
Here’s the secret for reducing unwanted hum and noise without losing sparkle and highs.
For years, folks have been debating the pros and cons of shielding single-coil pickups. You may have tried this yourself, only to have been disappointed at the loss of high end. But here's the good news: There is a way to reduce unwanted noise without losing the clarity and sparkle we crave from great single-coil pickups, and I'll show you how to do it now.
The Challenge
We all know the problem, right? Single-coils have a clear, bell-like tone with a lot of highs, but they are very prone to pick up hum and noise, and this can be a nightmare in the studio or onstage. If you want to keep your original single-coil pickups—and not swap them out for humbuckers—you can mod your guitar in three steps to banish the noise. But first, you'll want to complete two preliminary stages.
Shield the pickguard and guitar cavity. The web is full of great DIY instructions for doing this, so I won't rehash that info here. But I will add one thing: In my experience, copper foil is superior to aluminum foil or tape, as well as all forms of shielding paint. And remember, it's crucial that all shielding materials are connected to ground. Otherwise they're mostly useless.
Photo 1 — Courtesy of singlecoil.com
Replace standard wire with shielded wire. This is a simple swap: Substitute shielded wire for all the standard wire in your guitar. Keep in mind that the braided shield of all the new wire must be connected to ground. (You can also replace the two standard wires on your single-coil pickups with shielded wire, and in a moment, I'll explain when and how to do this.)
Okay, now we're ready to shield the pickups. It's not a complicated task and you don't need much in the way of materials, but you must do it correctly. If you don't, all the marvelous high end of a single-coil goes down the toilet. Every week I get at least one emergency call from someone who tried to shield a Strat's pickups and wound up with a dull and lifeless-sounding guitar. It's a hassle to undo the mistake, so let's get it right from the get-go. Ready?
Every week I get at least one emergency call from someone who tried to shield a Strat's pickups and wound up with a dull and lifeless-sounding guitar.
We'll start with the materials. As shown in Photo 1, you'll need conductive, self-adhesive copper tape, self-adhesive pickup-coil tape, a piece of solid-core wire, and some alcohol or naphtha. These items don't cost much, and you can buy the copper tape and pickup-coil tape on eBay or from luthier and pickup-building suppliers. For this project, our guinea pig is a standard Stratocaster pickup. For this type of pickup, the ideal width for the tape is 3/4" (approximately 19.1 mm).
Step 1: Protect the pickup's windings.
This is where the pickup-coil tape comes in. When you look at a standard Strat pickup without its plastic cover, you'll see the windings are unprotected. If you left them this way, you'd be affixing the copper tape directly to the windings. But even the back of the copper tape is conductive, so if there's any damage to the thin coating on the windings, the resulting contact will short out the pickup. Older pickups are particularly vulnerable to this, so to avoid the problem, we'll carefully wrap the pickup-coil tape around the windings to completely cover them.
Photo 2 — Courtesy of singlecoil.com
In most cases, you'll need two wraps to accomplish this. Don't worry if one wrap overlaps the other, and be particularly careful to cover everything at the base of the pickup—an area that's often overlooked. You don't want any of the copper windings peeking through, so to be on the safe side, I like to partially cover the base with tape. Using a pair of small scissors, I'll cut a thin strip of tape, then fold it down and press it onto the base, all around the windings. By the way, if you ever need to remove this special pickup-coil tape, you can easily do this without damaging the pickup. Photo 2 shows what the pickup looks like after it has been wrapped.
Step 2: Surround the pickup with copper tape.
Photo 3 — Courtesy of singlecoil.com
The copper tape's 3/4" width is perfect for surrounding the pickup because you only need one wrap to accomplish this (Photo 3). But it's essential that the two ends of the tape don't touch each other. This means no overlap and, of course, no solder connecting the two ends of the copper tape.
Photo 4 — Courtesy of singlecoil.com
It's crucial to have a little gap between the two ends of the tape to keep all the high end alive (Photo 4). Not having the gap is exactly why so many shielded pickups lose all their highs, and in a moment, I'll explain the reason.
Note: Be sure the gap isn't right where the pickup's two wires are attached, because in the next step, we'll need that space to connect the copper wrap to ground. Otherwise, it's not important where the gap is or how wide it is. I like to place the gap on the opposite side of the pickup from where its two wires are attached.
Why is this little gap so important? If you close the copper-tape wrap so the two ends make contact, the loss of all high end is unavoidable. You'll often read this is because the capacitance of the pickup's winding increases against ground. While this is electrically true, it is not the reason for the loss of high end. The real reason for the high-end loss are eddy currents in the metal film, which act like a shading coil in a transformer. The gap breaks the eddy currents and the loss of high end is minimal—and in most cases, not even audible.
Step 3: Connect the copper tape to the pickup's ground.
In this last step, we engage the shielding function. This is also the point to decide if you want to swap the two standard pickup wires for a shielded cable. If you elect to do this, simply connect the braided part to where the black wire was originally connected, and the hot of the shielded wire to the white wire's former location.
Photo 5 — Courtesy of singlecoil.com
Take a piece of solid core wire and solder it to the spot where the black pickup wire connects to the base. Next, use some alcohol or naphtha to clean the area on the copper tape where you plan to solder the solid wire. This cleaning makes the soldering process much easier because the solder sticks perfectly to the copper. After the area dries, solder the wire to the copper tape (Photo 5).
Photo 6 — Courtesy of singlecoil.com
Note: Be sure the wire is long enough that you can bend it toward the copper foil (Photo 6) to allow the plastic cover to fit over the pickup.
Congratulations—you're done! In a future installment of Mod Garage, we'll apply everything we worked out today to shielding plastic pickup covers. Again, we'll do it the right way so you don't lose any high end.
But next time, we'll continue our study of pickup parameters by bringing phase and polarity together. Until then ... keep on shielding!
[Updated 8/16/21]
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Few musical acts did more to put their fame and fortune to good use than punk rock icon Wayne Kramer. Known for his enduring commitment to activism, especially in justice reform, his life story embodies the defiant, DIY ethos of punk, directly inspiring generations of bands and musicians who followed. Now, fans and fellow musicians alike can attempt to emulate Kramer’s incendiary sound with the new, limited-edition pedal.
Designed before his death in February 2024, Wayne Kramer—together with friend Jimi Dunlop (Dunlop CEO) and Daredevil Pedals owner Johnny Wator —the pedal features artwork from artist and activist Shepard Fairey (Obey Clothing founder). A majority of profits from the sale of the pedal goes directly to Kramer’s charity supporting the rehabilitation of incarcerated people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds.
In honor of his close friend, Tom Morello—the innovative guitarist behind Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, the Nightwatchman, and more—demoed the pedal, showcasing its sound and shining light on Wayne Kramer’s incredible legacy.
Tom Morello Introduces MC5 Wayne Kramer-Inspired Pedal For Charity: MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive
"What they've tried to bake into the MXR® Jail Guitar Doors Drive distortion pedal is not just Wayne's sound but Wayne's attitude, and the grit and the rawness of Detroit and of the MC5," said Morello, one of Kramer’s best friends, during his demo of the pedal. "This is the guitar pedal that was used on the song 'Heavy Lifting' that I recorded with Wayne for the last MC5 record.
"Named after the late rocker's charity—which provides instruments and art workshops to incarcerated individuals as rehabilitation tools—the MXR® Jail Guitar Doors Drive pedal aims to capture all of the high-voltage energy of Wayne Kramer's sound. It features two uniquely voiced gain circuits cascaded together with a singular pot controlling both the output level of each circuit and the overall saturation level of the distortion.
Music makers looking to capture Kramer’s raw, fiery sound can pick up the new MXR® Jail Guitar Doors Drive pedal, exclusively on Reverb via The Official MXR Jail Guitar Doors Drive Reverb Shop for $199, here: https://reverb.com/shop/the-official-mxr-jail-guitar-doors-reverb-shop.
The veteran Florida-born metalcore outfit proves that you don’t need humbuckers to pull off high gain.
Last August, metalcore giants Poison the Well gave the world a gift: They announced they were working on their first studio album in 15 years. They unleashed the first taste, single “Trembling Level,” back in January, and set off on a spring North American tour during which they played their debut record, The Opposite of December… A Season of Separation, in full every night.
PG’s Perry Bean caught up with guitarists Ryan Primack and Vadim Taver, and bassist Noah Harmon, ahead of the band’s show at Nashville’s Brooklyn Bowl for this new Rig Rundown.
Brought to you by D’Addario.Not-So-Quiet As a Mouse
Primack started his playing career on Telecasters, then switched to Les Pauls, but when his prized LPs were stolen, he jumped back to Teles, and now owns nine of them.
His No. 1 is this white one (left). Seymour Duncan made him a JB Model pickup in a single-coil size for the bridge position, while the neck is a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound Staggered. He ripped out all the electronics, added a Gibson-style toggle switch, flipped the control plate orientation thanks to an obsession with Danny Gatton, and included just one steel knob to control tone. Primack also installed string trees with foam to control extra noise.
This one has Ernie Ball Papa Het’s Hardwired strings, .011–.050.
Here, Kitty, Kitty
Primack runs both a PRS Archon and a Bad Cat Lynx at the same time, covering both 6L6 and EL34 territories. The Lynx goes into a Friedman 4x12 cab that’s been rebadged in honor of its nickname, “Donkey,” while the Archon, which is like a “refined 5150,” runs through an Orange 4x12.
Ryan Primack’s Pedalboard
Primack’s board sports a Saturnworks True Bypass Multi Looper, plus two Saturnworks boost pedals. The rest includes a Boss TU-3w, DOD Bifet Boost 410, Caroline Electronics Hawaiian Pizza, Fortin ZUUL +, MXR Phase 100, JHS Series 3 Tremolo, Boss DM-2w, DOD Rubberneck, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Walrus Slo, and SolidGoldFX Surf Rider III.
Taver’s Teles
Vadim Taver’s go-to is this cherryburst Fender Telecaster, which he scored in the early 2000s and has been upgraded to Seymour Duncan pickups on Primack’s recommendation. His white Balaguer T-style has been treated to the same upgrade. The Balaguer is tuned to drop C, and the Fender stays in D standard. Both have D’Addario strings, with a slightly heavier gauge on the Balaguer.
Dual-Channel Chugger
Taver loves his 2-channel Orange Rockerverb 100s, one of which lives in a case made right in Nashville.
Vadim Taver’s Pedalboard
Taver’s board includes an MXR Joshua, MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, Empress Tremolo, Walrus ARP-87, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Reflector, MXR Phase 90, Boss CE-2w, and Sonic Research Turbo Tuner ST-200, all powered by a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
Big Duff
Harmon’s favorite these days is this Fender Duff McKagan Deluxe Precision Bass, which he’s outfitted with a Leo Quan Badass bridge. His backup is a Mexico-made Fender Classic Series ’70s Jazz Bass. This one also sports Primack-picked pickups.
Rental Rockers
Harmon rented this Orange AD200B MK III head, which runs through a 1x15 cab on top and a 4x10 on the bottom.
Noah Harmon’s Pedalboard
Harmon’s board carries a Boss TU-2, Boss ODB-3, MXR Dyna Comp, Darkglass Electronics Vintage Ultra, and a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus. His signal from the Vintage Ultra runs right to the front-of-house, and Harmon estimates that that signal accounts for about half of what people hear on any given night.
Kiesel Guitars has introduced their newest solid body electric guitar: the Kyber.
With its modern performance specs and competitive pricing, the Kyber is Kiesel's most forward-thinking design yet, engineered for comfort, quick playing, and precision with every note.
Introducing the Kiesel Kyber Guitar
- Engineered with a lightweight body to reduce fatigue during long performances without sacrificing tone. Six-string Kybers, configured with the standard woods and a fixed bridge, weigh in at 6 pounds or under on average
- Unique shape made for ergonomic comfort in any playing position and enhanced classical position
- The Kyber features Kiesel's most extreme arm contour and a uniquely shaped body that enhances classical position support while still excelling in standard position.
- The new minimalist yet aggressive headstock pairs perfectly with the body's sleek lines, giving the Kyber a balanced, modern silhouette.
- Hidden strap buttons mounted on rear for excellent balance while giving a clean, ultra-modern look to the front
- Lower horn cutaway design for maximum access to the upper frets
- Sculpted neck heel for seamless playing
- Available in 6 or 7 strings, fixed or tremolo in both standard and multiscale configurations Choose between fixed bridges, tremolos, or multiscale configurations for your perfect setup.
Pricing for the Kyber starts at $1599 and will vary depending on options and features. Learn more about Kiesel’s new Kyber model at kieselguitars.com