Noisey Strat - Mods or new p'ups.

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pure.fusion

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Hi Strat owners,

Bought my Mesa Boogie Ta-15. Damn is that a nice upgrade from my blues Jr. I'm not going back. Just disappionted that my first test recording had buckets of noise from my strat :( So this is the next problem.

I'm not going to ask about the tonal differences between stock pickups in my American Standard and the dozens of noiseless replacements on the market. This is very subjective and it's not worth going there.

But what I will ask is about the body cavity sheilding and wiring mods available - can you actually remove hum with these mods to an insignificant level? Or will it just take the edge off?

Cheers,
FM
 
I'm not sure about any of the mods you mentioned, but I have a Powerhouse Strat that came stock with Fender noiseless pickups (the three front pickups wired the same, dummy pickup inside body wired opposite) and it's completely noiseless unless I'm holding the guitar right next to the amp (which I would only do if I wanted noise and feedback anyway). If the mods you have in mind don't turn out to kill enough hum, I highly recommend a noiseless pickup system like the one I have. I'll never buy another single coil guitar unless I get noiseless pickups in it :D
 
Mods?

GuitarNuts.com - Shielding a Strat(tm)

This looks like a time comsuming and messy job, but I'd go there if it worked. The Aluminium foil looks like a real pain in the a$s.

Yeah, I've had humbuckers all my life, and have just got myself a plain strat. I'm loving the sound and sensitivity that comes with single coils, esprcially though that Mesa Boogie, but my love does not extend into putting up with that friggin' noise. It's gotta be dealt with.

FM
 
pure.fusion said:
But what I will ask is about the body cavity sheilding and wiring mods available - can you actually remove hum with these mods to an insignificant level? Or will it just take the edge off?
Click to expand...

This is what was done to mine (before I bought it) and then I had the Fender Hot Noiseless pups installed.......no more noise! As in "All Gone!"
 
Single-coil guitars hum. That's what they do. Try the shielding (I did without much success - might try it again) or use a "noiseless" pickup.
 
I've put 'stacks' in all six of my Strats. DiMarzio, Duncan, they all look 'original' and at least in switch positions 2,3, and 4 the noise is much, much less. Then I added a Hush to my pedal board, and the noise went at least 95% or more away. Try this; HS-2
 
ranjam said:
I've put 'stacks' in all six of my Strats. DiMarzio, Duncan, they all look 'original' and at least in switch positions 2,3, and 4 the noise is much, much less. Then I added a Hush to my pedal board, and the noise went at least 95% or more away. Try this; HS-2
Click to expand...

From the HS-2 blurb...

"single-coil mode is not as noisy as a standard single-coil pickup." Not as noisey? So, not noiseless. Along with Greg L's comment, I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

I've ordered some copper tape. I'll go throught the sheilding routine and see what comes out. Then I'll assess the noise again after that.

Thanks all.
 
My Strat was routed out and the hole was painted with "special" anti-EMI paint. That's what the tech who installed the Noiseless pups told me, so it saved me a bunch of money. Supposedly the paint has some kind of metal flakes or something in it? (I'm not convinced copper tape will do it, but worth a try.) My Strat has no noise in any switch position.
 
pure.fusion said:
From the HS-2 blurb...

"single-coil mode is not as noisy as a standard single-coil pickup." Not as noisey? So, not noiseless. Along with Greg L's comment, I'm beginning to see a pattern here.

I've ordered some copper tape. I'll go throught the sheilding routine and see what comes out. Then I'll assess the noise again after that.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...

The HS2 is technically not a "true" singlecoil, as it uses a second coil for hum cancelling while still providing good singlecoil-like tone. It's designed to be installed like that, however if you want you can wire it up as a "true" singlecoil by tapping the second coil, and that's what they're referring to.

I've been doing a LOT of singlecoil swapping in my Strat right now, and documenting it all on Youtube. The latest comparison I did was a Fender Custom '69 neck and Texas Special middle to a Dimarzio Area 67 neck and Area 61 middle - these are the most comparable Dimarzio noiseless pickups to the Fenders I had in previously. Here's the comparison - shortcuts to each of the positions/gain levels are in the description:




I'm trying to solve two problems at once - one, kill the hum (which is actually kind of secondary here, but a nice plus) but two find a singlecoil that's hot enough to balance acceptably with a medium output bridge humbucker (I have a Dimarzio Andy Timmons AT1 in the bridge), so this may not be perfectly comparable for you. However, it might still help - my impression is that the Area pickups get you awfully close, and while they're a hair darker they're also a bit more balanced sounding (and can be set a lot closer to the strings with no ill effect, making them effectively much higher output).

I've tried out the Cruiser bridge (as a neck and middle), the Heavy Blues 2, the Area 61 (as both a neck and a middle), the Area 67 (neck only), and a pair of Fender Texas Specials and a Custom '69 neck. So far, the last swap was between my favorites - the Custom '69 and Texas Special middle is an awesome combination for clean and lower gain playing, while the Area 67/61 is really pretty comparable in clean situations (and, actually, when I raised them closer to the strings than the Fenders were I liked them even more), and were essentially indistinguishable with any significant amount of gain.

I also had a trio of Gold Lace Sensors in my strat for years before I just got kind of bored of them - they were quite good as well, but I don't have any good comparisons for you.
 
more than likely it's the shielding, crapped out wiring, or crappy soldering.

If you are handy or know someone who is, you might want to just go through and rewire the entire thing. That way you'll know the wiring and soldering are solid, and you'll know the shielding was done right.

Or maybe it's just that single coils hum. I like it that way!
 
The follow up:

I sheilded the cavities, re-wired to the single earthing point method and replaced the lead that runs to the jack with sheilded wire, as per the Guitar Nuts link i posted further up.

The outcome? Yes, well worth doing. If you got hum issues, this would be your first move before you started buying pickup etc.

From what I've read, the American standard strat sounds like it has more measures to stop hum in it than the cheaper fenders, with the entire back of the scratch plate covered in silver foil. But still the stock wiring has plenty of points for earth loops, un sheilded sections and un shielded wire, all of which will sum up to cause more hum.

The single coils stay.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
FM
 
Minimised it to the point where any strummed chord or single note made the hum "invisible" in a recording. From clean to medium gain.

FM
 
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