Wizard
This seems too simple ... so must be some flaw.
Single coil pickups are vulnerable to picking up the 50Hz hum from the mains.
As a simple idea, why doesn't one just build a selective filter in the output stage to filter out 50Hz and a small range on either side?
And yes - you will potentially lose the note at 50Hz ...
TomCat
The problem here is twofold.
1. Building a passive filter with steep enough slopes to kill the 50Hz that is both stable, light and cheap. Inductors at 50H are like coke cans so putting it in the quitar is not an option....
Another option would be to actively filter it at the amplifier input. In fact a few years ago Roland had an automatic hum eliminator device that detected and reduced hum on the signal.....Never really took off and disappeared into obscurity......
2. Very often the Hum is actually a Buzz off fluorescent lighting and lighting dimmers, whist is actually at 100Hz and not 50Hz. Thus type of Buzz is often a triangular wave with many harmonics present which become very difficult to filter out.....
Looks like shielding is still be best way to go.....
AlanRatcliffe
Wizard, I like the way you are thinking, but Tom is correct.
The best way (so far) to filter out noise is good old humbucking technology or using "dummy" coils like the Noiseless "single-coils" or Suhr BPSSC. I've also had fairly good results on recorded guitar tracks using digital "noiseprint" noise reduction filters, but that's not realtime and only reduces the hum, not eliminating it.
Wizard
I knew there was some obvious flaw.
I suppose the "coke can" inductors could be built into a pedal rather than into the guitar.
But that doesn't solve the lighting dimmers (which affect me)
I've read a lot of comments on this forum and elsewhere that humbuckers & noiseless pickups are effective in removing hum, but often seem to have some other downside ... like frequency response, or doubling the output.
Sometimes it's good for the things that don't work to find publication too
?
TomCat
Oh....and the "Coke Can" would feel like a lead filled Coke Can....... ?
I once had to make some passive crossovers for sub-woofers....don't ask why... ???........Getting Inductors to behave properly at bass frequencies was great fun........I must have wound about 10 different types/shapes of inductors before I got one that worked reasonable well..... ?....copper wound doorstops anyone...??..... ?
