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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: strat re-wiring question

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8/5/1999 5:57 PM

Re: strat re-wiring question

This may be embaressing, (esp. since I obviously can't spell!), but I've given up on all this stuff. I either use pickups with a RW/RP middle pickup so that if there's a LOT of noise in the circuit somewhere I have that option, or I just go for the tone and don't worry about it. I know, some people can't seem to live with the noise. But my experience has been that humbuckers are actually about as noisy as most strats, and that while some strats are really noisy and you have to do something about them, most aren't that bad. If the ground is good and the cables are good, I'm usually satisfied. I don't know how much EMR actually floats around for the shielded pickups to catch, and the Atchley mod seems great but the results seem minimal for the effort expended. Maybe I'm just lazy? Maybe I'm just used to noisy guitars and amps? Maybe I'm just an old fart and should get out of the way?

Hi

8/6/1999 3:26 AM
charlie	did the rewire mostly for recording - makes a big difference with the guitar thru my SansAmp classic noticable hum/lights difference still once amplified, but not as critical, I agree

8/7/1999 3:36 AM

Hi:

Even with a dead stock strat that isn't shielded you can usually move/rotate to find a position that isn't that noisy. And if you can't then the problem may be more with the EMR environment than with your guitar. (Low rent bars with cheap hardware store dimmers for their lights... why should it be up to the guitarist to deal with a problem that would be solved for everybody with proper wiring? Guitarists should stick together and boycott the bars with lousy wiring rather than think that the problem is with our equipment...)

Steve Ahola

P.S. If you have a big utility company transformer outside your house, well, maybe you ought to move! And when you move into a new house, don't just meekly accept whatever room your wife offers you for your studio... try them all out with your equipment and put your dibs on the one that has the least EMR noise. < g > "We can put the couch and dining room table in the garage, honey. My guitar rig sounds much better in this room."

8/8/1999 3:33 AM

Steve, my wife would kill me if I tried that!! Seriously, yes, turning different ways can help, there's surely lots of weird physics involved. My personal least favorite isn't PC recorders, or flourescent (HOW the HELL do you spell that?)lights, or any of that, it's BAD grounding by electricians when they wire houses, clubs, churches, bars, arenas, etc. I really hate having to use a ground lifter to kill a horrible buzz, I feel naked in the face of electricity.

Hi

8/12/1999 7:40 AM
Steve A.	Hi: If I was to build a house from scratch I would run all of the AC wiring inside rigid metal conduit! These days practically all of the electricians use "romex" which has a plastic jacket and no shielding at all against rf noise. Correct grounding practices would help, too. (No one thinks of wiring up a house to minimize the crap you hear when playing a strat!) Thanks! Steve Ahola

8/12/1999 6:40 PM
Hi	"No one thinks" pretty much says it all, eh? Seriously, I hope to be building a small studio soon and the prospect of dealing with electricians by making them do things "the right way" is not something I'm looking forward to, but I know enough good ones to where I'm sure I can get it done the way I want. Paying for it is a whole different issue, now... Hi

8/14/1999 7:26 PM

Hi:

Are you converting an existing room in your house into a studio, adding on a room or building a new structure? I ask because the sloppy wiring practises used when building your house in the first place may cause a lot of noise in your studio, even if you wire up your studio with rigid (grounded) electrical conduit. To save money get a right angle drill and drill out the studs yourself for the electricians to run the conduit through. In fact you probably could run all of the conduit yourself (following their instructions) and then they would just have to pull the wires through and make the connections. Or do you have better things to do with your time? < g >

Good luck!

Steve Ahola

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