ShortScale.org

The other week my band rehearsed at Storm Studios, off the Holloway Road. I took my strat along and as soon as I plugged it in it was producing a pretty unbearable amount of noise/hum. It seemed to be worse if I stood parallel or perpendicular to the railway lines above (the studio is in a railway arch). Switching on a dirt pedal made it even worse.

Are strats particularly susceptible to noise problems and are there ways to combat it - such as copper shielding? I don't really want to have to buy a full set of noiseless pickups as I like the ones I have. I've not had any issues at the studio we normally rehearse in, Scar in Camden - which is also under railway arches.

There could be a grounding wire broken perhaps. It's not uncommon for the trem grounding wire to break - check in the back of the trem cavity where the ground wire is soldered to the claw.

Shielding can always help - if you look under the pickguard there will likely be small areas of Alu shielding in place. you could do worse than covering the whole underside of the guard but this isn't fullproof either. If you want to get serious on it then take a look here:

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php

http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/tele.php

PS: moving to Projects & Tech section

The trem claw and jack are the two places where the ground likes to come undone. Like Dave said shield the guitar.

If you are only having trouble at that one studio and not the other similar location. Maybe try plugging into a different wall outlet for your amp. Could be possible to have a broken ground on the wall outlet. Also try a different amp and cables.

Even my humbuckers pick up quite a bit of noise under fluorescent lights as oppose to regular ol' bulbs.