Dealing with the noise issue from my Strat build…

mystixboi1

Kick Henry Jackassowski
So now that I have my guitar back, I have to deal with this noise issue. It seems there is a slight buzz(that gets amplified with distortion) on all positions. When you put your finger on a pickup when that pickup is activated, the buzz gets worse… a lot worse.

I was thinking of getting a loaded pickguard from Dragonfire guitars. I’ve had a lot of success with their stuff. It would only cost $100.

Or I was thinking of getting a noise gate and running it before the input of the amp from the guitar… I would run it hot enough just so I wouldn’t hear the buzz.

I’m kind of fried at this point in dealing with this guitar. It looks and plays great. I just can’t get rid of the noise.

Any suggestions?
 
Strats are going to have some hum by nature, but if it gets worse when you touch metal, that sounds like a ground problem. It should get quieter when you touch it.
 
Yeah, the strings are acting as an antenna and sending interference into the pickup.

There should be a skinny hole from underneath the hard tail bridge to the cavity. It doesn't even really need to "attach" to the hard tail... I run a bare wire up, and curl it like a question mark and then just press the bridge down on it. The pressure with the screws will hold the wire against the bottom plate.

In the cavity, to avoid ground loops, don't ground from one thing to the next... each pickup, pot, bridge, and output jack will have a ground wire. Bring them all together on ONE pot. Usually the volume pot, but it could be any of them. Everything should be grounded in a star shaped pattern.
 
Yeah, the strings are acting as an antenna and sending interference into the pickup.

There should be a skinny hole from underneath the hard tail bridge to the cavity. It doesn't even really need to "attach" to the hard tail... I run a bare wire up, and curl it like a question mark and then just press the bridge down on it. The pressure with the screws will hold the wire against the bottom plate.

In the cavity, to avoid ground loops, don't ground from one thing to the next... each pickup, pot, bridge, and output jack will have a ground wire. Bring them all together on ONE pot. Usually the volume pot, but it could be any of them. Everything should be grounded in a star shaped pattern.

I'm only quoting this so you read it twice because it's 100% spot on.
 
I know the minimum about guitar wiring, but removing the ground is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Don't bother going back to that guy.
 
For future reference, on strats with trems the easiest place to ground is to solder a wire onto the claw that holds the strings in back. You have the option of having the ground follow along a spring and into the cavity, or the neater looking way is to have a small hole that goes up into the treble side of the middle pickup hole and then continues to your star grounding point.
 
I can tell you from experience that Ibanez guitars from their USA shop were factory grounded. Same for their overseas models.
 
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