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Shielding The Pickguard

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  • Shielding The Pickguard

    Several years ago when I was playing a mid 90's Mex Strat I noticed that sometimes when I would rake my fingers across the pickguard I would hear a little static "tic" sound. This noise wasn't real noticeable but it was enough to bug the hell out of me. It was worse when I would touch the pickup adjustment screws. I emailed Seymour Duncan about the problem and I believe it was Evan who helped me solve the problem. He suggested I shield the pickguard. So I took some regular aluminum foil from the kitchen and cut it to fit the underside of the pickguard and took a knife and cut out for the pickup routes and cut out a big area for the selector switch and pots area. I superglued most of the aluminum foil to the underside of the pickguard. I then soldered a wire from the volume pot and ran the other end of the wire up between the pickguard and the foil and glued it there and glued the foil down tight on the pickguard around the wire. That solved my problem. I have had to do that to a few other guitars since then. I think the Amer Strats already have the foil on the underside of the pickguard from the factory. At least my late 90's Amer Std Strat did.

    Its not critical that the foil be cut to fit the pickguard exact. It seems to work well as long as the foil is covering most of the area around where the pickups are and where ones fingertips might occasionally rake across the pickguard during strumming.
    Anyone else ever have to shield a pickguard?

  • #2
    Re: Shielding The Pickguard

    I always use aluminum foil and completely cover every inch of the pickguard with it..Alot of our problems end up being ground or just bad solder issues though...

    John
    Amps: 66 Fender BF Pro Reverb Combo,1973 50 Watt Marshall Head,Marshall 4x12 A/V Cab,Vox ToneLab LE,Vox VTH Valvetronix 120 Head,Vox AD 2x12 Cab,Roland Cube 20X

    Guitars: Several Stratocasters,2 Fender Telecasters,Gibson SG Standard,Tokai Love Rock Les Paul,Dean Acoustic.

    Pickups: SD SSL2,SSL5,Twangbanger,Antiquity Surfers,59N,Seth Lover N/B,Dimarzio Fred,Dimarzio VPAF N,Fender Fat 50s,Fralin SP43 Bridge,Brobucker,Antiquity Texas Hot.

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    • #3
      Re: Shielding The Pickguard

      check out www.guitarnuts.com they give thorough instructions on how to shield, then fully star ground a strat and a tele. it really works great, and it surprises me how fender actually overlooks basic wiring principles causing us all grief!!!love their guitars anyway!!!
      2004 50th Anniversary Deluxe American Strat, SETH-N BRIDGE, ANT 2 SURFER MIDDLE, ANT 2 DLX MINI HUM NECK

      280K RS guitarworks volume pot, 250k cts tone pots, .047uf paper in oil Jensen aluminum capacitor, running D'addario Chromes 13's with wound g > Analogman Orange Juicer>Acoustic 200H Bass head> Alesis Picoverb> unknown 12'' JBL Orange car speaker

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      • #4
        Re: Shielding The Pickguard

        Originally posted by Quencho092
        check out www.guitarnuts.com they give thorough instructions on how to shield, then fully star ground a strat and a tele. it really works great, and it surprises me how fender actually overlooks basic wiring principles causing us all grief!!!love their guitars anyway!!!
        I've done this on my strats and tele. It really makes a difference.

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        • #5
          Re: Shielding The Pickguard

          Quencho092
          Thanks for the guitar nuts link. I'll bookmark that one. Its a nice site.

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          • #6
            Re: Shielding The Pickguard

            I've always used shielding paint instead of the foil. It takes a little longer because you have to wait 24 hours between coats, but five good coats of shielding paint should be just as effective as aluminum or copper foil. It's also much easier to work with than foil.

            Ryan
            Originally posted by JOLLY
            I'm the reason we had to sign waivers

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            • #7
              Re: Shielding The Pickguard

              Well, I did not know anyone else did this. Al foil worked for me.

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              • #8
                Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                I've found foil to be very easy to use with pickguards. I use a gluestick on the guard, and lay it on the foil...smooth it out (like the guitarnuts article) trim, and it's done.

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                • #9
                  Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                  Aluminum foil here too. Very easy to do and it works.

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                  • #10
                    Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                    If you're lazy like me, you can go to www.callahamguitars.com and under strat parts they sell a solid aluminum pickguard shield for around $10 bucks. It fits right under your current pickguard no issues. Will fit either 8 or 10 hole guards no problem.

                    Otherwise, the star grounding and other things listed on guitar nuts do the trick. I get zero hum from my Strat.
                    My Sound Clips

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                    • #11
                      Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                      i still have a bit of trouble when understanding the instructions at guitarnuts though. The ring terminals for star grounding are mounted where? on the pots?
                      2004 50th Anniversary Deluxe American Strat, SETH-N BRIDGE, ANT 2 SURFER MIDDLE, ANT 2 DLX MINI HUM NECK

                      280K RS guitarworks volume pot, 250k cts tone pots, .047uf paper in oil Jensen aluminum capacitor, running D'addario Chromes 13's with wound g > Analogman Orange Juicer>Acoustic 200H Bass head> Alesis Picoverb> unknown 12'' JBL Orange car speaker

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                      • #12
                        Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                        Just on one of the pots...then you connect the capacitor to the ring terminal on one end and the star site with the other. Really the most important thing is the shielding and not having any ground loops...conectors from the top of one pot to the other.

                        I didn't do the star grounding until after I shielded and removed ground loops. Not sure I can hear the difference from before/after this part of the mod.
                        My Sound Clips

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                        • #13
                          Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                          where can i buy alot of wire for doing my pickup assembly online?
                          2004 50th Anniversary Deluxe American Strat, SETH-N BRIDGE, ANT 2 SURFER MIDDLE, ANT 2 DLX MINI HUM NECK

                          280K RS guitarworks volume pot, 250k cts tone pots, .047uf paper in oil Jensen aluminum capacitor, running D'addario Chromes 13's with wound g > Analogman Orange Juicer>Acoustic 200H Bass head> Alesis Picoverb> unknown 12'' JBL Orange car speaker

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                          • #14
                            Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                            When shelieding, can you only remove the ground loops and not do the star grounding?

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                            • #15
                              Re: Shielding The Pickguard

                              Also, Where does the second ring terminal go? (The one with the negative pickup leads on it)

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