AV65 Jaguar shielding question

[Downsman]

I've just got an AV65 Jaguar, which I'm loving. Problem is, I live in a very old house with very old wiring, and every guitar I've had has hum issues (they're all single coils, I'm not a humbucker kind of guy). Years ago I discovered that copper tape shielding gets rid of the problem pretty much every time. Like magic. It's worked with strats, teles, a mustang, and my VM Jaguar.

Thing is, the AV65 has grounding plates, which is the first time I've encountered those. I've tested what I could with a multimeter and everything seems to be grounded as it's supposed to be, but the hum is pretty bad still. So two questions.

1st, can I simply put copper tape in the cavities as I've done with other guitars, and leave the existing grounding in place? I don't want to take it out. If I did that, would the existing connection wires still do what they're supposed to do, or would I need to add new ones on top of the new tape?

2nd, the hum is bad in the lead circuit, and disappears when I switch to the rhythm circuit. Is that something you'd expect, or a sign that something else may be causing a problem? The guitar is an ex-demo one so no previous owner to have messed with it. Everything should be as it came from the factory.

The hum in any case goes away when I touch any metal on the guitar, and I know most of the time I will have a hand on the strings, or resting on the bridge or something, but it's still annoying and as most of its life will be spent in my house I would like it to be as quiet as my other guitars.

Thanks for any help with this.

[Larry Mal]

Yes, you can add copper shielding to the Jaguar, you'll want to ensure connection to the existing shielding of course. Typically, they say to solder it all together, so putting a little bit of solder on the existing shielding and thus connecting it to the new copper tape would be ideal.

There are other ways, though. Sometimes I get lazy and just connect it all with copper tape and check it with a multimeter. The multimeter doesn't lie, if it says it leads to ground, it leads to ground.

I also have good results with aluminum pickguards like this.

And I live in an old apartment, and am similarly plagued with noise.

[Larry Mal]

Oh, by the way, your getting less noise when you engage the rhythm circuit is also normal. If I dial the tone knob down on my guitars, it similarly reduces the noise. I read at some point exactly what that means, but I'm afraid to get it wrong so if I can find my research I'll put it up.

[adamrobertt]

Another option is to get noiseless pickups. I just put some Kinman "fatmaster" noiseless single coils in my Jazzmaster and they are really great. They sound a lot like regular JM pickups, just a bit hotter and maybe a touch more midrange, but I'm very happy with them.

[Larry Mal]

Another option is to get noiseless pickups. I just put some Kinman "fatmaster" noiseless single coils in my Jazzmaster and they are really great. They sound a lot like regular JM pickups, just a bit hotter and maybe a touch more midrange, but I'm very happy with them.

Yeah. I have some Thickmasters in my Jazzmaster, which has the stock AVRI shielding and an aluminum pick guard. I could not be happier, and Kinman will be my go to noiseless pickup from now on.

[Downsman]

Another option is to get noiseless pickups. I just put some Kinman "fatmaster" noiseless single coils in my Jazzmaster and they are really great. They sound a lot like regular JM pickups, just a bit hotter and maybe a touch more midrange, but I'm very happy with them.

Yeah. I have some Thickmasters in my Jazzmaster, which has the stock AVRI shielding and an aluminum pick guard. I could not be happier, and Kinman will be my go to noiseless pickup from now on.

The AV65 Jaguar pickups sound great, so if I can fix this with tape, that's my preferred option. As I said, it has worked with all my other guitars. Unfortunately, I just ran out so have some more ordered.

[Downsman]

Oh, by the way, your getting less noise when you engage the rhythm circuit is also normal. If I dial the tone knob down on my guitars, it similarly reduces the noise. I read at some point exactly what that means, but I'm afraid to get it wrong so if I can find my research I'll put it up.

Thanks for the advice, and I'm glad there's a reason it's quieter with the rhythm circuit. Shame it wasn't the other way around as I hardly use the rhythm circuit

The tape I use has conductive adhesive, so hopefully if I use it to line the sides of the cavities and overlap the plate, the ground wires should hopefully still work without more soldering. Though that is an option. In the mean time, I've adjusted my amp settings to set the gain as low as possible which cuts the hum. And I have a Blackstar Fly headphone amp that I use at night due to kids, and since it doesn't plug into the mains it's silent through that.

[gusgorman]

I also have good results with aluminum pickguards like this.

Ha! Did you put the wrong link in there? Or was it accidentally on purpose?

[Larry Mal]

Ah, who knows anymore!

Let's try it again:

https://reverb.com/item/34112738-black- ... -pickguard

[Downsman]

As a quick update, the tape arrived, and while waiting for a new pickguard I thought I'd shield the control and switching cavities. Cut the hum dramatically. At the levels I usually play at it's now silent. Only get the hum back when switching on a drive pedal (which I almost never use), or cranking the volume. If I wasn't going to be taking the pickguard off anyway, I probably wouldn't bother doing the pickup cavities.

I feel so much happier about this guitar now