[david henman]

...my experience with noise gates is that they seriously mess with your tone and, especially, your dynamics. however, if you always play with your guitar's volume control dimed, a noise gate may work well for you.

two other things to consider:

1. dimarzio's new area 58 and 61 noiseless pickups already have a good street buzz (sorry!) going for them.

2. take a look at this: http://www.suhrguitars.com/pickups.aspx#bpssc

i'm installing one of these in a g&l legacy, so that i can keep the stock single coils, which are astounding, and eliminate the buzz.

-dh

 

[david henman]

Have you looked at shielding your strat??
There are a couple of tricks that can be done to it to reduce the hum...

....another good option!

the cost of having a tech shield your strat is less than $100, i believe. you can also do it yourself if you're inclined.

it won't kill the hum completely, but maybe adequately.

-dh