60-cycle Hum Reduction for Strats! From guitarnuts.com

[jumbofret]

Right now I am trying this shielding/grounding process on my Behringer Strat copy. Head down to http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php for more details. I am revamping the electronics on my guitar as well with new pots, capacitor, output jack and wiring.

I am still in the early stages of this fascinating process, will update this ASAP.

Cheers

 

[jumbofret]

I completed it! There was truly a reduction in hum! Head down to http://sg.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/du.../sg.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/dumb1985/my_photos for pics.

The hum in single-coils are caused by invisible electromagnetic waves such as radio waves from radio stations, UV waves from fluorescent lights... Infrared waves from your TV remote control can create weird noises when you aim and direct it to your pickups...

I spent the last couple of days working on this... After this, I set up my guitar by following this PDF file: www.musicyo.com/planet/elec_gtr_setup.pdf

Was very frustrating to do this all alone... The hardest part was stripping wire insulation which had a small diameter (so thin that the wire strippers I had couldn't be used). And soldering...

I replaced the old controls and wires with new ones, and placed heavy duty aluminium foil all over my pickguard as well as my guitar's body cavity.

I encountered problems initially and thought that it was a failure (the single-coils were still noisy), lost my sanity for a while, and gave up trying to do anything. After restringing the guitar and plugging it into my Behringer amp, it was ok all along!

I got my pup selector from Ranking at Bras Basah, costed me $4.50 and I paid a dollar for the white knob to accompany it. I got the rest of the electronics & components from Sim Lim Tower. Continental Electronic Enterprise and Space Electronics Pte Ltd. I prefer the latter, cos I found out that the prices were better :wink:

My neck tone pot doesn't work, the mid tone pot behaves strangely... Hmm... I think it's due to bad soldering and wiring. Perhaps I will fix that next time...

I like my Behringer Strat copy now, plays better after shielding and setting it up...

If you're interested in this, feel free to ask!

I am feeling really inspired to work with electronic gadgets, maybe I will try converting an Enzer wireless mic system for my guitar in the future... haha

 

[Necro]

Hi there.

Good job! Just want to inquire, which type of aluminium tape are you using? The typical aluminium tape from DIY stores or the ones with conductive adhesive.

If so, did you overlap the aluminium tape for electrical continuity?

 

[thor666]

My neck tone pot doesn't work, the mid tone pot behaves strangely... Hmm... I think it's due to bad soldering and wiring. Perhaps I will fix that next time...

most likely a soldering mistake, or one of the contacts is exposed to another.

good job done anyway. btw what did you use to glue your foil?

 

[jumbofret]

I used double-sided tape... The guide recommended spray adhesive, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I hope the solder holds up well, it came off a few times... I should have gotten flux grease... You're definitely right about the soldering mistake...

My mid-tone pot is weird, only acts on pup selector position 4 & 5. And it has a weird jump in tone... And the shaft is too long, my control knobs are higher than usual... My pots costed me $1.50 each.

I think this Strat is gonna be my guinea pig for future experiments! I will try improvising on a "killswitch" from those lamp switches...

On another related note, I failed my O-level D&T very badly... So don't give up if you wanna wire your guitars! Do get a friend to help you out, plan carefully before doing anything...

Cheers

 

[thor666]

if ur tone pot acts only on 4 & 5 most likely it's only wired to the bridge PU but not the mid PU.

yeah the shafts/sizes pots are a pain in the neck. i bought pots wrongly TWICE. so yea. you win some u lose some... and you learn a lot of stuff from trial and error. :wink:

 

[jumbofret]

I think I screwed up on the pup selector... BIG TIME!!! :lol:

I added more photos of the new controls before insulating them with tape, you can see that the pup selector is different from the standard format. And clueless me used the instructions found here to guide me through.

I think I will fix that in the future... No hurries... Lol

 

[GC]

My mid-tone pot is weird, only acts on pup selector position 4 & 5. And it has a weird jump in tone... And the shaft is too long, my control knobs are higher than usual... My pots costed me $1.50 each.

Your tone pots have a huge jump because they are linear taper pots which are not suitable for a guitar circuit. There used to be a place on the 3rd floor at sim lim tower which stocks audio taper pots but they no longer carry them. IMO it is worthwhile to spend slightly more to get true audio taper pots from the various guitar stores.

 

[jumbofret]

Yeah... I was looking around for guitar parts on Tuesday, I went from Plaza Singapura to the stores at Parklane and Peace Centre, then I walked down to Peninsula/Excelsior, and then Bras Basah (Ranking & GW), and then Sim Lim Square and Tower. I bought a desoldering pump and a multi-purpose crimping tool from a store at Sim Lim Square..

The Yamaha Music Plaza at PS does sell pots for guitars, but I didn't manage to get the price... Cos they were stocked benind the cashier! Doesn't matter anyways, their stuff is always overpriced.

Couldn't find anything at Parklane and Peace Centre, but I got more results from Peninsula/Excelsior. Guitar Connection (which is your store) and Davis. I didn't manage to get the price for Davis' pots, but yours I did. Hmm... I think I will get from you next time, when I decide to revamp my circuit.

At Sim Lim Tower, I asked around and got the pots from Continental. I asked the old guy if they were audio-tapered and he didn't really give an answer, he said that they were for "volume"... Being the cheapskate that I am, I bought 3 250k pots! :roll:
Last night I went to guitarelectronics.com and found out more about pots, and I recalled that the pots had B instead of A marked with the value... Darn

But it's all good, it was an educational project... Plus I learn to appreciate guitar tech services more! I was swearing and cursing throughout the project...

 

[jumbofret]

Hi there.

Good job! Just want to inquire, which type of aluminium tape are you using? The typical aluminium tape from DIY stores or the ones with conductive adhesive.

If so, did you overlap the aluminium tape for electrical continuity?

Sorry for the late reply...
I used heavy duty aluminium foil and double-sided tape. Yes, I overlap the foil for electrical continuity by using Scotch tape.

Thank you guys for your interest in this zany project! haha

 

[Necro]

You've got to be careful though. The scotch tape is not conductive and will not serve well for continuity. The adhesive is not conductive at all.

I couldn't find any aluminium/copper tape with conductive adhesive backing in Singapore (anyone knows where) so I took one big slab of heavy duty aluminum and shaped it according to the pickguard. That way, you don't have to worry about joining loose parts together using non-conductive materials.

Did you star ground your connections and earth the back of your pickguard as well?

 

[jumbofret]

The adhesive found on aluminium/copper tape is never conductive... And the adhesive used to stick the foil down to the cavity and pickguard is not meant to be conductive. Here's something from guitarnuts.com that says so:

"Copper tape use much like the aluminum foil, but you don't need rubber cement. Since the adhesive on the tape is not conductive, tack solder the pieces together. (If you are using copper shielding tape that has conductive adhesive then soldering is not necessary.)"

"Aluminum tape use much like the aluminum foil, but you don't need rubber cement or spray adhesive. Since the adhesive on the tape is not conductive, fold the bottom end of each strip over and tape it down to the copper tape in the bottom of the cavity."

I overlapped pieces of aluminium foil for continuity, hold them down in place with tape...

I star grounded my connections. The aluminium foil on my pickguard makes contact with the foil on the face of my guitar body, which in turn is grounded to the tremolo... Refer to the photo album I posted... I hope this answers your questions.

Are you trying this out? Try it on a cheap guitar, and learn from it. The next time you do this, you'll be better...

Cheers and all the best!

 

[thor666]

You can convert your linear pots to work like audio pots. I tried this before... yes it works... but you have to get the right resistor values, and it'll still be marginally different from good audio pots.

http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm

GC - i thought you had said linear pots don't matter for tone pots? *blur*

but so far i've scoured online there doesn't seem to be a consensous on this issue. I'll think I need to A/B test audio/linear pots on the tone someday to see which is better.

 

[jumbofret]

Thanks Thor... My 1st impression of that web page you referred me to was "Wah! So cheem!" Looks like rocket science to me, but no probs, I will try it out in the future... haha. The wonders of electronics...

 

[Necro]

Yeah, I did the complete quieting the beast mod quite some time ago.

Conductive backing for aluminium/copper tape is available and its a much better option. I've only been able to find it at StewMac.

I'm still sourcing for copper tape with conductive adhesive though. I did overlapping using aluminium for my cavity but overlapping will never provide a good electrical contact for continuity.

I'm tempted to order for StewMac but I'm still hoping I can find get some in Singapore...

 

[GC]

I'm still sourcing for copper tape with conductive adhesive though. I did overlapping using aluminium for my cavity but overlapping will never provide a good electrical contact for continuity.

There is a source. http://www.rssingapore.com/cgi-bin/...tscape&3304497999=3304497999&catoid=-84144856
However, they have it in a quantity which is way too large for even several guitars.

 

[jumbofret]

Did you see results, Necro? I was pretty pleased with the reduction in hum, despite the mistakes...

 

[berukblue]

Sorry to rain on your parade but you just succesfully reduced electrostatic noise not the 60 cycle hum....but it's a good idea anyway, but most guides on doing this seems to be based around guitars with pickguards.

 

[jumbofret]

You are correct on that, I made a mistake... I am just a layman in this field, not an expert yet...

Yeah, this mod involves only guitars with pickguards.

 

[thor666]

you could shield the exposed parts of the pickup partially on a guitar w/o a pickguard, and shield the back cavity routing as well. thing is most back cavities are usually partially shielded and most people don't really want to shield the front (looks aesthetically ugly).

anyway it's usually the case also that a lot of these guitars are humbucker equipped and like what's written in the guitarnuts, you're unlikely to hear a significant reduction in noise doing the shielding on humbucker equipped guitars.