I have had my Fender Strat for 24 years and love it except for the 60 HZ hum.
Does anyone have a cure?
The cheapest and most effective way to minimise 60 cycle hum is shielding. You can get it done proffessionally, or do it yourself quite cheaply.
If you're doing it yourself, there are 2 main ways; First you can buy mettal paint (Not mettalic effect, not paint for metal, but actual paint that contains metal, try DIY or even electrical shops). Paint this on all the cavities and on the inside of the pickguard, basically on every bit of wood thats not visible.
Or, stick/tape tin foil to the inside of the cavities and back of fingerboard. This is a bit messy, but a bit more effective.
Or you might want to use a combination of the 2; Foil on the big surfaces, paint on the less accesable surfaces.
Also look into grounding (earthing) the pickups to the shielding. There should be a tutorial on this somewhere on the net, sorry can't give you any links.
As I said, this is the cheapest way, and it is also really the most effective. If properly done, you'll be able to hold your guitar about 6 inches from your PC monitor and get no Hum. Also shielding (unlike double coil pickups of whatever) doesn't affect the tone of your guitar.
Hope that helps.
Peter
Man I must be really wierd, I like the hum on single coils. It's just that reassuring strat sound.
I've been imitated so well I've heard people copy my mistakes.
- Jimi Hendrix
