Guitar Noise Shielding

Sulaco · #1 04-29-2004, 10:13 PM

Alright, I hope this thread actually gets somewhere. I'm in need of help.

A buddy of mine recently informed me a little about shielding the inside of my guitar (under the pick-guard) to drastically reduce noise.

I have a 2001 USA Strat. It gets EXTREMELY noisy sometimes. A buddy spotted it one day and told me I could take the pickguard off and coat the bottom side of the pick guard with aluminum tape (the tape used on duct-work. aluminum foil with a sticky side). After that, he told me to coat the inside of the guitar with the same. Just carefully cut out the tape and cover the entire inside. Then, when I screw on the pickguard, everything but the pickups is now inside a shell of aluminum.

Does anyone else know anything about this? Is there something else I should do? I've decided not to upgrade the pickups, but I am trying desperately to get rid of the noise!

Any ideas? Sound kosher?

DeathTöngue · #2 04-29-2004, 10:39 PM

Well, I've heard this before, but never tried it, as I worried about affecting the sound of the guitar - almost every noise problem I've had has been due to frayed shield grounds, cheap cables, or bad grounding on the amp... I can tell you that the Faraday cage you are describing won't help if it isn't grounded, and you need to be very careful not to let anything short to the tape.

Sulaco · #3 04-29-2004, 11:01 PM

I use Fender cables, which I thought were decent at least. I use a Marshall GV-2 distortion pedal, a stainless steel KORG AX1500G effects processor. Both run on 9v A/C adaptors. The amp is a Marshall micro-stack. I've notcied that in some environments the noise isn't as harsh. Like back home in my drywalled house with hardwood floors with a TV and Computer in the room, I get annoying noise. Here in this room, with carpet and drwall, I get much MORE noise. It's a much smaller room, also. I have a computer, monitor, TV, and xbox all within 2 feet of each other. Of course, when I turn them off, I lose some noise, but there's still enough after that to drive me crazy!

DeathTöngue · #4 04-29-2004, 11:24 PM

Well. this is from Fender -

"You may find it a benefit in noise reduction, however, to add extra shielding to the guitar's control cavity, either in the form of shielding foil or carbon shielding paint. "

So it sounds like they hear this a lot, and find it helps - but he neglected to mention that the foil/paint still needs to be grounded.

From my own knowledge, I think it is a good idea to check the power ground where you plug the amp in, and also try to eliminate the noise sources. Besides TV and computer (both of which produce all sorts of RFI), there're things like flourescent lights and dimmer switches.

After that, you can also eliminate each piece of equipment, one at a time. Take out the pedals, swap the cables, etc.

Craig Marion · #5 04-30-2004, 07:30 AM

You may want to try out a hush eliminator...it works wonders.

Fulghum · #6 04-30-2004, 11:43 AM

Or just play in very large Arenas and Stadiums where the nearest electronic device may be the lighting bridge or sound board which will both be 100 feet away, at least.

legspin · #7 05-01-2004, 04:14 AM

what about doing neck/middle and middle/bridge positions, are they noisy too?

Sulaco · #8 05-02-2004, 11:44 PM

No, it's virtually 100% noise-free when using neck/mid or bride/mid, but I only want the tone supplied by those settings about 10% of the time. The other 90% I want the serious, fat soul of the neck pickup, or the die-hard screaming wail of the bridge pickup--just with less noise!

If shielding doesn't help, I'll simply get some Vintage Noiseless.

Or just ignore it completely.

By the way, tell me more on this hush eliminator?

Fulghum: I already play in the largest arenas. It's just that God spent the 7th day creating 1,000 Hiwatt full stacks I use! There's not even any room for patrons. There's a full stack in place of fans!

PaperBoy · #9 05-06-2004, 12:16 AM

I have a Johnson guitar that's a copy of a strat. I was having the same noise problem. I was able to determine it wasn't any of my cables, my amp, or anything on my pedal board. Even when I turned off the computer, tv, etc, there was still enough noise to make me crazy. Also, I thought my pickups sounded kind of weak anyway. So I picked up a full set of Fender Hot Noiseless pickups on eBay. I installed them myself with no problem (it only takes a steady soldering hand). When I installed the new pickups, I did discover the pickguard was already shielded with that sort of aluminum, but my cheesy old pickups were too noisy for that to make any difference. When I installed the new pickups, everthing worked and there was no noise. Seriously, no noise. Plus, the tone and drive of the sound was much improved. Those Hot Noiseless pickups have a nice bite, they were well worth the investment.

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Guitar Noise Shielding

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