Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I have a lovely Jetglow Rickenbacker model 620, and I love playing it, but it's ridiculously noisy. Of course, the single-coil pickups hum a little, as expected, but most of the annoying hum comes from the hardware and the strings. I've had the wiring inspected, and it's supposedly all done correctly, but apparently the strings and hardware are, somehow, insufficiently grounded. Does anyone else have this problem? Can anybody come up with a solution that doesn't involve an alligator clip attached to a wire wrapped around one's little finger?

There is a ground wire under the bridge and it has the possibility to get pushed into the body wood & can loose full contact with the bridge plate. I bent the ground wire up and out of the grove on mine then reinstalled the bridge, as long as the other end of the wire is correctly soldered to the ground on the controls then the problem is solved. Cheers!

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, when I checked under the bridge plate, I found that the ground wire was in full contact with the metal, so that's not the problem, apparently. I have tried just using an alligator clip and a wire to externally ground stuff, but there's no difference in the buzz. There just must be an extra amount of electrical interference in the air where I live. My other guitars have this problem, too, but to a lesser extent, since they have less exposed metal trim and hardware.

Maybe the outlet you're plugging into is not properly grounded. The outlet might also be on the same circuit as the refrigerator, a dimmer switch, florescent or neon lighting. Those kinds of things can be a problem especially if you live in an apartment or older house. Another possibility is the amplifier.