Re: piezo pick hum

[Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com>]

I have the same problem with my nylon stringed Risa ukulele. When
recording it I use to adapt a thin metal lead on the output jack's
ground and gaffer tape its other end to my hand. Not very elegant, as
Rusty put it :-)  I plan to mount a grounded little metal plate on the
ukelele at the point where you rest your right hand while playing.
Except for the hum and whine the Risa has an excellent piezo pickup
sound. Seems the manufacturer didn't understand that nylon strings are
not capable of connecting the ground like on an instrument with steel
strings.

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.perboysen.com
http://www.youtube.com/perboysen


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 7:58 PM, Michael Peters <mp@mpeters.de> wrote:
> http://www.michaelpeters.de/temp/soloette-hum_0001_0.wav
>
> When I plug my Graduette Soloette guitar (a nylon string travel guitar 
> with
> a piezo pick) into the external soundcard of the laptop and launch 
> Bidule to
> hear it, I find that it hums - a deep drone hum plus a high whining 
> sound.
> This does not happen with regular electric guitars. My technician says it
> has to do with the piezo. When I put a finger on the jack cable that 
> sits in
> the connector in the guitar, the noise stops.
>
> I can get rid of the deep hum with a plugin, but the high whining noise 
> is
> still there. I can't play with my finger on the jack cable all the time. 
> Is
> there a simple way to get rid of that noise?  a special VST plugin?  or 
> some
> kind of grounding cable that I connect to the plug? and where does the 
> other
> end go?  I need a quick and simple solution. Help!
>
> -Michael
>