Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

[Silence Kid]

A thought - has anyone experimented with grounding the alnico magnets on a standard Strat pickup by use of a base plate? Is there a significant difference in noise reduced, attributable by doing so?

It comes to mind that a Jaguar claw might be able to do this; normally the claw has holes for the pole pieces to poke through, but I wonder about performing a little experiment and using a piece of metal to ground the magnets to the claw.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

You should ground your magnets. But it’s not as easy as you would think. I’ve tried with copper tape, etc.

What Leo did however was that the start of the coil is connected to ground. Because those first winds are close to the magnets, it effectively shuts induced noise, like from touching the magnets to ground.

This is why the middle pickup is reverse wound, and not just wired in reverse.

It’s also why the Mustang has closed covers, since it has phase (polarity) reversal switches. This could put the pickup in a situation where the start of the coil is connected to hot, making the magnets susceptible to noise if you touch them.


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[Silence Kid]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

^That's clever on the Mustang. Thinking back on it, I think I even noticed something like that in my Mustang while I was building it, pre-covers.

I wonder how useful a stock Tele neck pickup cover (or bridge baseplate) can be for grounding the magnets too now that I think about it.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

I wonder how useful a stock Tele neck pickup cover (or bridge baseplate) can be for grounding the magnets too now that I think about it.

It doesn’t. It shields the pickup. And the bridge pickup was originally under the ashtray cover. Also for shielding.


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[Chistopher]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

I've found that if you put a partial loop of copper tape inside a Strat cover, it can make for a decent shield. If you don't make a full loop (ie, the ends of the tape don't touch) or doesn't mess with the Eddy currents.

 

[treyhaislip]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

^That's clever on the Mustang. Thinking back on it, I think I even noticed something like that in my Mustang while I was building it, pre-covers.

I wonder how useful a stock Tele neck pickup cover (or bridge baseplate) can be for grounding the magnets too now that I think about it.

I use a bridge baseplate on my Strat bridge PU to beef it up as well as help "tame" the highs/icepick type of problems I have with regular single coils.

 

[justFred]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

It doesn’t. It shields the pickup. And the bridge pickup was originally under the ashtray cover. Also for shielding.


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the strat originally came with a cover over the bridge(not the pickup)...the tele cover as well as the strat cover was, according to Leo Fender, purely for aesthetics...if it acted as some sort of shield that was just a fortunate accident...

 

[Silence Kid]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

My thought is if the pole pieces contact the metal cover or baseplate, that would ground out the magnets and reduce buzz/noise beyond the shielding effect of noise reduction. Although per David's post the wiring direction already mitigated somewhat, is what I gather.

Again, targeting grounds rather than shielding in this idea, & baseplates/pickup covers vs. bridge covers.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

the strat originally came with a cover over the bridge(not the pickup)...the tele cover as well as the strat cover was, according to Leo Fender, purely for aesthetics...if it acted as some sort of shield that was just a fortunate accident...

Leo wasn’t dumb. Many instruments had covers over the bridges. It was the style. But unlike some others the Tele bridge cover is grounded and covered the top of the pickup. And you’ll notice that the bridge pickup doesn’t have a metal cover while the neck pickup does.


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[justFred]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

Leo wasn’t dumb. Many instruments had covers over the bridges. It was the style. But unlike some others the Tele bridge cover is grounded and covered the top of the pickup. And you’ll notice that the bridge pickup doesn’t have a metal cover while the neck pickup does.


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I know Mr. Fender was not dumb...he was a genius...if he would have only come up with the Stratocaster and the 5E3 he would have been legendary...

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Strat Pickups - Grounding Magnets

Leo wasn’t dumb. Many instruments had covers over the bridges. It was the style. But unlike some others the Tele bridge cover is grounded and covered the top of the pickup. And you’ll notice that the bridge pickup doesn’t have a metal cover while the neck pickup does.


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I always thought he was thought the exposed look of screws, bobbins, and polepieces would hurt sales and he figured "eh, might as well use the covers as shielding too." Then later on he noticed no one really cared and they were actually removing them, so he stopped doing it on Strats, except for the bridge, which looked really "mechanical" and not very refined.