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I try to make a pickup for my girlfriends singing saw. The saw is magnetic, I tried my old Duosonic PU's in series. Works. But there is a horrible humming to it all that only goes away when I short the ground to myself. Will this go away if I use real wiring instead of the crocodile clips? How can I short this for the same effect without having to touch the wire all the time?

Singing Saw?

I believe the preferred pickup is a contact mic?

Does that hold any appeal to you?

Not much actually. Anything touching the blade will make it much harder to get sounds out of it. I am convinced magnetic pu is a way to go. But I need this shielding/ground hum issue resolved somehow.

Edit: Also I want to be the hero that comes up with a solution.

Ha ha. Nice. Unfortunately, I can't really offer any advice on grounding.

I think they usually mount the contact mic at a spot somewhere near the handle where it doesn't damp the sound too much.

Look what I just found. No idea what this guy's doing here, but it looks interesting:



http://www.etsy.com/listing/106646782/2 ... w-by-index

Good luck.

You could maybe use something like this:
http://guitarfetish.com/GFS-Thin-Jazz-A ... _2179.html

Like, bend the mounting arms (or make your own) so they can be attached to the handle, and the pickup will float over the blade.
A piece of lightweight aluminum could be cut into strips for the arms; that way you could put the pickup farther out "on" the blade. Then just mount it to the arms.
Or something.

Seems like you would have to wire the negative lead of the pickup so it's touching the grounded part of the output jack and the blade, like how you have to run ground from the bridge to the jack on a guitar.
Unless you're already doing that

A contact mic would be easiest though.