Twang Man
New member
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?
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?
