So I had thought that I removed the grounding hum. I figured the remaining hum was the 60 cycle hum, as my guitar is not shielded very well.

Now, when I touch the metal part of the 5 way switch, it goes nearly quiet.

Also, in the middle and neck positions, the hum is pretty much gone when I turn the respective tone knob to 0.

I don't know what I should do. I was planning on getting an eric clapton preamp kit, which would replace all the pots (does anyone know if it comes with a knob? It's not listed, but in the pictures of the kit there is a 5 way included). At that point I would copper shield it too.

Is the hum from the tone knobs caused by tone knobs going bad... or is from the grounding issue.

Any advice would be good. I'm pretty sick of the hum at this point.

Also to add, the pickups are stock mid 80s MIJ. I don't expect them to be silent, but this grounding issue had been eluding me for two attempts are repair now.

Assuming:
You have tried another single coil guitar on your amp and it works fine.
Tried your guitar on another amp of the same model and it still noisey.
Tried your guitar on amps of different models and are noisey also.
Tried plugging in the low and high input of the amp.
Have the gain turned down and the EQs (bass treb mid) on noon.
Using the clean channel of the amp (if applicable).
Have swapped cables to ensure its not the cable.
Plug DIRECTLY into the amps input (not via pedals or a tuner).
Turn off fans and fluros and moved the whole rig to a different location.
Tried using the humbucking setting to see if it makes a change.

Then:
I would wire a single pickup "hot" (direct) to the cable with nothing else in the circuit. If its still making noise pull it right out and try. Still making noise then try another pickup.

If you did everything else and it is still really noisy you need to to either reevaluate what you consider noise or probably go to noiseless pickups. As if the pickup is noisy outside the guitar nothing will improve it.

If the pickups work "hot" without noise start by adding more circuit bit by bit until you have "proven" your components. e.g. add volume circuit add tone circuit reintroduce 5 way then pickups.

Either that or get an oscilloscope (requires some skill in operation)

Let us know how you go.

Note: Play with the innards at your own risk. I'd do it but then I know how to avoid breaking things and electrocuting myself. The voltages involved inside a guitar should be safe however.

Thanks for the advice. I'll maybe make a short video showing whats going on. Basically if I turn the tone knobs down or touch the metal 5 way, the hum goes away. The wiring in the guitar is not factory standard also. Hopefully I'll be upgrading the pots and eventually the pickups anyway... way maybe not the pickups. For MIJ pups they sound pretty MIA.

sounds like a grounding issue, check your ground connections to the metal casings of the pots, might be a bad sod. joint.

_________________
2012 American Vintage Telecaster 1958
09 Fender american deluxe strat.
97 Gibson les paul special P90's double-cut
65 Princeton reverb re-issue
2010 Guild Gad-F40e

Does the hum go away when you touch the strings? I had an Epiphone strat-style Korean guitar that would hum really bad. The hum would go away when touching any metal on the guitar, but especially the strings. I never really fixed it before selling it, but think it was a grounding issue.

That is because with the tone rolled off all the high frequencies are as well. So in essence your helping to filter the noise that way.

By touching the 5 way. You are either touching a bad ground altering it, hot and partially grounding it or there is a bad connection there somewhere.

If there's a bad connection in the 5 way and touching is enough to trigger it, tap with the back of a plastic screw driver handle (not too hard) to see if you can make it go quiet. If you can I'd repair or replace the 5 way.

As there is so many possibilities you really need to isolate everything. It is not easy to the uninitiated. But if you read my post above seriously at least you will know what you have to do before you assume its in the guitar electronics.

Send me your old pups when done. I'll tame them wind by wind lol.