Now this is strange.....

[Glassy]

So, I too am I having a bit of grounding problems with my guitar. There's a little bit of hum when my hands are off the guitar, and it's gone when I touch the strings/bridge. So, that's a normal grounding problem.
But, (and this is where it gets strange) it gets worse than before when I take off both hands and touch a finger to the bridge pickup ring. 
What could that be?

[GPW]

 Sounds like another shielding problem to me ...

[Jamesss]

Sounds like another shielding problem to me ...

sorry to threadjack, but you think my problem is shielding not grounding? if so then thats not much of a problem to me, im just paranoid about getting shocked or somthing from my guitar 

[GPW]

If the guitar and amp are properly grounded , you shouldn't have a problem ... What I get occasionally is a little zap from the microphone/PA while playing my guitar (at the gigs , but Never in my Studio ) ... but a simple foam mic cover has saved many a sore lip...
  I was asking our drummer last night at practice about that ,  he's an electrician , so I expect a reasonable solution when we next convene ...

[Rock Soul]

If the guitar and amp are properly grounded , you shouldn't have a problem ... What I get occasionally is a little zap from the microphone/PA while playing my guitar (at the gigs , but Never in my Studio ) ... but a simple foam mic cover has saved many a sore lip...
  I was asking our drummer last night at practice about that ,  he's an electrician , so I expect a reasonable solution when we next convene ...

I've had the same problem; its damn irritating, cause your singin and then suddenly "whoaa"... someone told me that reversing the plug of the amps might help, couldn't remember though if it helped.

Rock Soul

[Glassy]

The control cavity was painted with what I assume to be "shielding paint".

I have not seen the pickup cavities though......can't get the dang things out without taking all the strings off....ughgh
I'll check into it. Do you figure just lining the cavity with some tin foil will do it, or will I have to get copper foil?

[Jamesss]

If the guitar and amp are properly grounded , you shouldn't have a problem ... What I get occasionally is a little zap from the microphone/PA while playing my guitar (at the gigs , but Never in my Studio ) ... but a simple foam mic cover has saved many a sore lip...
  I was asking our drummer last night at practice about that ,  he's an electrician , so I expect a reasonable solution when we next convene ...

hmm. thanks GPW, i might look into shielding it.

[Crazy Dave]

If the guitar and amp are properly grounded , you shouldn't have a problem ... What I get occasionally is a little zap from the microphone/PA while playing my guitar (at the gigs , but Never in my Studio ) ... but a simple foam mic cover has saved many a sore lip...
  I was asking our drummer last night at practice about that ,  he's an electrician , so I expect a reasonable solution when we next convene ...

I've had the same problem; its damn irritating, cause your singin and then suddenly "whoaa"... someone told me that reversing the plug of the amps might help, couldn't remember though if it helped.

Rock Soul

Reversing the plug is pure BS. Make sure the PA and your guitar amp is on the same circuit, i.e. that they share the same ground. Provided your amp and PA are well built and don't have an electrical problem that should take care of it.

I had this happen to me at the loudest gig Soulthrash ever played. It was loud beyond belief, it was gnarly, it was wild, the crowd was thrashing, and I kept getting zapped by the microphone. Ah, good times. 

[Crazy Dave]

it gets worse than before when I take off both hands and touch a finger to the bridge pickup ring. 
What could that be?

Is it your "Glassy phone home" finger? 

Seriously, I think GPW has it right. Could also be the electricity at your place. We used to play a rehearsal space with weird electricity. Kept picking up radio stations on otherwise silent amps.

[splitty456]

it gets worse than before when I take off both hands and touch a finger to the bridge pickup ring. 
What could that be?

Is it your "Glassy phone home" finger? 

Seriously, I think GPW has it right. Could also be the electricity at your place. We used to play a rehearsal space with weird electricity. Kept picking up radio stations on otherwise silent amps.

haha my guitar shop does that...

was trying out an amp in there, switched to overdrive and suddenly the horse racing was on... pretty creepy, i can tell you...

[Jamesss]

it gets worse than before when I take off both hands and touch a finger to the bridge pickup ring. 
What could that be?

Is it your "Glassy phone home" finger? 

Seriously, I think GPW has it right. Could also be the electricity at your place. We used to play a rehearsal space with weird electricity. Kept picking up radio stations on otherwise silent amps.

haha my guitar shop does that...

was trying out an amp in there, switched to overdrive and suddenly the horse racing was on... pretty creepy, i can tell you...

that happened on my old fender, except it was some french talk show, i had the amp pretty loud and with the verb set on "dick dale" so this fuzzy echoey french talking was coming out my amp, i shat a brick.

[GPW]

Now this is even stranger, if you can hear radio stations on your amp , the RF is riding in on the ground (shield ) of your cable .. The trick is to put a small cap on the ground lug of your amp input jack and connected to the star ground, the cap shunts the RF signal to ground ... If you don't know what you're doing , best leave this trick alone ... Try a better cable ...
 Good heavy aluminum foil works a treat as shielding , just glue it down with white glue and be sure to connect it (metal to foil contact ) with any ground ... copper is nice , but expensive ...  Stew -Mac sells the copper ($$) , but you may be able to get thin copper sheets at a good crafts/hobby store..
 I make my own shielding paint out of pure graphite and varnish ... or even any "metal" paint , like aluminum paint with a high density of aluminum pigment works too...  There used to be a paint made for sealing gaskets ... coppernol, which had a very high density of copper , so much you had to stir it ... that works too if you can find it...  http://www.vhtpaint.com/coppergasketcement.html