The noise/hum that you hear from your electric guitar when plugged into an amplifier is a natural phenomena. Noise can be both man made and naturally occurring. Your electric guitar, which consists of coils of wire in the pickup and more wires in the electrics cavity, induces the noise from its surrounding environment, in the same way an antenna would receive radio waves. The human body also induces noise and this is why your guitar often sounds noisier as you hold it closer to your body. 

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Shielding your sensitive electrics from noise is a great way to reduce the inducted levels of noise thus reducing the noise/hum heard through an amplifier. It is impossible to completely eliminate noise, as it exists everywhere and can not be escaped.

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Here at J. White Guitar Workshops we use high quality copper shielding which has a special conductive adhesive so that it can be layered. Where possible we will always shield every pickup cavity, cable channel, scratch plate and electrics cavity, so that your guitar is shielded as much as possible against unwanted noise. We also swap the unshielded output wires going to the jack for shielded cable. Unshielded wires coming from pickups are twisted, this is called a 'twisted pair' which offers a degree of immunity against noise.

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All of the modifications that we carry out have no affect on the overall tone of your guitar.

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The price of the shielding is directly related to how long it takes to complete the job. As you can appreciate, some guitars need the strings taken off, and pickups completely removed before the shielding work can begin. This is why, there are two prices listed below. The standard price (without a pro setup),  and a reduced price when purchased in conjunction with one of our pro setups.

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A complete set of before and after noise measurements are made on your guitar in all pickup positions, in a free standing and a body mounted position.

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Once the shielding process is complete, you will see a reduction in the amount of noise that your guitar picks up from the surrounding environment and when the guitar is placed against your body.

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See an example of before and after measurements below. (Click on image to enlarge)