That's an orange drop condensator. It avoids losing treble when reducing the volume.
It should be on the volume pot though!

Anyhow, the connections might look solid but that doesn't necessarily mean they are.
Either you simply resolder the ground connections or you check them with a meter first, if you have one. You can't judge soldering joints just by looking at it. Sometimes you can check by slightly moving the wire and listen if the humming suddenly stops but that doesn't ALWAYS work.

If you're in position 4 (bridge + middle) and the hum goes away when turning the top tone control, then I suspect either the ground connections on that particular pot or a faulty pot (inside). If it reduces treble on bridge and middle as well, somebody has soldered the wrong way. The top tone pot is supposed to control the neck PU, hence having impact on position 2 also (neck + middle).

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Orange restistor is a capacitor for tone. Do you think the guitar have some mod ? even light mod ?

Something unshield/ground is missing. Or a bad solder . Can you show a slose up photo of inside the guitar , the electronic ?

Okay, I have taken some pics, but I should elaborate from my last post. When I turn the selector to the neck pick up I get the same symptoms. When I turn the neck pickups volume to zero the hum goes away. I have attached some pictures as requested. I also checked the connections with a multimeter though I only check resistance, I figured that low resistance meant that I had good connections. but all the connections seem good. here are some pics.


Here is the overall picture of the electronics.


Here is the ground from the volume pot to the tremolo claw


This is a picture of the lower Tone pot. As you can see this is where the Orange Resistor.
Im not sure if the guitar has been modded but I do now have some suspect that is has.


This is the Middle or Bridge Tone pick up, As you can see it looks like something was removed from the top of the pot, the Rosin residue is still evident. This is one clue that some one worked on the guitar prior to me purchasing it. As I purchased it second hand.


Here is the Volume pot this seems to be the main connection point for all the ground connections all Pickup grounds, pots, input and tremolo claw are grounded here.


And here is a close up of the over all pots.

I hope that I dont have to replace pickups, though I dont mind having to revert back to original specs to get rid of the hum. Its so annoying! The guitar is really unplayable in my opinion. Its not Ground Loop. And its not my house. I have a good ground and since my house was built 2 1/2 years ago Im sure there are ground issues. I also plugged the guitar into a direct box and lifted the ground on the direct box to see if it changed anything and it did not. Please help? Im really just tempted to Gut the whole thing and get new pickups and electronics. but I know that would be killing a fly in the wall with a grenade and dont want to do it. Are there schematics for the fender mexistrat standard so I can reference the wiring to see if there was any mods? I guess I just need wiring diagram for a 90's mexican standard Stratocaster.
Thanks every one.

It is obvious that the electrics have been tempered with.
This looks everything but professional soldering to me.
Yes, your guitar has been modded.

No reason to push the canons to the wall and get ready to fire at the fly.

Start with resoldering ground. If not solved, remove the orange capacitor.

If still not solved, resolder ALL connections as is.

Do not squeeze ALL ground connections in ONE SPOT on the volume pot, this is very likely to produce ground problems if not done properly. Use 2 wires at a time MAX!!!

The wiring layout looks ok to me, I guess you just have to resolder as is, no need for a diagram. Solder one wire at a time (ground max 2).

I don't have a link, but there's a mass of wiring diagrams online. Just google Standard Stratocaster wiring diagram, you should find some.

I don't see probs with the PUs right now. Maybe the upper tone pot, since the humming changes when operating that one.

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Okay So I just re soldered the Ground on the guitar. I still get the hum, I didnt read your last post until just now though. But with the volume knob ground I didnt do two wires at a time. I simply twisted all ground wires together and tinned them. Then I made sure I had connectivity to each end point and solder joint. I have a better multimeter I just found that actually tests connectivity the correct way. I get 0.4 - 0.8 resistance all the way around the guitar, The Orange Resister read on the Schematics for a standard stratocaster .22k Though mine reads about .25k But with 5% tolerance this should suffice. I have noticed that no matter what I do its effected by Treble! If I crank the treble on the amp it gets worse, If I lower the treble on the amp it goes away. if I Turn down the treble on the guitar (either Tone Pot) it gets better. I dont know about this guitar I guess i might take it in to the shop and have some one take a look at it though I hate to spend my hard earned money on something so simple.
any how here is a short video on the noise.

Ouch, this sounds really annoying.

Maybe a silly question but it happened to me once:

Have you made sure that the switched on soldering iron is nowhere near the guitar??
I've spent hours once rersoldering a guitar just to find out that the switched on soldering iron was producing just THAT noise which I can hear in your video.
No matter how good you grounded a guitar, a soldering iron is stronger!!! Especially the cheaper ones.

Please don't misunderstand me, you probably did disconnect the soldering iron from the socket and the guitar is nowhere near it, but I'm just trying to give hints and ideas, I'm not saying you are stupid, please don't get me wrong

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

No I Get what you saying your talking about checking for ground loop noise. or interference. I was thinking about my original post and Think I might just attempt to shield the guitar, though I hope it doesn't make it worse, I head it could help amplify the noise if the guitar has issues. But yeah its still get that noise even with the solder station unplugged.

Its has to be just something in that particular guitar, I have another Strat-Style guitar but its a Kramer it makes the same noise but only half as loud. Maybe I should just get it shielded. If I use tape I can always pull it up if it makes the noise worse right? Man Im so lost on this. But I hate not having my strat. All my amps are fender amps and nothing sound better on a fender amp than a stratocaster (IMHO)

+1 on this statement!

OK, I'm sorry that this wasn't successful. Here's where my knowledge ends.

Now I would have reached the point where I would either change pot by pot or take it to the professional technician.

The latter would be better because that would exclude the pickups as failure cause as well.

I'm sorry that I couldn't help you.
If you want try to shield the guitar, use shielding paint. It's much easier to apply and to do it around corners and edges. After applying, use a small screw and an additional grounding wire, connecting paint and one of the pots. Make sure to create a connection to the foil of the pickguard, too.

Shielding foil is more complicated and difficult.

I don't seriously think it will solve your problem. Use a long cable and walkaround the house. If the humming stays pretty much the same without changing drastically with intermediate positions 2 or 4 on the pickup selector switch, then it's no shielding problem. If it's a shielding problem (which I still don't think), then it would change noticeably in different locations in the room.

It does change anyway, that's normal, especially if you get near a running TV, a socket or whatever produces an electrical field, but in that case you can judge the source of the problem. If those appliances are witched off and you still get a noticeable change in humming, then it might be a shielding problem. If it stays the same all the time, it's more likely an electrical prob in the guitar.

Lots of effoerts but still cheaper than the tech.

I'll be honest, I'd be too lazy now but I'm in the fortunate position that the costs for a tech wouldn't bother me much.

Another idea that hits me right now when reading your last post:
try to test your guitar with another amp, before going through all that hassle.
If your Kramer humms as well, it might be your amp! Or the cable guitar --> amp?

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Thank's for pictures morbe.
It is the first thing to know if guitar have some mod, if you heard some buzz. Not all people know how to solder and doing good wiring.

I see at least one very very bad solder on volume control, the side who go to the ground ( vol body ) have no solder or defective solder. At probably many more.

Did I see some black electrical tapes on one pickup wire ? Go to see under the tape.

Pickup wires are messy too.

Sure this guitar have some electrical problem on wiring .

The problem is not the amp i have a champ 25 and a super reverb and the noise follows the guitar. This little issue may just convince me to redo the electronics, ive been wanting to get new pickups for a while. So with a pots change and a new resistor. Maybe i can get the issue solved. Even after removing the old solder and using a green scratch pad to clean off the resin, i still would feel more comfortable swapping out pots, jack and switch. I can get this thing on the road to recovery. Also i have an ibanez full hollowbody and its as quiet as a church mouse. Thanks everyone.

OK, in that case I'd get a loaded pickguard and sell the used sh*** disassembled on eBay
Piece by piece! Let somebody else do the soldering!

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

So after some research on the matter i have a theory of what MAY be happening. Since the sprauge orange drop capacitors are meant to boost the highs. And since the buzz starts in the highs and goes away with the lows. I plan to remove it replace it with the original parts installed which was a .022 mpf 250 v cap to see what will happen. If this does not work i plan to redo entire pickgaurd. I was looking at the most cost effective way to complete this and found that best bang for buck is the Tex Mex pups which the name threw me off but the reviews on these things are great. Not to mention im very anal retentive so i plan to get all new wires, input jack, pots, cap, and selector switch, but this is if the cap.doesnt fix it. If the cap fixes it i think were good.

Good luck, man, I hope removing the cap will do the trick!

_________________
Kindest regards from Germany, Dee
My recordings --> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_mu ... dID=564337
STRATS ROCK!!! but Teles and Firebirds, too!

Based on what I can see in your pictures, it appears your tone pots are wired incorrectly and your volume pot may be fried or pretty close to it. These are the causes of your problem, not lack of shielding.

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