Strong Hum in Humbuckers

[rgand]

So a friend of mine picked up a new Squier Affinity HH Jazzmaster. New price: $200 +free shipping. It came and is a surprisingly nice guitar. The finish is good and it looks good. The neck is straight and very little needs to be done to the frets. It plays fine even before adjusting the action. The pickups have a solid hum in them and they're humbuckers. True, they're Chinese pickups but still, they shouldn't be that noisy. I checked the polarity and the poles are correctly magnetized so they should cancel that hum.

So, I'm thinking that there is something not grounded in there or something has a bad solder connection. I doubt the thing is wired with shielded wire, either so that could contribute to the noise. I don't know if he'll let me look in there but assuming I can do that, does anyone else have an idea what could cause the noise that I should look for?

 

[rgand]

Thanks, that's good to know. Landfill is probably the solution.

 

[Cagey]

On instruments they're trying to wring every penny out of, the wiring is likely unshielded. It's amazing what the short run from the volume pot to the output jack can pick up.

 

[rgand]

With a $200 Chinese Squier, I suspect "all the above" may be the correct answer.

 

[Cagey]

Yeah, that could be, too. Death of a thousand cuts, and all that.

 

[rgand]

We'll see if he lets me take it apart to see. MWAAAHHHAHAHAHA!

 

[Ace Flibble]

FWIW, I've recently serviced a '17 Affinity Jazzmaster as well as two of the Bullet Mustangs which launched alongside it, as well as buying a Bullet Mustang for myself (it's shocking how nice those are considering the price and pedigree) and of the four guitars, the only actual fault any of them have had is the clicky 'box' toggle switch in one of the Mustangs broke.

In terms of the rest of the wiring and electronics, they're all sound. Shielded wire. Alpha brand mini pots. Mylar film capacitors. The pickups are absolutely fine, too; very generic, for sure, but nothing mechanically wrong. Those box toggle switches sure are nasty, but everything else is no worse than you'll find on any other sub-£400 Squier or Epiphone.

So, if you're having hum issues with one, my guess would be that something has come loose. Most likely some part of the ground circuit, obviously. Maybe the solder join wasn't mechanically perfect and the guitar got knocked, maybe the join weakened as it travelled through the various temperature and humidity changes on its journey from China. In any case, I expect that if you open the guitar up you'll find either a wire hanging loose, or a dull blob of solder where the connection wasn't cleanly made. Either case is a very simple fix. 2 minutes to open it up, 2 minutes to identify and resolder, 2 minutes to close.

I will be very shocked if there is a more fundamental fault here. If you do get to open the guitar up and it turns out there is a more fundamental fault, such as an unusually cheap component, it'd be useful to hear about it; component variations within cheaper lines is not unheard of and it's always good to know the full range of parts that are potentially being used.