Thanks again! That solved the problem. Sorry to be such a squeaky wheel but despite grounding everything and shielding every cavity I still seem to have a substantial hum. Not sure if it's my amateur soldering, the orientation of the pickups (both with wire facing cavity), the stereo output jack (hot to shorter of two short pins, ground to longer of two short pins, and long pin left alone), or some other problem I haven't conceived of. I should note that I have not installed the bridge or the neck yet. Which raises another question... The bridge is painted black as are the screws. What should I do to make sure it's good and grounded? I've assumed the ground wire wraps around on of the screws as there is no obvious grounding site on the bridge itself. But so far my assumptions haven't really panned out so well.