If you’re one of the many guitar players who’s been told over and over again that there is little to be done about the dreaded 60-cycle hum that emanates from your beloved Strat whenever you plug it in––it’s time to rethink things.
Sure, a good old fashioned shielding job can help a bit, but even most guitar techs will tell you that copper shielding will only go so far in alleviating the problem… that’s where this mod comes in.
“Quieting The Beast” as it’s been dubbed over at GuitarNuts.com, is a modification that not only provides for thorough shielding of your Stratocaster’s pickup and control cavities, but also some minor rewiring of the electronics in order to remove all ground-loops.
Now, the mod isn’t for everyone. If you get sweaty just thinking about tinkering with the guts of your guitar you may want to sit this one out, but honestly; anyone who is capable of following step-by-step directions, and has even a passing knowledge of how to solder, can pull this off.
I’ve recently had the pleasure of performing this wee bit of surgery on two different Stratocasters––a brand new American Vintage model, and a mid-80’s American Standard––and in both cases the results have been phenomenal.
It’s not a stretch to say that I can now literally sit on top of my amp while playing… if there’s a hum in there, it’s nearly imperceptible.
Not only that, Quieting The Beast also seems to work quite well at blocking signal interference coming from your computer monitor (though not quite as well as it does for 60-cycle hum,) and the addition of an in-line 0.33uf, 400V metal film capacitor should theoretically protect against some forms of dangerous electrical shock (hehe, I haven’t had a chance to test it.)
Anyway, I had considered doing a whole series of posts on how to perform this mod, but why fix what isn’t broke? The directions provided by GuitarNuts.com are already better than I could ever write, and there’s an entire forum full of people who have successfully performed this modification over at Pro Boards.
Don’t live with annoying hum for one more day!
RESOURCES:
I dug around online for a bit and ended up spending about $40 to perform this bit of shielding magic on my Strat.
- My soldering iron was purchased from Radio Shack.
- The 0.33uf, 400V metal film capacitor was purchased from mouser.com for all of 73 cents (I bought three, just in case I burned one out while soldering.)
- And copper shielding was purchased from Stewart-MacDonald––I bought the self-contained kit, and also some extra 2“ copper tape.
DISCLAIMER:
Perform at your own risk! The modification described above can be quite effective at reducing single-coil hum, and I personally found it quite easy to to perform, but your mileage may vary! I hereby denounce all responsibility for damaged equipment, etc, if you fail to perform this modification correctly, or if you are unhappy with the results.
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July 18th, 2007 at 6:10 am
I’ve never soldered, but it can’t be that difficult, right? My biggest concern is tearing up my beloved ‘90 Am. Std. for the sake of a fun project that may not go perfectly. Thus, I am very tempted to get a beat-up used strat as a Frankenstein. I’m sure I wouldn’t be the first evil scientest with that idea. Thanks for the link, and the tips on getting the materials.
July 18th, 2007 at 8:19 am
Hey, I think that’s a great idea––find yourself a used Squier for a few bucks and you’ll have a good guinea pig for this mod.
I was pretty slow the first time, and ended up spending about 3 hours, but like you I was new to soldering, so I had to do some experimenting there as well.
This mod is well worth the price of admission… I was truly stunned by the results :)
July 24th, 2007 at 4:36 am
Hi Cary,
This is Franck from France. ‘Hope everything’s going alright.
=)
Well, I was wondering if this mod could be applied to other fender single coil products (for instance a good ol’ American Telecaster) ?
July 24th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Hi Frank,
Yes, I believe he has separate instructions for Teles, and I think it would be well worth it to do this mod on a Telecaster.
January 12th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
I AM ABOUT TO START A SHIELD JOB ON MY GUITAR NOW, I AM GOING TO BE CONNECTING TO NEUTRIC XLR CONNECTORS USING A SPECIAL CORD. A MELE TIP RING SLEEVE PLUG AND FEMALE INSTALLED IN THE GUITAR, ALLOWING ME TO USE THE PREAMP OF MY COMPUTER INTERFACE WHICH TURNS ON WHEN A MIC XLR CABLE IS PLUGGED IN, A SPECIAL CABLE I AM MAKING, XLR TO TIP RING SLEEVE. THE SLEEVE CONNECTS TO THE SHIELD OF THE GUITAR AND TIP AND RING CONNCET TO THE PICKUPS. I WENT TO SOLDERING SCHOOL FOR 2 WEEKS IN THE USMC, ALONG TIME AGO, A MANS LIFE MAY DEPEND ON MY SOLDER JOINT, THE MAIN THING IS THE APPLY ENUF HEAT FOR BIG METAL (POT CASE SHIELD), AND NOT TOO MUCH FOR SMALL PIECES THAT CAN DAMAGE THE INSULATION AND MELT THINGS. LET THE HEATED OBJECT MELT THE SOLDER, NOT THE IRON, AND HAVE WET SLODER ON THE IRON TIP FOR EFFECTIVE HEAT TRANSFER, I WOULDNT DO THIS TO AN EXPENSIVE MODEL, SPECIALLY IF I MITE SELL IT SOMEDAY. I HAVENT EVER SOLD A GUITAR, THEY ALLWAYS GET STOLEN. TOO MANY TO LIST, CRYING THE BLUES, FYI, WAYNE H SF CA
March 2nd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Wayne
What happened to the SG?
September 29th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
December 25th, 2009 at 8:02 am
I tried this on my Partscaster and it didn’t help one bit. And trust me, the shield is well grounded– I have many years experience with electronics. I fail to see how shielding the cavities prevents hum from entering in the top of the pickups! Snake oil, I tell ya.
The weird thing is all these testimonials saying how great this is. Maybe I need to go back and take a second look.