Quieting The Beast –– The Proper Way To Shield A Strat

I recently had a chance to do a shielding job on a reissue Vintage '62 Strat, and after following the in-depth directions over at guitarnuts.com for the "Quieting The Beast" mod I have to say that I am completely amazed.

The Stratocaster is now nearly devoid of hiss, while the tone has remained exactly the same, only better––because with that annoying 60--cycle hum gone I can actually turn my tube amp up much louder, giving me better sustain, compression, and all around warmer tone.

All I can say is: if you've ever been told that you're just plain stuck with that nasty single-coil hum, well––you've been told wrong.

The "Quieting The Beast" mod isn't just about shielding your Strat's cavities (though that is a major part of it.) It also includes some minor re-wiring to remove ground loops, and also the replacement of some un-insulated wiring with better quality wire.

Besides the great diagrams and step-by-step instructions, there is also a guitarnuts forum, with a whole lot of people who have done this very same mod––so you've got somewhere to turn if you come up against any obstacles. In fact, it was the existence of the forum (and all the people who have successfully finished this mod,) that finally convinced me I could do it too.

While "Quieting The Beast" can not remove all traces of hum from your Strat (for instance, I still have one room in my house where the EMFs are just too strong to be overcome,) I believe just about any guitar with noisy single-coils would benefit greatly from this exercise in extreme shielding.

Do it... your guitar will thank you for it!

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egr :: guitar spoken here