So I have been putting together my first build this year- an HSS Strat. I decided I'd prefer the look of the bridge humbucker with a metal pickup cover, so I covered the pickup myself. It looks great and mostly sounds great, but I'm having hum/noise issues with the (covered) bridge pickup.
I went with the noiseless Quiet Coil prewired Strat pickguard from Mojotone. None of the pickups are true single coils.
https://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x/easy/Mojotone-58-Quiet-Coil-HSS-Strat-Prewired-Pickguard
I transplanted the pre-wired harness into a Warmoth pickguard so I could get a proper sized cutout for the covered bridge humbucker. I also wanted to minimize fit issues with the Warmoth body cavity by using a Warmoth pickguard.
In position 1, you get the bridge humbucker alone. In position 2, the bridge pickup is split, so it's one coil of the bridge pickup along with the middle pickup. I get hum in both positions. The hum isn't overwhelming and is only audible with gain, but I'm only have the issue with the one covered pickup. The hum is worse in position 1 (just the humbucker) than position 2 (one bridge coil plus the middle pickup).
The baseplate of the humbucker pickup was already grounded. I just scuffed up the inside of the pickup cover and soldered the cover to the baseplate in two places to ensure it was grounded.
I shielded the body cavity with conductive paint and (very imperfectly) applied copper shielding tape to the bottom of the pickguard. I believe the shielding tape is slightly in contact with the pickup cover. There's also little gap in the shielding tape right next to the bridge pickup.
The hum gets better or worse if I move the position of the guitar. The hum doesn't change if I touch the pickup cover or baseplate or both.
I was wondering if something being in contact with the conductive paint inside the guitar could be causing something, but the hum remains if I pull the pickguard out of the guitar. Again, the middle and neck pickups are fine with the pickguard on or off.
Any suggestions?
I went with the noiseless Quiet Coil prewired Strat pickguard from Mojotone. None of the pickups are true single coils.
https://www.mojotone.com/Pickups_x/easy/Mojotone-58-Quiet-Coil-HSS-Strat-Prewired-Pickguard
I transplanted the pre-wired harness into a Warmoth pickguard so I could get a proper sized cutout for the covered bridge humbucker. I also wanted to minimize fit issues with the Warmoth body cavity by using a Warmoth pickguard.
In position 1, you get the bridge humbucker alone. In position 2, the bridge pickup is split, so it's one coil of the bridge pickup along with the middle pickup. I get hum in both positions. The hum isn't overwhelming and is only audible with gain, but I'm only have the issue with the one covered pickup. The hum is worse in position 1 (just the humbucker) than position 2 (one bridge coil plus the middle pickup).
The baseplate of the humbucker pickup was already grounded. I just scuffed up the inside of the pickup cover and soldered the cover to the baseplate in two places to ensure it was grounded.
I shielded the body cavity with conductive paint and (very imperfectly) applied copper shielding tape to the bottom of the pickguard. I believe the shielding tape is slightly in contact with the pickup cover. There's also little gap in the shielding tape right next to the bridge pickup.
The hum gets better or worse if I move the position of the guitar. The hum doesn't change if I touch the pickup cover or baseplate or both.
I was wondering if something being in contact with the conductive paint inside the guitar could be causing something, but the hum remains if I pull the pickguard out of the guitar. Again, the middle and neck pickups are fine with the pickguard on or off.
Any suggestions?