Unofficial Taylor Guitar Forum - UTGF

Lessons, Recordings, How Tos, Repair, Accessories => Lessons, Recordings, How Tos, Repair, Accessories => Topic started by: floyd80 on August 24, 2018, 09:54:58 AM

Title: ES2, HUM, and a "fix"
Post by: floyd80 on August 24, 2018, 09:54:58 AM

I put "fix" in quotes, because it's not really a "fix", but I got rid of the HUM.

A little background...

I do a lot of recording in my basement studio, but i have a rig set up to just jam through an amp when i want to practice.  i don't play out.

I have about a dozen acoustics, each fitted with different pickups. 2 of these guitars have the Taylor ES2 system in them..  a 2016 322ce 12-fret, and a 2017 312ce.

These 2 guitars are the only ones that give me problems when plugging in.  They produce a nasty HUM, when connected to either my Amp or PA speaker. It **does** sound like a ground loop.

Grounding has been checked on all electrical outlets .. I also use power conditioners and have everything plugged into he same conditioner. 

I even get the hum when the PA or Amp is running off it's batteries, just running straight from the ES2 into the amp.  HUM city.

It **could** be the fact that there is a dimmer switch on the other side of the basement of my home, but it seems odd that the only affected guitars are the Taylors.

The "fix":

So, I bought an Electro-Harmonix Hum Debugger Hum Eliminator Pedal.  When I runeither of the Taylors through it, set on the "strong" setting, the HUM is completely gone. Dead quiet, with no (as I can tell)  loss of tone.  I then come out of the box, and go through my TC Helicon Voicelive 3 to add some BodyRez, compression and a hint or reverb.  I finally have the tone I have been looking for.

I'm just putting this here because I've seen a lot of posts (on other forums) where some have this same issue with the ES2.  AND, in doing my research, no one has reviewed this little box in use with an acoustic guitar. 

I'm happy to say that it works.  It's not an official "fix", but this hum was driving me batty.

Here is a link to the pedal:

https://tinyurl.com/yb5apv4l

Title: Re: ES2, HUM, and a "fix"
Post by: steelstring on September 04, 2018, 02:16:21 PM

I also get the hum on some amps but not others. if i get a do get a hum, ill touch the ground on the cord and it stops. would grounding the strings help with this? all my electrics the strings are grounded.