Another Shielding Post

patracles

Junior Member
Messages
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In preparation for my first build I've been researching the conductive shielding debate. I understand some people think it is completely unncessary, some say only necessary with single coils. My build is dual humbucker but wired for coil-splitting on both pickups with a push/pull. Should I shield both pickup cavities and control cavity? Just control? My pickups have a metal cover already. Thoughts?
 
I haven't shielded any of my guitars (humbucker or single coil) and haven't had any issues with noise (beyond what should be expected)
 
I believe it does “help”, but to what extent I believe is where the debate is warranted. Regardless of how well you shield your guitar….you still have these completely exposed pole pieces sticking straight out into the open air, which still can and still will pick interference up from the airwaves.

What I found worked best is a gate, but not just any gate, but specifically the ISP Decimator II G String. That solved all my issues, and believe me, I had some noise…FAR beyond the regular 60Hz hum, because I lived about 200 meters from a cell phone tower, and it was an INSANE amount of buzz and hum, whether single coil or humbucker. The Decimator II G String fixed all that though.

I still shield my cavities though. The first thing I’m doing when I get back from vacation (my Warmoth neck and body are just sitting there…waiting for me to come get them!) is apply three coats of conductive shielding paint throughout all the cavities.
 
Well I will say it helps to some degree.
I just rebuilt a strat with a new body.

The old one had conductive paint. In no way was it connected to the Callaham metal guard under the pick guard. It was pretty quiet.

The new one is foil taped and has connection to the metal guard.  Yes it’s quieter.  With even dimmers goin on in the room, as long as you ground yourself (touch the strings) it’s pretty much silent even in positions 1, 3 & 5. (The mid pup is RWRP, so positions 2 and 4 shouldn’t be considered).

And when I say silent, when playing I was playing at 90+ Db.
 
ChrisMC said:
I still shield my cavities though. The first thing I’m doing when I get back from vacation (my Warmoth neck and body are just sitting there…waiting for me to come get them!) is apply three coats of conductive shielding paint throughout all the cavities.

That's awesome your parts came, I've been keeping tabs on yours since I ordered a similar build on April 5 haha. Funnily enough it looks like I too will probably be on vacation around the 13/14 week mark.

So if I do decide to shield everything, is it true I need to remove other ground connections (like between tone and volume pot for example)?
 
patracles said:
ChrisMC said:
I still shield my cavities though. The first thing I’m doing when I get back from vacation (my Warmoth neck and body are just sitting there…waiting for me to come get them!) is apply three coats of conductive shielding paint throughout all the cavities.

That's awesome your parts came, I've been keeping tabs on yours since I ordered a similar build on April 5 haha. Funnily enough it looks like I too will probably be on vacation around the 13/14 week mark.

So if I do decide to shield everything, is it true I need to remove other ground connections (like between tone and volume pot for example)?

If they are short, I would leave them.  I would not rely on the shielding for signal ground and they would likely be too short to cause a loop.

BTW, if you use shielded cable everywhere (the humbuckers likely come with it anyway) then you don't need to shield the cavities.
 
Mayfly said:
patracles said:
ChrisMC said:
I still shield my cavities though. The first thing I’m doing when I get back from vacation (my Warmoth neck and body are just sitting there…waiting for me to come get them!) is apply three coats of conductive shielding paint throughout all the cavities.

That's awesome your parts came, I've been keeping tabs on yours since I ordered a similar build on April 5 haha. Funnily enough it looks like I too will probably be on vacation around the 13/14 week mark.

So if I do decide to shield everything, is it true I need to remove other ground connections (like between tone and volume pot for example)?

If they are short, I would leave them.  I would not rely on the shielding for signal ground and they would likely be too short to cause a loop.

BTW, if you use shielded cable everywhere (the humbuckers likely come with it anyway) then you don't need to shield the cavities.

Agree on this, on my current build all my pickups have shielded cable. As there's no way to close off the pickup cavities from the front, shielding them in the back isn't going to accomplish anything that isn't already done by the cable shield.

The wiring cavity is another matter, I went conductive paint all over that, and copper backing on the cover interior.

I haven't a lot of practice with guitar wiring however I've done a lot of laboratory and instrumentation wiring in electrically noisy environments, where it's differential inputs to signal amplifiers wherever possible. Common mode noise sucks, period.
 
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