Leads to tone pots from 5 way switch

[DesmoDog]

I'm just starting to lay out the wiring on my Strat, and I thought I'd do a reality check...

First off, is it worthwhile using shielded wires from the 5 way switch to the tone controls? The reason I ask is, I got some dual lead shielded wire at some point in my parts scrounging and this seems like a decent place to use it.

Assuming it IS suitable to use here... my question is, do I have to connect the shielding to a ground at the 5 way switch, or can I just put some shrink wrap on that end to keep it from shorting anything out and only connect it to ground at one of the tone pots?

I'm not at all well versed in electrickery so it seems strange to only have one end of the shielding connected to anything, but on the other hand if it's acting like an anntena picking up noise, why would both ends need to be connected?

So c'mon sparkies, help a clueless newbie out!  :sad:

 

[DesmoDog]

Nevermind.

It occurred to me the switch and pots are in a shielded cavity. Shielding a relatively short length of wire inside a shielded cavity seemed redundant so I just used some of the wire I cut off the pickup leads.

I did use a shielded wire for the run to the outlet jack though...

 

[Cagey]

Shielded wires are much more effective than a shielded cavity. In fact, you can skip shielding the cavity altogether with proper wiring and noiseless pickups. If you don't have noiseless pickups, shielding is almost a waste a time for as much good as it does. But, More's Law* prevails in such things, so some end up fighting with conductive paint and/or copper foil all over the place. The problem with proper wiring is it's cumbersome. Keeping the shields close to the total length of any conductor isn't easy, then keeping all those shields grounded adds a lot of time to the wiring exercise. Grounding both ends of the shield isn't necessary. Anything the shield picks up is going to get conducted to ground as long as a path exists.


*More's Law: Some is good, more's better, and too much is just right.