Background:
My quest started almost a year ago with the purchase of my
first MiM Strat. After my wife bought me an American Series
Tele, the project got shelved.
I
recently bought a set of pickups for the Strat that came from
a Japanese ’54 RI that sounded great, but hummed even more
than the Stock MiM pickups. It hummed so badly that
I was even considering taping wire to my arm and attaching
it to the bridge to stop the hum.
I
also bought a set of Danelectro mini pedals, and with the
compressor kicked in, I literally picked up a radio station.
I mean really picked it up. Like it was designed to pick it
up. That’s how clear and strong it came through.
That
was pretty much the last straw. So to round things out, I
had to complete my shielding project.
On
the advice (almost a year ago) from some of my forum buddies
on the FDP forum, I decided to use the paint instead of the
Copper foil tape. It was not really advice, more along the
lines of a thread where everyone commented on the pros and
cons of both methods of shielding.
I
purchased your standard ½ pint can from StewMac.
The
Job
First, take the guitar apart. Take the strings off,
remove the pickguard, and the output jack, and disconnect
the output jack wires, and the claw ground.
 I
masked off the areas where I wanted the paint to go, but had
to remove some paint above the neck pickup because the pickguard
dips so low there. It comes off fairly easy with a damp
rag. After it sets up, then forget it.
After
the first coat was put on I then soldered a new ground wire
to a ring lug and then screwed it to the body. You paint the
next two layers over the ground lug.
 With
each coat, also take a Q-tip and bend it at a right angle
and then dip it in the paint. Then thoroughly coat the hole
between the cavity and the output jack, going from both sides,
the control cavity and the output jack cavity. Don’t skimp
on this. You can’t see inside the hole so it is better to
over-do the procedure to be sure it is covered fully.
Wait
24 hours between coats, and apply three coats. The can says
at least two coats, and two actually works pretty well, but
there is an immense difference between two coats and three.
I actually cheated and waited 8 hours between coats 1 and
2, and the third coat came a few days later when I decided
to write this review.
 I
also removed the pickups from the pickguard and painted it
also. It’s your standard cheap pickguard with shielding only
on the control cavity. Masking on the pickguard is a good
idea because it gives you a definite thick line of paint.
If you “feather” the edges of the paint, it will have a tendency
for the “feathers” to break off and then get little dried
paint fragments all over.
Testing
Once the paint sets, you can test it with your Ohmmeter.
Readings
are as follows:
1”
in pickup cavity = 21.5 |
End
to end pickup cavity = 33.6 |
Neck
pickup cavity to control cavity = 44.7 |
Neck
pickup to output jack cavity = 87.6 |
Ground
wire to neck pickup cavity = 23.7 |
Ground
wire to control cavity = 25.5 |
Ground
wire to output jack cavity = 68.8 |
Re-assembly
Next, you just put the guitar back together and re-attach
all the wires, including your new ground. Make sure
that you don’t get cold solder joints. This will cause it
to hum also.
I
also removed the wire that grounds all the pots together,
but put it back on because on this particular guitar, the
hum came back with the wire disconnected.
This
is also a good time to do any wiring modification. You have
it all apart, so you might as well. I added a switching
pot for seven way switching.
Conclusion
The guitar is now almost completely silent. Radio station
is gone, and I no longer have to touch the strings to quiet
the hum because there is none. I won’t have to tape
a wire to my arm after all.
To
each their own, but for some, Shielding paint may be the way
to go.
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