There are many things that can cause unwanted noise, way many. If you live in an older house/apartment etc. it could very possibly have bad wiring especially bad grounding or even no grounding. For $5 or $6 at any home improvement store or electrical supplier you can buy a ground/circuit tester- it's a very small device that has a typical 3 prong plug on one end and a series of three lights on the other end . You simply plug it into your wall plug and depending on which lights (or combination of lights) light up, will identify a bad ground etc. or if the wiring is "correct". Do you have flourescent lights-either the long tube type or the CFL's-the little twisty bulbs that will screw into a normal lamp or light socket? These lights can cause "noise". Do you have any neighbors that operate "Ham Radios" or CB radios? These can cause quite a bit of Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) Any large or tall steel (aluminum, etc.) structures nearby-believe it or not these can cause huge amounts of electro-magnetic interference (EMI).Even Cell Phones, Cordless Phones, Microwave Ovens, refridgerators and large screen TV's etc. can cause noise, try to plug your amp etc. into a dedicated plug (one that has no other stuff plugged into that circuit) if you can-but that's not always an option that's available to us. Your guitar's pickups can "pick up" this noise and it can also bleed through your guitar cables. It could very likely be a bad ground in the internal electronics of your guitar and a good cavity shielding and securely soldered grounds can go a long way in solving the problem. A good quality guitar cable can help immensely! Too many times we save up those dollars to buy that perfect guitar and/or amplifier and then buy the cheapest instrument cables we can find. Believe me a good quality instrument cable can make the biggest difference. I'd much rather purchase a good quality cable for $50, $60 or even $100 once then have to buy a new $10 cable evry 6 months or a year. In the long run you'll end up spending more on "affordable" (nice way of saying "cheap") cables then you would have if you just purchased a good quality cable to begin with. I'd also consider purchasing a good quality power conditioner/voltage protector. These can run anywhere from $60 to hundreds of bucks. You can purchase a "Monster PowerCentr Pro 200" from just about any musical instrument retailer either online (like Musician's Friend) or the brick and mortar store nearest you. As a matter of fact just two or three days ago on Musician's Friend's "Stupid Deal of the Day" they were selling the Monster Performance Pack for just $9.99 ( normally sells for $39.99 plus) which package included the Monster PowerCenter Pro 200 AND a 12 foot long Monster Performance 500 Instrument Cable. If you look it up the cable alone sells for that much, if not more. I had purchased 4 sets of this same package deal about a year ago when it was the "New Day, New Deal" at American Musical Supply and ordered 4 more from Musician's Friend just a couple of days ago from their "Stupid Deal of the Day". I hope that we've all helped you with your "noise" problem. I know it can be very frustrating to track down and to deal with, but you CAN do it. I wish you the best of luck and keep on strummin'-Jim