Stratocaster sheilding gone BUZZ

[npsiwak]

OK so i followed the instructions for sheilding a stratocaster (a mexican-made squire with standard GFS single coil replacement pickups) from the guitarnuts main page, and essentially replicated the new wiring diagram that is shown there (sans the high voltage cap since i didnt have one on hand...). I used aluminum foil and adhesive tape to put down a sheild on the pickguard and the cavity of the guitar. I was sure to re-wire all of the connections from the pots, and also installed a neck pickup toggle switch into the mix.

While it sounds great, i am still plagued by a really serious hum when im using the drive channel, and in fact the guitar will pick up radio stations occasionally....Some of it could be due to my amp via some bad grounding in my house, but i am unsure of myself as this is my first real mod to any guitar...

Anyone have any suggestions as to why im still experiencing this hum, and if it is a AC line power grounding issue to my amp, how do i fix that? Thanks!

[sumgai]

nippy,

Hi, and welcome to the NutzHouse! ;D

There are several possible culprits for why you're suffering with this issue. In order, I'd check the following:

a) Did you accidentally reverse the two connections on the guitar's output jack. Sometimes it'll be quiet until enough amplification is thrown at it, then the noise comes out.

b) Howzabout the cable, is it good? Some cables can appear to be fine, until the amp is turned up......

c) Does this happen with other amplifiers, in your home (or wherever you are when this problem arises)?

d) Can you take the guitar somewhere else and try it? I don't mean another room, I mean like to a friend's place, or a local music store.

e) If the amp can pickup radio stations, does this happen only with your guitar? Can other guitars make it happen too? Or even by itself? In any such case, if you are not a qualified amp tech, then you should find one, explain your problem, and see if he/she can fix it. (It's simple, and it should be cheap to do.)

f) I'd not worry too much about your environment's ground wiring, until you've gone through the rest of the list. If the guitar and amp work without problems at another location, and the tech has fixed the radio station problem, yet you still have a buzzing issue, then it'll be time to look at your environment's house wiring, including the ground stuff.

Let us know your results, eh?

HTH



sumgai

[newey]

npsiwak-

Your question asks "why am I still experiencing this hum?" , the implication being that it's the same hum you had before you did the mods. It's probably hard to remember back to how it was before, but if there's no discernable change from previously it's unlikely that your mods had anything to do with the noise.

It's also quite possible that there are a couple of different sources for this so one fix may not solve it all. Sumgai's suggestions (essentially a fault-tree analysis) should help you sort through this in an orderly fashion.

Did you also use a shielded cable to the output jack as the QtB procedure specifies? Your post didn't mention that.

[JohnH]

just checking, that the shielding is connected to ground? If you didnt have the cap, then the alternative is to use a wire connection somewhere from shielding to ground

John

[dressner]

Hmm picking up radio stations with a guitar...

I bet some people might actually like that

[warmstrat]

Wow, i always thought "picking up radio stations" was a joking over-exaggeration for bad interference... i had no idea it was actually possible!

ha ha ha ha ha

shame though.. hope you fix it!