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Post subject: Shielding your Love
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 10:19 am
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No, thats not what this is about. This is a family forum.

Im talking about shielding strats. I bought a used 70s reissue with vintage spec pickups. Its pots and switch were questionable. My guitar made more noise than others the same model at the guitar shop. Clean was fine but under heavy gain it made more noise than crunch. Im glad I recorded some of it!

My point here is that instead of just sinking money into new pickups which I had almost convinced myself I needed, I replaced the pots and switch, and I lined the pickguard with shielding.

Ive heard some people say that lining the pickup and control cavities robs tone and how some tone gurus pull shielding OUT to get "that sound"... but I am here to tell you that a proper pickup shield hurts NO ONE and will increase your signal to noise ratio! I now ENJOY playing at higher gain and even bought a new BOSS Super Overdrive SD-1 pedal which provides all the crunch I need! Before I fixed the shielding issue, I had tried the SD-1, but I couldnt get much crunch at all out of it. Now I enjoy it.

So before you drop a wad of cashish on The Man to load up some high gain stacked coils, humbucker in a single coil config, laces... consider dropping $30 to install some shielding. You might be surprised how much tone you can get out of your current pups when they make less noise and more sound!


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 5:28 pm
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Joined: Mon Nov 24, 2008 7:27 pm
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Location: New Zealand
hmm i have a 70 ri strat too. and i agree with some od it sounds like crap! iv'e been wondering whats wrong. i might look into shielding. how do you do it?

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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 7:54 pm
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When I bought my strat it was used. Well used. BUT the previous owner sweat all over it for a few years. The shop I bought from did a good job of cleaning the OUTSIDE of the guitar, but not the inside. Inside I found dried sweat over everything. Using alcohol I wiped away everything that could be reached. (Q-tips to reach under parts) what I couldnt get was INSIDE parts. Some guys on another (now defunct) strat site suggested the only way I could make my guitar sound good was to buy a high end halfstack amp rig. Fortunately there were cooler heads there that guessed that the pots may have been affected by years of sweat and that replacing them might be a good idea. Post only cost a few bucks and a couple of hours time soldering. (because Id never replaced tone and volume pots before) but it was much easier than youd guess.

Now, if you bought your strat new, then that likely ISNT your problem.

While I had the pickguard assembly removed, I pulled the pickups and applied some contact foil (I think its aluminum, but Ive heard copper is great) to the entire underside of the pickguard. I used a sheet of this stuff and cut out the pickguard shape using an xacto knife, but now they have precut shield shapes available which will save you about an hour in cutting time, but cost a couple of bucks more. If I buy another strat that isnt shielded, Ill go with the pre-cut.

anyway, after applying that, you just rebuild and jam.

I recommend you tape your guitar NOW, then tape again LATER. Some people can pick up nuances while they are playing, but for me its clearest playing my youtube videos back to back. I play a Marshall AVT with a Guvnor pedal. Before the mod, I gotta tell ya, it was just stupid-noisy. Id spend half a practice session just tweaking gain and in the end still not be happy with a 45%-50% gain setting that just sounded like a gnome beating two rocks together.

I tried turning off all additional electronics in the room, but that didnt help. This shielding has really made me a strat fan. I owned a strat 17 years ago, but the noise made me remember why I sold it, and why I enjoyed my Les Pauls and ES-335 so much. I still dig those, but I now love my strat equally (and a strat fits under the arm better than an LP or semi acoustic) Anyway... I now still only play with about 50% gain when I use gain, but the sound is much stronger and clearer. I didnt need new pickups after all. I still my crunch, and now it sounds better. Even a comparitively low gain pedal like the Boss Super Overdrive sounds strong enough to use on its own.


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 8:04 pm
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Location: Magnolia, Texas (just north of Houston)
I'll need to look into shielding my guitar too. I have seen shielding on the web...heard rave reviews on it. Thanks for the thread.

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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:15 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2008 3:59 am
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I shielded my Hot Rod and it sounds better....got the pick up cavity painted with those insulating black paint by a local luthier and i think he did a great job.


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Post subject:
Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 9:34 pm
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Joined: Mon Sep 01, 2008 10:04 am
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Location: Ohio
Definitely Shield your Strats...no matter if they are new or used. If you are playing any guitar with single coils, you will get that 60 cycle hum. no way around it.

I shielded my Strats with Copper foil tape, behind the pickguard, and the control cavity, the jack cavity also. I've also put it on the inside of my pickup covers on each pickup. You can buy this online at American Music Supply, or Musicians Friend. They sell rolls of it. If you decide to go this route, I'd like to offer an installation tip: when lining the control and jack cavities, let the foil overlap the edge of the cavities a little. this helps the shield between the cavity and the pickguard.
A good quality Tuner/Contact Cleaner with Silicone lubricants, will help clean up older pots. When this does'nt do it anymore, then replacing them is a lot less of a headache. I would recommend good qualitiy heavy duty pots like the ones you can get from DiMarzio.

-Harley 8)

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