Guitar Nuts Schematics

[loudriver23]

Hello all,
I was looking at the Guitar Nuts site and readint the "Quieting the beast" article, it looks simple enough and I'm interested in giving this a try on my strat. That said, are these methods effective and a worthwhile thing to do? Also, since my soldering skills are kinda... well crappy... if I gave the schematics to my luthier do you think he would charge an extra fee to wire it up this way versus the standard method?
Thanks,
Loudriver

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Guitar Nuts Schematics

I usually use at least 5 coats of sheilding paint on the cavities of my guitars to reduce hum and noise. It works really well. You can also shield pickguards by using some spray adhessive and tin foil. Although shielding can play tricks with your ears. You suddenly think your pickups don't sound as hot as before. When in reality your just not amplifying a lot of noise. You can play at greater volumes and with more distortion.

Snowdog

 

[RW James]

Re: Guitar Nuts Schematics

Where is a good source for shielding paint?

 

[bert123]

Re: Guitar Nuts Schematics

I've followed the Guitar Nuts suggestions for a Parts-o-caster project and the guitar was quieter. I also used copper foil on both the guitar cavities and under the pickguard. It was also my first expereience with a soldering iron in years so I did a bit of pratice before tackling the pots and switches.

 

[larry_emder]

Re: Guitar Nuts Schematics

I put some copper sheilding on my single coil guitar but it didnt do much (anything)

 

[Jeff_H]

Re: Guitar Nuts Schematics

Here's what I did.

I bought an aluminum pickguard shield from www.callahamguitars.com for about $15 bucks. It's easier than the foil or the shielding paint. It fits under any picguard, 8 hole or 11 hole. I was all set to use the star grounding techinique, but I didn't even need it. My strat has the Fender Custom Shop 54's, which do not have a RW/RP middle, and I get ZERO hum.

I do think the star grounding works wonders if you have a noisey guitar.