Anyone Use a Shield Plate?

No.

It looks convenient for sure.

Fwiw. I used aluminum foil with spray glue. It took less than a minute to cut the holes with an exacto.

 

I haven't had one on any of my guitars, but I have a guitar with an aluminum pickguard, and those work, so I imagine those shields work as well.

You'd want to shield the body cavities too. Might as well do it right, you know.

 

I put one on my 60's Classic series when I did a full rewire with pots and switch. I did no other fancy shielding and it seems to be pretty quiet until you step on the dirt pedal. If I hold it *just* right (at an angle away from whatever weird noise my pickups, uh well, pickup in my guitar room) it's darn near noiseless on a clean amp.


I watched a few videos and read around about the full shielding and guys would use the correct paint, or spend hours putting in the foil tape with X amount of overlay with the correct adhesive that is also conductive and on and on only to decide that the decrease in hum was pretty much minimal from any A/B test videos I saw. Your pickups are the main antennae for noise.

 

Yes, you will want to do the Pickguard and the cavities. You should encase all the electronics to shield them. I use self adhesive copper foil which I bought from Amazon. I really doesn't take that long to do.

 

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That shield will work but,
A roll of Nashua aluminum flashing tape is around $7 for a roll that will shield the pickguards and cavities of two dozen guitars.

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I've fixed some static noise issues shielding the entire pickguards with aluminium foil (the kind of noise issues you could temporally fix rubbing drying sheets). It was pretty easy, like an art work from primary school.

Can't understand why expensive pickguards are not completely shielded, while chinese cheap ones are well made in that regard.

My brother had built a pickguard made of aluminum tread plate a ton of years ago. He did a great job, but the thing was ugly and made that strat to sound even more harsh. Don't know if it affected the magnetic field of the pickups, but he ended up restoring the original pickguard.

 

It's gonna add more weight than foil, if thats a concern.

 

I use them on two of my own guitars.... the quietest two!

 

I have one. It stops the thin single ply pickguard from warping for some reason.

 

I bought strat wiring harness pre mounted on a Fender 50's style shield plate which is smaller than the entire pickguard one. It just covers the controls and leaves the pickups alone. Seems to work really well and you can buy them separately for about $7 with shipping.

Fender USA Vintage Series '57 Strat Aluminum Shield Plate 0019640000



Some guy on ebay called SmokeyB sells the complete harness made to order mounted on one for very reasonable prices. Here's mine which has a blend pot and treble bleed with combined tone in the middle, not bad for $50 inc shipping.

 

I used the Monte Allums shield on my Strat build and it seems pretty quiet for a single-coil guitar. It fits both 8-hole and 11-hole guards.

http://www.monteallums.com/shielding_supplies.html#sssc

 

I used one on my avatar guitar when I built it. I think it is a great product, but I really have not witnessed any performance or interference improvements as compared to my other Strats that only have the foil shield.

 

I use one on my Strat with Fender 57/62's.....it helps cut down on noise and hum if the body cavity is also shielded.....

 

No, I use insulated wire and use copper tape with conductive adhesive. Pretty sure I could get by with just the insulated wire, but I was actually bored.

 

There's nothing wrong with hum, picking up local radio and feeding back like a biatch!

It's a forgotten art, and Jimi was THE master.

 

GFS has these full shield plates. Less than $10 when I bought one a few years back.

 

I have them in 2 partscasters and they do work very well. I haven't used the tape but I can't imagine it being lighter than these.

 

I use them on both my Strats. They are very thin (much thinner than the 54-59 style small plate) and lightweight and work just fine.