Mid 2000’s Classic Custom

Hey all, I’ve got nice, lightweight mid-2000’s ASAT Classic Custom with a Birdseye maple neck. The frets are suddenly sharp along the neck edge. I’m guessing this neck wood is highly susceptible to humidity and the winter dry air has caused the wood to shrink. I plan on taking it home from my studio and letting it climatize in 40% plus humidity for a week or 2. Think she’ll return to normal without issue?

Hey all, I’ve got nice, lightweight mid-2000’s ASAT Classic Custom with a Birdseye maple neck. The frets are suddenly sharp along the neck edge. I’m guessing this neck wood is highly susceptible to humidity and the winter dry air has caused the wood to shrink. I plan on taking it home from my studio and letting it climatize in 40% plus humidity for a week or 2. Think she’ll return to normal without issue?

Yes, the climate can affect the wood of any guitar. In this case your fretboard wood likely has dried out some causing the fret sprout. Do a search on the Internet for "fret sprout" for more details and some remedies.

We would love to see some photos of your guitar. Also, please add your guitar to our G&L Registry when you get a chance.

Hope this helps.

I give it a good chance. Give it some time and when things are back to normal check the frets whether they have come lose or popped out a bit and address any problems you may find in the appropriate way.

- Jos

Here’s my stable of G&L’s . The white custom is the one that needs attention.
https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0d5kuVsbAvIyY

Have many of you had to add some shielding to your pickguards to eliminate some static noises I get from the pickguard screws and pickup covers? I assume this would need to be tied to ground.

Beautiful stable of guitars. Is the natural an ASAT Classic or Classic Custom. I couldn't quite make out if it was the jumbo MFD. Regardless, they're all gorgeous!

I haven't notice any static issues from my pickguards.

Cheers, Dan

It’s a 1990/1991 Classic. Skinny neck. The middle S is a pine body w alnicos.

Have many of you had to add some shielding to your pickguards to eliminate some static noises I get from the pickguard screws and pickup covers? I assume this would need to be tied to ground.

Are you trying to reduce ground noise, or sixty-cycle hum? Plastic pickup covers shouldn't cause noise either way, and having to ground pickguard screws is pretty out of the ordinary. I don't think there's any other guitar company who deems that necessary, though you could accomplish that (and have additional potential shielding) by using a metal pickguard.

Sometimes it helps to be creative; along with checking all the regular grounds (bridge etc.) I would use contact cleaner spray in the switch and extensively 'massage' it, then do the same for the pots. I've had a couple guitars where dirty or loose switches would cause constant ground buzz. At worst you may want to replace the switch to see if that helps. If what you are dealing with is really sixty cycle hum or interference (and not ground buzz,) then it does help to shield the cavities (including the control cavity) with copper or aluminum foil/tape - though you have to remember to ground your shielding by soldering a wire from it to a pot etc.

As a final note; if you really wanted to go to the extreme, to further reduce sixty cycle hum you could even potentially shield the plastic pickup cover with foil tape inside (and of course ground that shielding.) But again- pretty much all those options should be overkill, and plenty of guitarists don't do that extensive shielding and get along with reasonable amounts of noise - so I'd start at just making sure you have all your regular grounds/shields intact and don't have a faulty/dirty switch.

Shielding the pickup covers will alter the tone of the pickups. Shielding the pickguard is common practice and the ground is usually provided by contact of the potentiometer case, though a ground wire could be added. I had a recently serviced, VERY noisy vintage Fender Deluxe amp that couldn't be played in my home with any non-humbucking guitar. The 60 cycle hum was unbearable. Humbucker guitars were fine as was using the amp elsewhere. Eventually I replaced the CFL bulbs and related dimmers in my home with LED. All the noise is gone and the amp sounds great.

Have many of you had to add some shielding to your pickguards to eliminate some static noises I get from the pickguard screws and pickup covers? I assume this would need to be tied to ground.

+1 on grounding

I have read that a dryer anti-static sheet can help in some situations. Plastic pickguards can hold those little charges.

I’ve heard varied things about what materials of pickup cover/shielding do or don’t affect tone - allegedly nickel silver covers (as used by Seymour Duncan on PAF humbuckers) are transparent, but have no experience lining pickup covers with copper or aluminum to say whether any of that is true. I’ve heard old wife’s tales that leaving a millimeter gap and not totally encircling a pickup with foil will preserve the highs; I’d take that with a grain of salt.

Thanks for the feedback on both issues. I love my G&L’s.

Fixed the fret sprout. Put some blue masking tape down the sides of the neck and used a sanding block long enough to span 3-4 frets. I lightly ran the block up and down the side of the neck (carefully and not to much pressure) and worked the edges down. It took maybe 45 minutes with NO damage to the neck finish.

The guitar is restrung and plays great but I’ll post a new thread about my next issue/project.