I have a 50th anniversary Lone Star Strat that buzzes pretty badly when I don't have my hands on the strings. It doesn't matter what room I'm in, lights on or off, plugged straight into an amp, board, pedals or no pedals. Checked cords, even bought new, nice ones. Checked grounds. It buzzes with the pickup selector switch in any position. I looked at the wiring and nothing seems to be disconnected or loose. What's the problem? I've tried everything that anyone has suggested in person or on websites.
Any ideas??? Please???? I love my Strat and want it to sound clean. Please!!!

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Give your guitar a sexy name!

It really sounds like a ground issue on the guitar itself. Check all ground connections inside, especially the ground connection to the claw, and the springs connection to the block. Is there a ground connection to the body in the control cavity?

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---> "The amp should be SWITCHED OFF AND UNPLUGGED before you do this!" <---

Por favor, disculpe mi español, no se llega a la práctica con mucha frecuencia.

I'll check it out, thanks for the tips. Haha! I love that, I'd never have my guitar plugged in when I work on it! The visual is priceless!

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Give your guitar a sexy name!

Like Shimmilou said, check the guitar's wiring. Also, just to add - you can expect some minor buzzing from the Pearly Gates Plus humbucker; the coils are intentionally mismatched meaning that it is not 100% humbucking. The 2nd and 4th positions should be virtually noise free.

Something cheap and easy you could try is to line the cavity and back of scratchplate with the sticky-back metal foil sold in DIY stores.

It doesn't look very nice (depending on how careful you are when fitting!) but it's not visible anyway and I've found it helps. If it doesn't, you can always strip it out again...

Cheers - Peter.

Well, as others have stated, I'd check the ground wire on the claw and while I was at it, I'd check the rest of the solder joints too...cold solder joints happen.

That said, have you tried this instrument and amp combo in a different building/location? The reason I mention this is that just because the outlet you plug that amp into "looks" grounded, doesn't mean it actually is. .some buildings and homes just have crappy wiring.

Just and extra $.02...
Jim

Hate to butt in. I've got a similar problem.

I've got a project Strat (SSS).
I've checked everything and done a complete rewire. I can't get the darn thing to GROUND! You know the buzz you get if you touch the HOT end of the amp cord, well as soon as I plug the cord in the whole guitar buzzes like that!

I rewired it and double checked my wiring and can't find anything wrong (per Fender wiring diagrams).

Before I rewired it, all it would do was buzz. Since my rewire I get the tones from the pickups but, the buzz overrides the tones!

The only parts I still used from the original 'Buzz' guitar are the two tone pots (one with a .047 cap) and the EMG designed pickups that came with the body. I re-soldered it all.
My FAT & my SG play beautifully through the amp, in my computer room, with no noise at all.
Any suggestions?

I answered this (your) post in the other forum but for convenience and as the OP's problem is similar, I'll post it here too:

The cap is irrelevant.

We'd really have to eyeball the wiring to be sure but based on your complaint, the most common cause for this problem is the lead wires to the output jack being reversed.

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