Clear
- Thread starter Tweed
- Start date
A lot of people around here do not believe that shielding the body cavity does any good. The most important thing is good wiring. I didn't shield my tele I built and it is pretty quiet for 2 p90's. In the middle possition they hum cancel and it is quiet as a mouse.
Cagey
Mythical Status
- Messages
- 24,425
Tweed said:
A partial shield is useless, which is why cavity shielding is pointless. The pickup is still exposed, which is what hears the bulk of the noise. If the pickup is designed to employ common mode rejection, which is what all humbuckers/noiseless pickups do, then the only thing you need to shield is the signal wiring. If the pickup is a standard single coil design such as Fender's been using since forever or Gibson's P90s, then you're liable to have problems unless you get some RWRP units to create a CMR circuit.
Ace Flibble
Hero Member
- Messages
- 865
I have 14 guitars. 12 of them hum to varying degrees, 2 don't. 2 have shielding paint slopped around the control cavities, 12 don't have any kind of shielding at all. Go figure which is which.
And before Cagey jumps in with talk about properly shielded wire, the pickups of one of the guitars which doesn't hum use that old push-back cloth wire, with no shielding on 'em. They also have mismatched coils and aren't wax potted so if anything they should make the most noise. It's not like there's any voodoo magic going into it either, it's just an Epiphone, made in a Korean factory in 2004. The other guitar I have which doesn't hum also happens to be an Epiphone, a Firebird with some Creamery humbucker-sized P-90s in it, which in theory should be even worse for noise (not wax potted, push-back cloth wire, single coil). But nope. Neither of them hum at all. They're both shielded. My other 12 guitars - none of which have any kind of shielding, though all of which use humbuckers of some form or another - hum in some way.
I say go ahead, shield it for all it's worth. With a clear guard I would recommend using shielding paint though, might look a bit better than copper foil. Depends on your colour scheme I guess.
That said if you're using a clear guard you're certainly not going to want to shield the underside of the pickguard itself and if you don't do that then I can't vouch for how well the shielding may work. If you're using single coil pickups then I'd urge you to reconsider the clear pickguard and go for a solid colour so you can do full shielding instead. Of course single coils may still hum a little but every little helps.
And before Cagey jumps in with talk about properly shielded wire, the pickups of one of the guitars which doesn't hum use that old push-back cloth wire, with no shielding on 'em. They also have mismatched coils and aren't wax potted so if anything they should make the most noise. It's not like there's any voodoo magic going into it either, it's just an Epiphone, made in a Korean factory in 2004. The other guitar I have which doesn't hum also happens to be an Epiphone, a Firebird with some Creamery humbucker-sized P-90s in it, which in theory should be even worse for noise (not wax potted, push-back cloth wire, single coil). But nope. Neither of them hum at all. They're both shielded. My other 12 guitars - none of which have any kind of shielding, though all of which use humbuckers of some form or another - hum in some way.
I say go ahead, shield it for all it's worth. With a clear guard I would recommend using shielding paint though, might look a bit better than copper foil. Depends on your colour scheme I guess.
That said if you're using a clear guard you're certainly not going to want to shield the underside of the pickguard itself and if you don't do that then I can't vouch for how well the shielding may work. If you're using single coil pickups then I'd urge you to reconsider the clear pickguard and go for a solid colour so you can do full shielding instead. Of course single coils may still hum a little but every little helps.
S
swarfrat
Guest
Might just be me - but I think I'd only put a clear pickguard on a strat if it were rear routed to begin with.
Cagey
Mythical Status
- Messages
- 24,425
Depends what you need and what you like. Warmoth's wire kit has about all you need of the appropriate stuff to do one guitar at $6. StewMac's choices are broader, but the stuff you want is probably going to be their part numbers 1586 and 1818, and they both come in 25' lengths. That's enough wire to do a LOT of guitars. But, it's pricier because of the quantity, at $18.25 and $24.83 respectively. So, you would be down ~$43 going the StewMac route, but not have to worry about wire for years. Unless, of course, you work on a lot of guitars.
Myself, I went the StewMac route because wire is what I'd consider a "shop supply", and as such I never want to run out, or even have to think about it. It should just always be there when I need it. But, if the budget's tight, the Warmoth solution will work for a lot less money.
Myself, I went the StewMac route because wire is what I'd consider a "shop supply", and as such I never want to run out, or even have to think about it. It should just always be there when I need it. But, if the budget's tight, the Warmoth solution will work for a lot less money.
Similar threads
