Guitar noise / interference problem

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Isn't that what you do for a living, Zen!

[DAGGILARR]

The only thing better than reducing a guitar to a pile of bits is reducing someone else's guitar to a pile of bits

Andy

Hmmmn

[zenguitar]

Isn't that what you do for a living, Zen!

Kinda...

the hard part is putting those bits back together again

Andy

[fully funktional]

Hey guys, update:

I've just applied copper foil to the back of the scratch plate and half of the inside where the pickups go. I need to get some more copper to finish the job though.

Do I also need to cover the area around the jack socket? And what about the bit at the back where the springs for the tremolo bridge are?

[Gary_W]

Have you got a multimeter? They start at about a fiver and will allow you to test for continuity. You need to ensure you've got a good connection from your guitar lead sleeve (earth) to the bridge.....there will be a wire connecting this but the quality of soldering I've seen in some of my guitars makes bird crap look pretty. And a decent earth to the back of all of the pots. If you haven't, out with the soldering iron....

Anyway, if you've got a decent connection between bridge and your jack sleeve then you can make sure you get this connection followed along to your scratch plate copper and body cavity copper..... This can be achieved by the fact that the earthed pots clamp onto the earthed scratch plate. Then the scratch plate clamps down onto the little bit of cavity screening that I leave out to squash between plate body cavity.

As to the jack, I just make sure I use screened wire

Even with all of the above, you will still get noise on a Strat from dimmers, fluorescent lights, computers, your mobile phone, werewolf activity and possibly other things that I've forgotten. However, the screening is well worth it IMO as it makes it MUCH more forgiving of all such external things (*) so, whilst it'll still buzz, it won't be anywhere near as bad.

* werewolves still upset it. Unless you remember to use silver solder and even then it's dicey.

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

Do I also need to cover the area around the jack socket? And what about the bit at the back where the springs for the tremolo bridge are?

You should do all the bits that surround the electrics so that includes the jack socket area ideally but it can be very fiddly. You don't need to do the tremolo springs cavity but you SHOULD have an earth wire going to the claw that holds the springs, again soldered to the back of the vol pot along with all the other earth wires including the one from the copper foil. You need to make sure all the copper foil joins up.

[Goddard]

Thought I'd seen a guide on shielding in SOS some time back, and a bit of searching turned it up:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug06/a ... h_0806.htm

(hmm, that page won't display properly in my browser for some reason)

Where foil shielding isn't practical (e.g. a hollowbody), an alternative approach to basically bypass/shunt offending RF to ground:

http://www.bartolini.net/selecting_electronics/choos_rf.htm

(izzit buzz or izzit hum, that is the question...)

[fully funktional]

Update:

I've finally covered all the cavities with the self-adhesive copper strips. Result? MUCH improved! It's not completely noiseless and it's still noisier than when I wasn't living over neon signs but my my guitar is now usable again so thankyou to everyone who's helped me with this!

I'm still thinking of getting a nice quality cable if that might further improve things. I also notice that for best results I need to sit with the guitar at a certain angle. A noise gate helps too. Large amounts of gain (amp simulation) still sound dodgy but in a busy mix might be ok.

I'm thinking of replacing the Squier pickups with some hotter, better ones - will this help also?

-Tom

[zenguitar]

Thanks for the update Tom.

I'm thinking of replacing the Squier pickups with some hotter, better ones - will this help also?

-Tom

Hotter pick-ups are more likely to make things worse rather than better I'm afraid. You might want to consider something like the Fender Noiseless pick-ups, Lace, or Kinman which are all designed to reduce noise while retaining the single coil sound as effectively as possible, or else go the active route with something like EMG's.

However, these are all quality pick-ups and as such don't come cheap. The downside is that better pick-ups don't add to the value of your guitar when it comes to trading up in the future so the best advice if you are thinking of upgrading is to keep your old pick-ups so you can put them back when you come to sell on and keep your quality pick-ups for a new guitar or project.

As it would be worth upgrading the pots and 5 way switch at the same time, it might even be worth investing in a new scratchplate as well. You can mount the new pick-ups and hardware on that and keep the old ones on the original. It will be no more work now, and will save a lot of time if you need to swap back later.

Andy

[Gary_W]

Glad it has improved

As to the pickup swap, I don't think it's likely to improve the noise level. But that's IMO . Unless you use something like a Hot Rails which is basically a humbucker in a Strat sized pickup..... That would help. But it'll sound a lot different as well which you'll either like or you won't.

But in the meantime you'll find that positions 2 and 4 are more resistant to hum than the 1 3 5 positions so perhaps for your high gain stuff you could stick to the 2 and 4? Perhaps not ideal but if it helps with the hum might be a compromise worth considering?

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

I'm still thinking of getting a nice quality cable if that might further improve things

Do it!

[Hugh Robjohns]

I also notice that for best results I need to sit with the guitar at a certain angle.

This implies that although the new screening has reduced the interference getting into the wiring and cotnrols, the pickups are still picking up some external interference. It might be worth considering something like THIS humbucking scratch-plate

H

[Dr Huge Longjohns]

It might be worth considering something like THIS humbucking scratch-plate

H

$270!!!

I'll stick with my roll of copper foil and a bit of solder and wire, thankyou, and let my Boss Noise Suppressor pedal do the rest!

[Goddard]

If all else fails, there's always the Walter/Wendy Carlos Faraday-cage approach as in here:

http://www.recordingmag.com/resources/resourceDetail/185.html

(only because I know with how much esteem Hugh regards the author)

[Hugh Robjohns]

(only because I know with how much esteem Hugh regards the author)

What am I missing here?

H

[Goddard]

(only because I know with how much esteem Hugh regards the author)

What am I missing here?

H

Ha! Does "gizmo" ring any bells?