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rich1978

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Fender has ground paint and a body ground wire if your using real American Fenders. If you use ground tin foil what happens is an almost natural tanky compression. It will feel almost as if you lose power. I have experienced it twice, once was with a body that was shielded I ordered off ebay to replace a 89 body that the neck joint split down the middle. The second was with chrome plated brass pickguard each time when I removed the shield the sound returned to normal.

 

This was an answer given on the Seymour Duncan forums

 

The magnetic field of the pickup crosses the copper and it causes a physical reaction (eddy currents, small part of the magnetic field is redirected). Some people say metallic pickguards, covers and even the kind of metal base of the pickups can make a difference.

 

Wow, that's odd. Never experienced anything like that, but I guess different results can be caused by any number of issues (including the player's perception). I built a partscaster last fall...

 

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(sorry 'bout the grainy image)

 

Fully shielded (all cavities and whole back of PG - not just the control area as I've seen done many times). Custom wiring harness (master volume/master tone). The shielding on the cavities extends just over the lip onto the face of the guitar so there's good contact with the PG shielding and the whole thing grounded properly.

 

Gotta say, the guitar is just about dead silent. The Lace Sensors are pretty quiet to begin with, but I was concerned without polepieces to direct the magnetic field toward the strings, I was gonna get something like you're describing (some guys say it's almost like treble bleed), but it worked the way I'd hoped. No noticeable compression or high-end loss.

 

Got an '09 Strat with the stock pickups that's shielded as well, but on that one, the 60 cycle hum is audible, but seems to be a little tamer. Before it was shielded, if I sat down to record & faced the computer, the noise was pretty God-awful. Now, it's just the hum that comes with the single coils, and I can live with that.

 

Oddly, I don't shield any of my P90 guitars. Some of them are pretty noisy, but I don't want to chance losing that brawling, ready to rumble tone! B)

 

Hell, maybe it's all "smoke & mirrors", or we're hearing what we want/expect to hear. I don't know. I just do what seems to work for me.

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Yeah, there's some copper impregnated adhesive type tape that's out there that is used by a lot of strat players for cutting down noise. They line the inside of the pickguard and also the cavity. Does a top job. Give me a day or two and I'll be able to come up with the name of this stuff for you mate.

I've been wiring guitars for decades, The foil shielding is a must. A trick I figured out is that the shielding doesn't have to be copper, that was chosen for it's conductivity and is very expensive for small pieces. If you go to your local Home Depot you will find aluminum foil duct tape, a large roll is only a few bucks, if you put both leads of your volt/ohm meter on the surface your ohms will read zero. Zero resistance = total conductivity, works perfectly, pennies on the dollar. Be sure the pickup cavities and control cavies are lined. Continuity between multiple pieces of the tape via small spot of solder. Inside surface of control cavity cover to covered, piece of tape overhanging cavity so that cover and cavity tape makes contact.

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My first parts caster a year ago used inexpensive stewmac pups and Chinese pots, switchcraft everything else. Body cavity was never shielded ( dremoed it out to fit the pups). The pick guard was shielded. Nary a buzz.

 

I must be lucky, slight buzz on a tube amp, very low amplitude though, room has to be silent to even discern it. Though I do plug in to a power strip equipped with filters.

 

Sorry not much help, but I own several Strats and when I do have a buzz problem it is usually the house wiring or amp. Now back to that 1st home built strat I did have some buzz until I re-soldered the crap out of every connection (grounds). Took 3 tries.

 

I have a 75 watt Line 5 spider jam among others and that thing is quiet as a mouse with single coils are plugged in. One thing that does buzz is my powered speakers when I play through a board. No buzz on my twin reverb either.

 

Full disclaimer: I do not play very loud, play in my home based studio period. One thing to try if you are broke is different outlets and locations in your home.

 

 

 

 

 

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Donny, that is interesting. Because the majority of my electric guitar playing is tone off and 1st position (neck pup). On my buckers and single coils.

 

Only strat I play middle position with tone up is equipped with noiseless pups.

 

 

 

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