Shielding on Fender Strats
- Thread starter Wayne27
- Start date
the most expensive fender strat ive owned, masterbuilt custom shop, had basically no shielding. only foil on the pickguard. it was a fantastic guitar and the noise never bothered me a bit. as a long time strat player, i just roll my volume off when im not playing. at this point its unconscious, im not even aware i do it, but it happens. when the band is playing, you dont hear any hum. in the studio, it can be more of a concern, but ive never not used a guitar because it wasnt shielded
PFDarkside
of the Forum
Fender paints the cavity with shielding paint and foils the pickguard for shielding on the American Standard, Elite, etc. type guitars I’ve had. Remember that shielding doesn’t really do anything for 60 cycle hum, more for RF and other extraneous noises. However, looking at a Strat, it’s typically wired with non shielded wire throughout, maybe the output jack wire is shielded. Compare to a Les Paul where the pickup, switch, output and tone wires all use shielded wire usually, so it’s definitely a good idea to shield a Strat.
beaubrummels
Well-known member
On Fenders, I've only seen foil on the pickguard. Some older Strats actually had a separate pickguard shaped plate between the pickguard and the body. I tend to question the effectiveness of shielding paint, but could be just me.
I have 1966 Strat that was noisy despite the foil on the guard. I replaced the foil on the guard with copper tape, then put copper sheileding all through the cavity, soldered any joins, grounded the whole thing, and it was MUCH quieter. Not perfect, but enough that a simple unnoticeable noise gate took care of any remaining noise without affecting my playing dynamics.
I have 1966 Strat that was noisy despite the foil on the guard. I replaced the foil on the guard with copper tape, then put copper sheileding all through the cavity, soldered any joins, grounded the whole thing, and it was MUCH quieter. Not perfect, but enough that a simple unnoticeable noise gate took care of any remaining noise without affecting my playing dynamics.
playas
Well-known member
I have a 91 American Standard that is quite noisy too. It only had the underside of the pickguard shielded. I need to shield it properly.
In my experience so far, good shielding can make a huge improvement in reducing noise. So much so that I prefer real single coils to stacks.
In my experience so far, good shielding can make a huge improvement in reducing noise. So much so that I prefer real single coils to stacks.
uOpt
Something Cool
No, it is the other way round. Once you go to AVRI (whatever they call them today) and Custom Shop you get less shielding from the factory.
