Shielded my cavity and now there is more hum

[OneTanMan]

I shielded my cavity and pick guard with copper tape, and now there is more noise and before.

I’ve tested and the strings are still connected to the ground in the output jack, but now when I touch the strings there is no reduction in noise. I feel like if anything it’s more of an antennae than before picking up new artifacts and hum when I move around. The pick guard is definitely grounded. I tested the tape in the body cavity for continuity, but haven’t explicitly tested that it is grounded because it depends on contact with the pick guard.

The wires in the control cavity are kind jammed in there. I’m wondering if something might be touching that shouldn’t be. The tone of the guitar is the same, however.

Thoughts?

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

The most important ground connections are the Jack, the volume control (s), and the pickups. All of these need to be connected to a single point. After you checked those, you can then give attention to running separate ground wires to each point such as trem claw, cavity shielding, other controls such as toggle switches etc. Ideally every point should have its own ground wire that connects to the back of the volume pot.

For shielding grounds, the presence of seperate ground wires is not as critical. A lot of builders will link the shield grounds from one to the other like a chain, normally without issue if the signal ground points have been handled correctly.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Shielding is over-rated. None of my guitars have that copper tape in the control cavities, and all of them are pretty quiet.
Having good pickups helps. And yes, proper grounding is important.