New ES2 - help/ideas/hum

[leew3]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

This means it is the cable that takes the hum. lowering the volume means you add resistance on the line (not the ground) so it is more difficult to induce hum on it.

I would suggest to check the Taylor fuses.

I had the problem on my Taylor ES1. I could blow the fuse just with static electricity (I blew many: including new ones). I shorted it and the problem was gone.

Cuki

Good call, I used the Taylor 1/4" to XLR cable and even with the functionally increased signal...no hum. Thanks for solving my problem in the course of the OP !

Lee

[pieterh]

I know this is originally an older thread but I had similar experience with the ES2 after upgrading from ES1.1 via ES1.3. In well-earthed/grounded houses or venues there is no problem but if the power supply to the amplification is not grounded then you get a loud earth/ground hum! Since getting my Taylor upgraded (April 2016) I have grounded every room in my apartment, starting with the lounge. As soon as the outlets were properly grounded I had no more problems.

The ES2 does not have a balanced signal so using the TRS to XLR contacted cable should not make any difference to the hum or signal integrity and can in fact be a risk to the guitar's electronics if connected to a mixer channel with the phantom power on...

[leew3]

thank you if your concern is about my post. The post refers to a guitar with the previous ES system that does indeed have a balanced signal.

[pieterh]

Originally Posted by leew3

thank you if your concern is about my post. The post refers to a guitar with the previous ES system that does indeed have a balanced signal.

No worries - it's worth making sure different users don't get confused about which cable to use with each system.

Although I work with balanced systems every day (live sound engineer) it soon became clear that a balanced system on an acoustic guitar was a good idea in principle but not in practice (in my opinion anyway). As soon as one needs to connect to regular pedals or preamps one loses the benefits of the guitar's own balanced signal and needs to be rebalanced in (or after) the external preamp or effects. In the end, the ES2 solved so many of the issues I had with the original system. I really wanted to like it but ultimately the placement of the main pickup, under the fretboard, just made the sound too mid-heavy and sounding like an electric guitar's neck pup. I am really happy with the new system - although I will admit it is sensitive to bad or no ground in the home or venue (not that we should ever be playing at a venue with bad grounding...).

Glad yours worked out though!

[ii Cybershot ii]

I wanted to bump this thread in case anyone has more info on this.

My 2017 714ce with ES2 has a ground hum as well. A highly reputable Taylor dealer in my area told me that tons of the ES2 systems have ground hums. As evidenced by people in this thread. They said they can install a ground wire in the guitar that fixes the issue and have done this with people's guitars.

For my guitar in particular I have tried many different places/scenarios etc and it's always been there. If I played this guitar out, I would likely install a ground wire or install a different pickup system.

[RockerDuck]

I had a hum with my 314e, that didn't have it when I played out. I unplugged my amp from the receptacle power strip and plugged into the outlet directly and it was gone. The hum problem was a bad ground in the power strip.

[jkilgour2000]

All my Es2 Taylor’s hum. Pulled the rest of my remaining hair out trying to figure out why. I eventually gave up, bit the bullet and purchased a Elecrtro Harmonix Hum Debugger pedal. It’s the first pedal in my chain. No more hum... best money I’ve ever spent on a pedal

[ii Cybershot ii]

Nice, I'm glad that worked out! Thanks for sharing.

I bought a used LR Baggs Session DI just to play around with, it has a ground hum switch on the side and I wonder if that will cure the ES2 hum... we shall see when it arrives!

EDIT: The LR Baggs Session DI ground hum switch did not alleviate the ground hum from the ES2. May have to look into an EHX hum debugger!