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Difficulty humming problems-Les Paul Standard faded 2008

johannje

New member
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
2
Hi, guys
Having trouble as my guitar will not stop humming quite loudly. The humming goes away when I touch the metal on pickup-selector, the screws that adjust pickupheight and when I touch the input jack. When I touch the strings or bridge the hum is still there as loud as before.

I've tried different guitars on the same amp in the same room, and those sound perfect, but not with my les paul. So I know there is something with the wiring in this guitar.
 

PaulD

Active member
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
675
Sounds like the tailpiece ground wire is broken or not connected. If you look inside the control cavity there should be a single wire that comes through a hole at the top of the cavity, this connects to one of the tailpiece studs and should be connected to ground. If your guitar has a printed circuit board (which I think 2008's do?) then it should connect to the ground terminal on the circuit board. Check that this wire is there and connected as this is the most likely cause of what you describe.
 

johannje

New member
Joined
Aug 29, 2019
Messages
2
Here is a picture showing the ground wire in the cavity of the bridge pole. The bare wire is at the bottom in a loop, don't know how good the connection is to the bridge pole. Should it be soldered onto the pole or squeezed between the wood and the pole? What should I do?
Thanks
EDIT: How do I upload a picture? It wants me to use an URL, but it's on my desktop.
 

sonar

New member
Joined
Jan 10, 2003
Messages
3,589
Wow! Totally forgot this happened to me.

I have a 2008 Standard Faded that had the ground wire detached when I got it in '08.

In my case the ground wire somehow pulled out from the tailpiece bushing hole, or wasn't correctly installed at the factory. Gibson threads the ground wire from the control cavity, through a small hole to the tailpiece bushing hole. The wire is not soldered onto the bushing, but looped and placed underneath the bushing, which is installed on top of the ground wire, holding it in place. I carefully pulled the bushing thread up, reinserted the ground wire, then carefully pushed the threading back down. It has stayed in place for the past decade, including a rewire of the control cavity, so if done correctly the ground scheme works.

You need to be careful with pulling up the threading as to not damage your top. If uneasy about this take it to a tech.

The LPF doesn't host images. You need to start a photo sharing account like imgur, then insert the image link into your forum post.
 

PaulD

Active member
Joined
Jun 25, 2007
Messages
675
If you have a multimeter you can check for continuity between the tailpiece and some other ground point (jack socket nut or the back of one of the pots). Set the multimeter to the lowest ohms range and it should read very low resistance, 1 - 2 ohms max. If it is much more than that you have a bad connection somewhere, if you get no reading at all there is a broken connection somewhere.
 
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