ChuckStoat

There are a number of threads on various sites, including this very one started in 2017 and then revived a couple of different times by different people about noise issues with this specific model and year of Les Paul - 2017 LP Classic. Plus some other people with different years/models who seem to have similar problems looking for guidance. I chose to follow up on my question to assist anyone else who might be trying to track down a fix, not as a referendum on the value or quality of Classic '57 pickups. My guitar was checked out by two completely different techs, at different shops, at different times, neither of whom found a ground issue. This time, it was suggested that the best bang for the buck that would give the best result would be to replace the pickups with ones with covers as opposed to the open ones that came stock on the guitar (over for example having the pickup cavity shielded). Important to note, particularly for anyone who does have a similar issue, that I think the two places I have lived in since I bought the guitar are particularly "noisy". My guess is that someone in a place with better wiring/less extraneous electronic equipment in the room would likely not have such a significant issue. The new pickups achieved the desired effect. It is much less noisy and I am much happier with it. With respect to the shielding on the pickup leads, reading my previous post, I can see that it might come across that I was saying that the BULK of the issue was due to the leads/shielding. That is likely not the case. However I can say that having seen the shielding on the leads from both the Classic '57 and the replacement pickups (Seymour Duncan Antiquity btw), the Duncan shielding is visible thicker and more robust. With that being said, I do want to apologize to members of the Classic '57 community for any perceived slight of the shielding being used on their preferred pickup. tl;dr - If you have a 2017 Les Paul Classic with uncovered pickups and are having noise issues it is probably not a ground issue and you may find that the easiest, if sadly not inexpensive, way to remedy the problem is to cover or replace the pickups, or move to a place with better wiring.

Thought I would follow up on this with the result/cause/fix. I took it to a good local tech and after checking everything out they found that it wasn't a ground issue. What it was was a big lack of shielding combined with RF noise in both of the apartments I've lived in since purchasing the guitar. The open '57 Classic pickups, and according to the tech, particularly sub-par shielding on the humbucker leads, made it particularly susceptible to this. For electrical type reasons I don't particularly understand, there is a sort of grounding effect when you touch the metal for the RF noise that makes it go away (probably also some clicking from static due to the plastics, but that is somehwhat negligible in the scheme of things). The fix? New pickups with covers and superior shielding on the lead wires. Pretty much has taken care of everything. Plus I prefer the look of covered pickups and had kind of wanted to at least cover the original pickups anyway (though obviously that is personal taste. Kind of a bummer to have to spend $400 on your $1700 guitar, but they sound even better than the original pickups (which I liked pretty well outside of the noise), look great, and frankly, it beats moving to find a place with less crappy wiring, etc.

Ah - no that isn't what I am talking about. Actually I did have that issue but it seems to have alleviated over time maybe with some laquer curing and also moving to an apartment that maybe leads to less static electricity. But there are some examples of the problem I am talking about in both of these videos. The guitars have a pretty noticeable background buzz which mostly goes away when he touches the strings. This sequence from the second vid gets at it. Starting at around 13:36 when he sets the guitar down you hear the buzzing which cuts out when he lays his fingers across the strings. Then at 13:45 there is an audible click when he touches the strings and the sound goes away then when he lets go the buzz is there prior to when he takes the jack out. https://youtu.be/_2PoPZ9OcMA?t=816 That is my problem - including the clicking.

Gonna Re-Re-Up this thread as I have similar problems also with a 2017 Les Paul Classic (including noise diminishing almost completely when I touch anything metal on the guitar). It was checked out by a tech during a set up about a year ago. He said that it wasn't a grounding issue and that to really do anything about it would probably require replacing electronics. It wasn't really clear if he meant pickups or just like wiring and pots. Honestly didn't have a great experience with the guy. Be that as it may, it seems like the issue probably has to do with RF interference and this guitar being particularly sensitive to it. Which would indicate shielding as a possible remedy, but given the exposed pickups on the Les Paul Classic wondering if there would really be any benefit in shielding cavities if the pickups are left uncovered? Also might be a reason why these sorts of problems seem to be common on the Classic in general (given internet comments) with the uncovered pickups. A related question as I know very little about electrical stuff. My other single coil guitar (Telecaster) has the same issue, but not as bad. Would that make sense given that the output on the Gibson is higher (ergo noisier)?