+1. I've done a lot of shielding and the only time it made a noticeable difference was when I applied copper foil directly around the windings of the pickups - and even that was slight.
One form of shielding that does make a difference is using an early '60s style aluminium shielding plate under the pickguard - aluminium has an effect on the eddy currents of the pickups and darkens the tone appreciably. That, the rosewood board and alder body is why the early '60s Strats sound darker than the late, '50s Strats, even though the pickups are brighter.
maybe the hum creates its own tonal naunces that then get removed with the shielding...
Correct! LOL! The hum modulates the sound and I think is part of the reason that noiseless pickups sound "different" to purists, even though some of them can be shown to have identical output to the single coil they are modelled after. An interesting parallel is that when Line 6 first modelled the AC30 amp, they couldn't get some of the AC30 fans to like the model until they modelled in the modulation usually caused by the power supply hum. If you look at the amps in Guitar Rig, you'll even see they have taken this farther and have the "mains" switchable from 50 to 60Hz, to model the amps used in the US versus those used in the UK!
