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Shielding Question

agreatheight

Newbie
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I am building out a single bridge humbucker Jazzmaster - do I need to shield the cavity? I was planning to, but the more I read on it I keep seeing it how big a deal it is for single coils, but no one ways specifically if you need it for humbuckers.

What is the verdict?
 
i always shield, regardless of what's going in it.  you don't want to find out afterwards (especially if you gig) that something causes interference that could've been avoided.
 
i've built 2 warmoths and never shielded anything. no problems with noise. BUT if i got energetic one day (and acquired some shielding tape) i would definitely take the time to go back and shield. can't be too safe!
 
There is no need to shield any guitar, it will not make an audible difference with humbuckers and may or may not make any difference with singles. Then again, it doesn't hurt anything, and it might make you feel better.
 
Shielding equals insurance.  No amount of shielding will make a single coil not hum, but it can make it hum less.  It's preference, but IMO shielding the control cavity is more important than shielding pickup cavities, especially with humbuckers that have shielded cables.  Too many times a pickup cavity has copper tape or shielding paint but the shielding isn't electrically continuous with the ground of the system.  It's easiest on a top routed strat, but on a rear routed guitar that has holes drilled from pickup cavity to control cavity, unless the channels are shielded, or there is a ground wire connecting the cavities, or there is a jumper from the pickup's ground in the cavity, it can makes things worse than if not shielded at all.  The whole point of shielding is to allow the interference a path to ground.
 
If your humbucker has a metal cover on it, that will be more than sufficient. If it doesn't then don't even bother with shielding the body. Shielding the body won't help very much at all. So save you time and money.
 
strat's have non shielded wiring with a small piece of aluminum tape that the switch and pots are grounded to. even with single coils they are not often too noisy. i have gone nuts with shielding and had noise problems and i have had no noise with no shielding at all. the most important things are the quality of the solder joints, and i have found that simplicity is best. everyone will have different experience and opinions so you'll have to decide for yourself.
 
If you want to shield the inside of your guitar but don't want to fight with the copper tape, stewmac.com sells a conductive paint that is quite handy.
 
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