Noise, hum and buzz

Noise; derived from Latin Nausea - any sound that is undesired, unwanted or interferes with one's hearing of something.

Hum.

The first type of noise we deal with in guitar pickups is hum. Hum is coming from AC mains power lines, oscillates at 50/60Hz and is remedied with hum cancelling pickups. Examples of hum-cancelling pickups are – any pickup (or pickup pair) that utilises two coils, stacked humbuckers, sidewinders, and typical humbuckers. Shielding does not help with hum.

Buzz.

Buzz is what you hear when you take your hands off the guitar strings, this is normal. Buzz can be remedied with copper tape, or conductive paint as a shield. Buzz can be reduced by using shielded cabling. Buzz cannot be reduced by installing hum-cancelling pickups. Another type of buzz, coming from light dimmers can be shielded by copper taping and grounding all of the cavities in the guitar.