Shielding a Mooncaster

[CrowGhost]

Hey fellas,

I’ve finally gotten my mooncaster fully assembled and it buzzes like crazy when not touching the strings/metal. From my understanding, this is normal and means all the grounding is working properly and it’s just picking up a lot of RF frequencies. My downstairs is a nightmare for this. I have lots of technology and a dimmer switch nearby I tried another guitar that’s shielded and it was dead quiet. Tried my gibson and it buzzed but not as much.

So here’s my thing:

With the mooncaster, I have the 3 way at the top horn. I obviously won’t be able to get to that to shield it. Would shielding the control cavity and pickup cavities be enough to quiet it down? Thanks!

 

[markuus99]

If you are getting noise that goes away when you're touch the strings, that sounds like a grounding issue. Be sure your bridge is properly grounded. If you use a multimeter, you should get electrical continuity between the bridge and grounded parts (like the back of that pots for example). If not, make sure there's a wire making contact with the bridge somehow that's properly connected to ground.


You could additionally try to shield the wiring, but that doesn't sound like your issue. I might suggest using shielded wire if possible for longer wire runs, such as to the lower horn toggle. But fix your bridge ground first.

 

[TBurst Std]

Sorry buts not right. It is normal for a properly grounded guitar to have no hum when touching the strings (yourself acting as the final earth). If you aren’t touching it and get some hum, that’s normally not grounding but EMF.  That’s the difference between grounding (earthing) and shielding.  2 different tools for 2 different tasks.