Guitar Shielding and Noise Repair in Manhattan
New York apartments are full of dimmers, neon, fluorescent tubes and bad wiring, and a stock Strat picks up all of it. If your guitar hums until you touch the strings, crackles when you turn a knob, or cuts out when the cable moves, it's a shielding or electronics problem and it's cheap to fix.
Diagnosis first
Electronics diagnosis and cleaning is $65. We check the jack, pots, switch, grounds and solder joints, clean the contacts, and tell you exactly what's wrong before anything else is charged. Half the time the fix is a $60 jack or a $60 pot and you're done.
Shielding
Copper foil shielding ($160) lines the control cavity, pickup cavities and the back of the pickguard with foil, all grounded to one point. Conductive paint ($100) covers the cavities you can't foil cleanly. Do both and a single-coil guitar gets close to humbucker quiet without changing the sound. SRV-style coil shielding is $50 per coil for the last bit of noise.
Common electrical repairs
Output jack $60. Single pot $60, each additional pot $40. Blade or toggle switch $75. Endpin jack on an acoustic $60. New pickup leads $75 to $100. We can also rewire a whole harness or drop in a pre-wired one for $125.
Prices
| Electronics Diagnosis & CleaningPots, switch, jack, contacts | $65 |
|---|---|
| Copper Foil ShieldingControl and pickup cavities | $160 |
| Conductive Paint Shielding | $100 |
| Coil Shielding, SRV-stylePer coil | $50 / coil |
| Output Jack | $60 |
| Single Pot | $60 |
| Additional PotSame job | $40 |
| Blade or Toggle Switch | $75 |
See the full repair and setup menu for everything else we do.
Electrical work is usually done within the week. Parts are extra; most are a few dollars.
Get a free quote
Common questions
- Why does my guitar hum when I'm not touching the strings?
- Your body is grounding the circuit when you touch the strings. When you let go, unshielded cavities pick up interference. Shielding the cavities fixes it: copper foil $160, conductive paint $100.
- How much does it cost to fix a crackling volume knob?
- A single pot replacement is $60. If it's just dirty, the $65 diagnosis and cleaning often solves it without a new part.
- Will shielding change my tone?
- Properly done, no. Shielding blocks interference, not signal. Some players notice a hair less top end on single coils, which is the noise going away.
- Can you fix a guitar that cuts out when I move the cable?
- Yes, that's a worn output jack or a cold solder joint. Jack replacement is $60.
- Do you do this on basses and acoustics?
- Yes. Active bass preamps and acoustic endpin jacks are regular jobs here.