. Playing it through a Fender Deluxe RI at fairly high volumes, mucho reverb and slapback delay. Thus the issue with the pickups, they are too noisy, they buzz like a hornets nest.

I just competed (and we won!!!) at the Wyoming International Blues Challenge last sunday and the buzz was so bad I had to turn my guitar volume knobs way down to almost off and crank up the amp just to alleviate some of the noise. Also, the buzz actually increased!!!!! when I put on both pickups. I don't know if it is a bad wiring job or it's just the way these pickups are going to behave.

So finally here is my question, I'm thinking of putting P-90 style "stacked" humbucking pickups in it. Does anyone know if the pickup dimensions of a P-90 and what's on the Guild, are they the same. I'm trying to avoid unscrewing everything if I can avoid it just to check the size etc.

 

[Default]

Sounds like a grounding issue. Does the hum go away when you touch the strings?

 

[fronobulax]

New members have their first few posts moderated before they are visible. All three of your posts worked but I deleted the two that were duplicates.

 

[Walter Broes]

If you look for the "Franz pickup reference post" somewhere on this site, there's links to making a pair of Franz pickups be quiet in the middle switch position. I just involves flipping some magnets and/or wires. Nothing to complicated.

Mounting Gibson size P90's is going to take some creative tinkering and shimming - they're pretty different mounts. The polepiece spacing is the same, but that's about the only thing you have going for you in that conversion.

Are you using any overdrive pedals? That's not going to help single coil hum. The place you played might have had bad ground, or like Steve says, there might be a loose ground wire in the guitar.

 

[revgsmall]

If you look for the "Franz pickup reference post" somewhere on this site, there's links to making a pair of Franz pickups be quiet in the middle switch position. I just involves flipping some magnets and/or wires. Nothing to complicated.

I did a search and while I found out a wealth of historical info, I could not find the link to making a pair of Franz pickups be quiet in the middle swich position.. Can somebody buy me a vowel? eaceful:

 

[revgsmall]

After some more searching I did find this old post, is this what you are talking about Walter?:

Hey there, I always pot my pickups and reverse the polarity. It completely cancels any single coil noise in the middle position. The way to do it is take out the NECK pickup out. Slightly loosen the screws on the bottom of the pickup that hold the plate on, gently push the Magenets about halfway out. Pull each magnet out one at a time and turn it 180 degrees so polarity is reversed. If you played it now the pickups would sound out of phase. Then you revese the leads on the pickup so the what was the hot is now the ground. Now the pickups are back in phase and hum cancelling in the middle position. The reason you do it on the NECK pickup is that its unlikely the strings will hit the polepieces there and ground out your signal. It REALLY kills the hum. Smiert will tell you. No hum.

BTW the Franz coils sound 1000 times better than any humbucker IMO that's Guilds Gibsons or Gretsches :twisted:

 

[Nino]

After some more searching I did find this old post, is this what you are talking about Walter?:

Hey there, I always pot my pickups and reverse the polarity. It completely cancels any single coil noise in the middle position. The way to do it is take out the NECK pickup out. Slightly loosen the screws on the bottom of the pickup that hold the plate on, gently push the Magenets about halfway out. Pull each magnet out one at a time and turn it 180 degrees so polarity is reversed. If you played it now the pickups would sound out of phase. Then you revese the leads on the pickup so the what was the hot is now the ground. Now the pickups are back in phase and hum cancelling in the middle position. The reason you do it on the NECK pickup is that its unlikely the strings will hit the polepieces there and ground out your signal. It REALLY kills the hum. Smiert will tell you. No hum.

BTW the Franz coils sound 1000 times better than any humbucker IMO that's Guilds Gibsons or Gretsches :twisted:

Ok, i did buy Guilx X-175 MH to play with clean nice round tone not to become electronic engineer. I love how it feel but i spend a fortune on this guitar and now i cannot play in peace.
Is it possible to make a video with this thing?

 

[Quantum Strummer]

Maybe post an audio clip if you can. That should make clear whether you're getting typical 50/60Hz hum or something more (like a bad ground).

-Dave-

 

[Guildadelphia]

Once you've determined that the pu's are properly grounded what I would recommend is investing around $125.00 in a gadget (pedal actually) from Electro Harmonix called a "Hum Debugger". It's not a "noise gate" (which I do not like) and I don't know how it works, but it really works. I live in an old house and play in my basement with florescent lights and all manner of old wiring running through the walls, ceilings, etc and 60 cycle hum is a real problem with all my single coils. The "Hum Debugger" really gets rid of the hum with a barely noticeable effect on tone (tends to boost highs a bit, easily compensated for using the guitar's tone knob or amp tone stack). I was ready to give up on single coil pu's until I tried this pedal and it's really made a difference.
I will say there are some who don't share my opinion but for me killing the hum heavily outweighs a minimal change in tone.

 

[Nino]

Only Noise
dl=0https://www.dropbox.com/s/vus1luhcaigsmn3/Guild%20Only%20Noise.wav?dl=0
Noise on a recording, only guitar
https://www.dropbox.com/s/s7bsyd439cw4egt/Guild%20Noise%20Test.wav?dl=0
In the mix with gate.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ppa3qgj4ekvvjbq/In%20your%20eyez.wav?dl=0

This are examples, the noise is in 415-425 range.

One of the solutions is to buy noiseless Seymour Duncan SPH90-1N and replace them. The other solution is to return the Guild and take something with Humbucker probably ibanez. i have time till Friday to decide.

 

[Quantum Strummer]

Sounds like typical single-coil pickup hum to me. I'm personally not bothered by it but I know plenty of folks who are. The Hum Debugger mentioned above does work well. Humbucking pickups will take care of it but will change your tone too.

-Dave-