What exactly is guitar hum and buzz?

Question

I hear alot of people talk about guitar hum, buzz, feedback, and all of those things. I have tried a lot of guitars through different amps and i have always heard the same thing. And i even played it on high end tube amps and just about any other amplifier. The problem is when the guitar is not being played it is quiet, relatively anyway you can hear from where the pickups can detect prescense of other things but not strong at all. Especially on Distorted tones with any amount of gain. You play an open chord or any chord with an open string in it and when you switch the guitar amp just gets staticy. You can hear the guitar but the static overwhelms it making it very unclear and rough sounding. Is this hum? Buzz? How can i fix this problem?

Answer 1

thats a tricky one to answer.... but lets start with going over the basics of what you're talking about here...

ok, first off, lets talk about pickups. the pickups in almost every electric guitar will fall into the categories of "single coil" pickups, or "humbucker" pickups.

single coils, like what you'd find in a Fender strat, give you a thin and twangy tone like stevie ray, jimi, etc, but they are also known to "hum" a lot if they're not shielded in some way.
Humbucker pickups like in a Gibson les paul sound fatter, and warmer, but dont have as much high end twang, think of jimmy page, and angus young's tone. real meaty. humbuckers are just 2 single coils that are stuck together, and one is wound up clockwise, the other is counter-clockwise. since they're opposites, they cancel out some noise, and get rid of hum. (thats why they're "humbuckers", they buck the hum).

so, if you've got single coils, you'll notice they buzz depending on which pickups you're using on the guitar. the positions that share pickups wont buzz compared to the ones that use just one pickup. if you're using humbucker pickups, its probably something else, unless they're wired wrong..... i'll get to "grounding" in a minute.

ok, when most ppl talk about "buzz", they usually mean one of two things. either you hear a metal rattling on metal sound, which is caused by the strings hitting the frets when you play, or they mean that the "distortion" you're using sounds..... well.... buzzy. think of a remote control car, or an electronic device that just sounds like a bumblebee. if you're hearing the metal on metal sound, you need to have your guitar's neck adjusted. the action needs to raised a little. if its the "distortion" sound from the amp/pedal you have..... thats something you need to set right with the knobs you have to work with. keep in mind, not all amps /guitars / pedals are created equal. some will work better than others.

now, it sounds like you might have a ground issue. when you touch the strings, you might be grounding the guitar, and causing the hum to stop. if you let go to play an open note, and the hum comes back, that would point to ground issues.
try touching the strings with one hand, and touching something metal on your amp with the other. if you feel like you're getting tingles in your hand, then theres current going through you. not gonna lie, it wont feel good. lol. but, you'll know what the issue is. grounding.

if you're hearing a squealish sound, thats feedback. theres 2 types of feedback, harmonic, and microphonic. harmonic feedback is when a note you're sustaining picks up vibrations from the amp, and creates a new higher note. this note should react to how you shake the note, and it should sound like what hendrix used to do. thats the good kind, it should sound like a magic note that fades in from behind a fog mysteriously. good stuff... lol. the other type of feedback, microphonic, is when you just hear screechy squealy sounds at random points. thats a bad thing, and either the pickup isnt working right, or isnt wired right. not a good sound at all, you wont like it.

the more gain you add (and right about here is where we'd talk about overdrive VS distorion, because they're not the same), the stuff you play is going to get muddy, and when you play open chords, you'll probably hear it sound "cloudy", as if you cant make out some of the notes because the crunchy sound is too strong. thats kinda the way it goes. unless your guitar is perfectly intonated, and your gain is set just right, you'll hear it sound overwhelmed with fuzzyness.

theres really a lot more to it than this. i'd say head to the local music store with your stuff, and tell the guy there to check it out. also, if you want to be on good terms with him, just let him check it out, and trust his judgment. also, depending on how long it takes, (if its more than 15 or 20 minutes) give him a little cash for his time. its worth it.

hope that helps, but without being there to check out your gear, i cant say much more. good luck man!!