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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:06 pm
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Rock Star
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paisley strat wrote:
Holy S%$T Martian!! I posted the thread because I wanted opinions of people WHO HAVE DONE THE WORK!! I didn't ask whether I should do it. Leave that kind of choice to me. I have gone the noiseless pickup route with EMGs. Love 'em! Love 'em so much, I put them on 2 of my favorite guitars. I have guitars with humbuckers. Love 'em too.
Why would Fender add sheilding to their most recent Strats if the guitar buying public(you and me and him and her)didn't complain about it? We all know that stacked humbucker single coils dont sound like true singles. I have them on my Charvel. They sound great, but not the same.
We tend to on this forum go off into left field on occasion(okay, all the time) and deviate from the initial question, which was about what works best. Period. You know if you have ever tinkered on a guitar, it is never truly "Finished". There is always something you can do to tweak it, or make it more of our own. If you ever owned a muscle car, you know what I mean. I know I am obsessed!! No doubt about that. But heck, it is way better than some other obsessions I could list that Brad would have a problem with.HaHahahah!!!


I have done this kind of work, many, many times in fact. That's why I gave a commentary on it and answered what works best by explaining why no popular method really does.

A direct answer on which is best: The foil as it's neat and quickly reversible whereas the paint is not.

As to why companies do it, because that's what the buyers want. Which answers why I've done it many, many times.

You are one thousand percent right though when you say (paraphrased) that our obsessions are never finished nor would we want them to be!

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Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:52 pm
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The reason I said foil is the fact that as tou say it can be reversed at any time with ease. I have used the pait when people have asked me to do so but I would not on any of my guitars. In fact I have Strats in my house that I would not do either on because the single coil sound is what a Strat is.

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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 6:57 am
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I want to sheild my Strat that has STOCK pickups, not the ones with EMGs.
Why would I not want to improve my signal to noise ratio on a guitar that I want to use for recording if at all possible????


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Posted: Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:44 am
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paisley strat wrote:
I want to sheild my Strat that has STOCK pickups, not the ones with EMGs.
Why would I not want to improve my signal to noise ratio on a guitar that I want to use for recording if at all possible????


As I previously stated, shielding does not guarantee any reduction in signal to noise ratio.

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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:20 pm
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Martian wrote:
This whole, "I must have my guitar totally shielded" thing is overrated. As I've said in an earlier post, this phenomenon is more a product of a mass hysteria initiated by pickup manufacturers when their stacked humbuckers starting coming on the scene. If you think about it, if absolute shielding was/is such a big deal, you'd never see any artist using a guitar with single coils. And guaranteed, those who have the real vintage instruments and/or the artists from back in the day, never considered 60 cycle hum as a problem nor would shield their guitars.

Ironically, shielding in most cases is an unnecessary overcompensation as the component that would truly benefit the most from shielding doesn't get any at all. I'm talking about the outright pickup coils themselves. They are in fact, the chief "antenna" for reeling in and passing along the unwanted hum, noise or whatever you want to call it.

Granted, total shielding will suppress hum in some cases but that is because the shielding has increased the resistance in the circuit as a whole which in turn, will decrease the overall output and a tad of high end as well. So, if you reduce the volume and treble of a guitar's circuit, by necessity the hum/noise in the circuit will be reduced as well.

Some people do take the Stratocaster's pickup covers off and meticulously foil the inside of the covers. The drawback with this is that it changes the magnetic field of the pickup and creates eddy currents; to put it plainly, it reduces the frequency response and the output of the pickup.

Either way, the results are similar to lowering the volume and treble a notch in an unaltered guitar or as simple as when you touch your hand to the strings and ground the guitar through your body.

I have no problem with single coil pickups and for all the obvious reasons, do indeed like the benefits of stacked humbuckers as well. My whole point of this diatribe is to simply keep things in perspective.

OK, let me have it.


He he he... I tend to agree. I spent the better part of probably three hours one time shielding one of my Strats with that copper stuff. When I put everything back together there was no difference. I then realized shielding does not remove 60 cycle hum. It may reduce other types of interference if it's done correctly but you will still have 60 cycle hum.


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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:32 pm
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hehe IMO trying to make a strat not hum is like when turner tried colourizing all those old movies. They thought they were improving them, but all they did was destroy the character of the pieces.


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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:45 pm
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To help with 60cycle hum I use Panamax surge protection. The few that I have all have their premiun noise filtration. Panamax are well worth the money I use them on my TV's and PC's. I keep two Panamax m10ht's in my gig bag.

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Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2009 8:48 pm
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Twelvebar wrote:
hehe IMO trying to make a strat not hum is like when turner tried colourizing all those old movies. They thought they were improving them, but all they did was destroy the character of the pieces.


You are absolutely right. For better, worse or indifferent, they are is what they are and the more one tries to 'improve' them, the further away one gets from what they are.

I'll just come right out and say it: Not only do they louse up the prime subject matter (and here's a play on a phrase), but in terms of, "the big picture", everything else is a sheer waste of time and effort. Unless of course, one is susceptible to placebos or as it's more commonly known by in the electronics field, "The Hawthorne Effect".

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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:35 pm
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try using fully shielded power cord for the amplifier
& also high quality fully shielded guitar cord


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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2009 5:50 pm
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eddytanhh wrote:
try using fully shielded power cord for the amplifier
& also high quality fully shielded guitar cord

Yes but some people get a lot of noise through the power source which is why they should try a power outlet with a noise filter and most surge protectors do not have noise filters so you have to check there specs.

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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 11:50 am
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we all love SRVs great tone right? this is from Rene Martinez, Stevies long time guitar tech. " Stevies guitars are all pre-1963 model Stratocasters, except for Charley, which was made from kit parts. The only significant change from stock on these Strats has been the addition of 5 way switches and a good coat of sheilding paint in the control cavities."
Who can argue with that?

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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 6:39 am
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While I have not tried them, the EMG SA's seem to be the answer. Is something in tone missing with them over the stock passives?

Also, the pots on active pickups work so much better imho. The volume control is linear in its response and the tone does not get robbed. The tone control rolls off the highs nicely, but the tone stays good, with no cut in volume.

Can David Gilmour be wrong?

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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:49 am
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I have EMG pickups on 2 of my Strats, and love them. They don't replace passive pups, just different....and quiet!

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Posted: Tue Jan 27, 2009 5:32 pm
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paisley strat wrote:
I have EMG pickups on 2 of my Strats, and love them. They don't replace passive pups, just different....and quiet!


I have EMG's on all my main guitars.. I couldnt live without them... :P


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Posted: Wed Jan 28, 2009 6:46 am
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Another approach you can take is to reverse the polarity on the middle pickup. That way, when your switch is in a position that uses the middle in combination with one of the other pickups it creates a humbucking effect.

Works great (even with 60 cycle hum) and you still keep the original pickups.


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