Strange hole in my Strat?

[Gaspode]

I decided to improve the shielding in one of my Strats, to see if I could cut down the dreaded single-coil hum. Having whipped off the scratchplate and started lining the cavity with copper foil, I suddenly noticed I have an extra little circular hole in the body. You can see it in the picture, in the lower bout of the body (in the top part of the pic). I've never seen a hole like this in a Strat body, does anyone have any idea what it might be for? The body is a 1998 USA, orginally kitted out with twin Seymour duncans in HH format, but now I've got the PRS I thought I'd put my original set of Texas Special singlecoils in it.

The copper foil, by the way, looks far more wrinkled in the pic than it does in actuality, but nevertheless the guys who say 'Foil is a bh, use conductive paint instead' are probably not wrong in my experience. And yes, I do realise I've got to line the whole thing.

[12v3pot]

Hole isn't connected to any other cavity? (e.g. for wires which'd make it likely it was for a mini-toggle.)

If not, perhaps it was a locating hole for some machine handling process in the factory?

Pure guesswork.

[Fantuzzi]

12v3pot said:

Hole isn't connected to any other cavity? (e.g. for wires which'd make it likely it was for a mini-toggle.)

If not, perhaps it was a locating hole for some machine handling process in the factory?

Pure guesswork.

Its a bit weird if it doesn't connect to any other cavity, if it does perhaps a sustainer, or kill switch.

Just guessing!

[Justin Cyder]

Seems it maybe a late eighties/early nineties CNC milling reference point presumably before all that got pleasantly sophisticated. Count yourself lucky it wasn't a horrible swimming pool route.

http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/stratocaster-discu...

[Gaspode]

Justin Cyder said:

Seems it maybe a late eighties/early nineties CNC milling reference point presumably before all that got pleasantly sophisticated. Count yourself lucky it wasn't a horrible swimming pool route.

http://www.strat-talk.com/forum/stratocaster-discu...

That must be it, thanks Justin.

[Evangelion]

It is a CNC referencing point. Some Strats have a smaller hole on either side.

I suppose in years to come, anoraks like me will use them to establish the model, date and place of manufacture.

[Chimune]

I read that strat thread and I still don't know what swimming pool refers to !

[Gaspode]

Chimune said:

I read that strat thread and I still don't know what swimming pool refers to !

One of the routing options Fender did/do is to carve out a huge oblong hole rather than 3 separate holes for the pups. People reckon bodies done like this don't sound as good, but I've not heard one in a direct 1:1 comparison to a normal rout with the same pups, neck, and strings, so I wouldn't know.

[Gaspode]

A quick update on the shielding, I don't think it's worth a thread all of its own. I finished it today, and it's really rather impressive. Absolutely no hum at all. I used 2 sheets of copper sheet with conductive glue from Rothko and Frost, via Amazon. A bit of a faff to line the body cavities, the edges of the sheet are surprisingly sharp as the cuts in my thumb demonstrate, but no problem to get a full conductive lining to body cavity and rear of scratchplate.

So if your single-coil axe hums, then this simple mod is well worth doing. There are loads ov videos on YouTube showing you what to do.