I think I've been agonizing on the wrong thing. My joints are all good for both hot and grounds. The ground bus did nothing to aleviate the hum. While I was stumped, I pulled out my currently homeless L-45S set and one by one attached them - without solder or flux - to a jack using alligator clips. So, essentially, a very quiet L-45S going straight to out put with nothing in between. Wouldn't you know it, there was that that same hum!

I don't know what this means, but I knw that for all of my BL equipped guitars, I'm going to have to come up with a decent way of grounding the guitar before it gets to the digital gear. Digital equipment doesn't seem to ground the source from the jack very well. I've tested this with all of my digital gear, as well as my two-pronged 'analog' pedals.

It's good to know what the problem is not; and it's not my solder job.

What I still don't understand is why my ibanez and Washburn stock factory guitars don't do this. I think it's worth solving this problem completely.

Any ideas?