Fixing guitar noise | Shielding, grounding, buzzing, and humming

Let's talk about the types of guitar noise, what causes them, and what you can do about it.

[bretspangler]

A noisy guitar is my pet peeve, I just cured one last night, and my Squire Stratocaster had several solder bridges on the selector switch so several were shorted, just cutting them fixed my noisy issue. For most of my new guitars, I line the cavities with copper tape, there are types with conductive adhesive that work best. I had several new guitars and just touching the rear cover would buzz and hum.

[Gizmadin]

I was going mental because of guitar noise. I didnt know what to do i even resoldered every single wire in my guitar. This hack removed 98% of noise i had and guitar has now like 2x more gain.
I didnt had this fancy foil i just put inside regular kitchen foil it did its job i didnt even put foil on the pickguard. This worked like a charm!

[bobless]

Very interesting. I would like to add that the connection of copper and aluminum in an electrical circuit creates an electrochemical pair and metals can corrode. The best option is to replace the aluminum foil completely. Thanks!

[plantpoweredmuscle]

Does this work the same way in reverse? My guitar makes that noise when not touched but when I touch the strings or knobs the sound stops.

[christopherstorrier]

Good job ....i would have cleaned the copper plate under the Tele pickup or put a new one on it...that solder joint will oxidize very fast...also that tape will come of surfaces if not cleaned/de-greased cavity walls etc quickly...good job but i would have cleaned & de-greased/dirt/removed the white polishing compound as not very good to stick copper foil to...an hour of cleaning & it would last years bud but still a good we never got to hear it put back together as many many problems can pop up in a guitar or bass to produce noise, switches, pots, jack sockets, wiring, ungrouded bridges or loose wound pickups can cause microphony/noise, they have to be rewound or buy noiseless pickups if using for playing live...i done a test, sheilded 2 bass's ...1 with all copper foil & the other graphite paint & copper foil on back of pickguard...the graphite done bass was noticeably quieter...not what i guitar by the way...Hugh Cornwall played that '70's model also in black all his years with the Stranglers....

[GtrMan]

I installed a new control plate on a Telecaster with two humbucker pickups, I roll the volume down it makes makes a buzzing sound only when the volume is all the way down. HELP! 🎸