I find myself wondering - do any manufacturers pre-shield their guitars, saving you the hassle of going nuts with copper foil / graphite paint immediately after buying that new guitar?

Yes, lots do but generally only on their more expensive models. Even some budget strats have a bit of foil on the back of the scratchplate around the switches. However, I just did a self-shield on a build I did and the difference was night and day--just normal copy foil inside the cavities and on the scratchplate wired to ground. Took about ten minutes from start to finish.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" Charles Darwin.

Most of my guitars are of the Far Eastern variety. All have had absolutely awful screening and it drives me nuts. A great shame as they are otherwise decent guitars that have a lot going for them. Fortunately, being handy with a soldering iron and willing to do a bit of a 'Blue Peter' with foil converts these poor buzzing beasts into great little guitars in most cases.

My latest purchase is now a good guitar but it needed serious effort with the turkey foil and a complete rewire..... A couple of the soldered joints had more in common with bird poo than they ever did with electrical connection and the amount of loose wire told the story that ease and speed of assembly were a higher priority than neatness and lack of buzzzzzzzz was . Also, the main earth from the jack plug went to the tone pot ground (fair enough) but continuity to the rest of the guitar was got via the crappy bit of foil tape underneath it and the volume pot - there was no soldered wire at all taking the earth through to the rest of the guitar..... A slightly loose nut on either pot would have been game over for your sound at a gig.

I also have a Godin which was around £1300 at time of purchase. Whisper-quiet. As that's my only electric guitar that is above £400 new I can't say where the 'they do it right' threshold gets crossed or even IF it gets crossed. I'll bet that some £2k guitars come out of the traps buzzing like an Ann Summers party in full swing.

One way of combating that issue is going with powered pickups if you like that kind of thing.

I think Fernandes shield all of their guitars but not sure if that would be the brand you want to purchase.

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www.descentintomadness.com

Cooking foil and pritt stick glue are cheap enough. Shielding is part of getting a new guitar working, along with a trip to a good setter-upper, buying a case, and getting another strap.

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Instant gratification is actually pretty good. It's fast as well.

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Cooking foil and pritt stick glue are cheap enough

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So is self-adhesive copper foil tape and a lot less hassle!

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" Charles Darwin.

Most of ‘custom’ made guitars are well shielded…

I have a friend who fills his noisy pick-ups with wax (paraffin) to fight interference.

Wax does nothing for interference. What your friend is doing is 'potting' the pick-up coils. The wax fills any air gaps in the coil to stop them vibrating and moving which can make a pick-up microphonic, literally acting like a microphone.

Andy

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When the going gets weird, the Weird turn Pro.

I have 2 Fender Am Teles, the cheaper one had graphite paint in the cavities the expensive one didn't. I returned a FSR thin line with hbs because it buzzed more than the single coils.

Tonetech do graphite paint for £15 and it works well. Two coats will get continuity with a multimeter. You can dry it with a hairdryer so its quick too. As for the figure you get to to get a guitar that works as it should....mass produced items are made to a budget and the biggest cost is labour for production and QC.

Once you really know what suits you, get one made by a good luthier. If its an electric then you'll be surprised how cheap they are and more importantly, the frets, wiring and shielding will be right from the off.