Shielding These Pickups

[GuitarMadCap]

Should I shield these pickups with copper shielding tape?

Vintage Stack Tele (Neck)
Classic Stack Plus Strat (Middle)
59 (Bridge)

A guitar tech told me once that copper is only needed for noisy single coils which these shouldn’t be.

 

[GuitarMadCap]

It seems to me the shielding is to help with radio frequencies and not hum or buzz. Noiseless pups and humbuckers should largely eliminate those but not radio frequencies. Is this correct?

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

It seems to me the shielding is to help with radio frequencies and not hum or buzz. Noiseless pups and humbuckers should largely eliminate those but not radio frequencies. Is this correct?

You are right about the radio frequency aspect, but other interference noise can potentially be picked up as well. It will depend on how carefully the guitar is wired internally if shielding foil is not used. Humbucking pickups by themselves are normally well shielded and there are commercial guitars that forego shielding completely. A lot of people add copper foil as a precaution and I don’t have enough first hand experience to give advice about exactly when it is needed.

 

[Rick]

On humbucker guitars I don't bother with sheilding.

 

[ragamuffin]

Not worth it imo

 

[Spud]

I would only do it if you will be playing an air base.

 

[GuitarMadCap]

I would only do it if you will be playing an air base.

Definitely no air base gigs in the near future. My drummer’s house has some serious wiring/grounding issues I believe. Shielding might help with my noises and it would be easier than confronting him about his out of date electrical issues.

I’m most likely going to be building a Strat with vintage pickups first before the guitar with the pickups I mentioned above. Perhaps I’ll do the copper shielding on the new Strat and see if it handles radio frequencies different from my older Strats.

 

[Rick]

I use a Voodoo Labs power thingy,. I don't know if they make it anymore, but in conjunction with powering the pedals (isolating them) and having a power output for the amp (also isolating it), does something to the electricity and greatly reduced nasty hum, just down to regular hum. Also, I plug it into a surge protector that "conditions' the power whatever that means. I think the surge protector is Furman. I recommend checking those out before bothering with shielding. The surge protector is like $50, and the power thingy is like $200. I highly recommend the voodoo labs power thingy as it somehow cleaned up the AC line and delivers consistent power.

 

[GuitarMadCap]

Thanks! I’ll check into those. I really appreciate all the information.

 

[Strat Avenger]

Totally not necessary with dual-coil pickups.

 

[JohnnyHardtail]

IMO The 5-way blade switch needs to have its frame grounded to protect from esd (static discharge). I normally use a piece of copper foil on the front of the control cavity that connects the grounds for the volume pot and tone pots to the 5-way blade. I also solder ground wires between each of the pots, so the copper foil is to supplement this.

 

[oliviaadair]

IMO The 5-way blade switch needs to have its frame grounded to protect from esd (static discharge). I normally use a piece of copper foil on the front of the control cavity that connects the grounds for the volume pot and tone pots to the 5-way blade. I also solder ground wires between each of the pots, so the copper foil is to supplement this.

Copper foil sounds like a smart choice to ensure a good ground connection and protect against static discharge.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

Definitely no air base gigs in the near future. My drummer’s house has some serious wiring/grounding issues I believe. Shielding might help with my noises and it would be easier than confronting him about his out of date electrical issues.

I’m most likely going to be building a Strat with vintage pickups first before the guitar with the pickups I mentioned above. Perhaps I’ll do the copper shielding on the new Strat and see if it handles radio frequencies different from my older Strats.

This is contrary to most experience/advice shared on this forum - especially by its more visible/trusted members - but I have found worthwhile improvement on both single-coil AND humbucker guitars with as thorough shielding as possible, including coax wherever you can tolerate/fit it (that last part IS generally advised). It might have to do with the bad wiring or interference in my house/area, but shielding has always helped and there are instruments I'm still underway with improving in that regard. This is even with isolated power supplies, power conditioner, and no pedals/straight into amp, for me.

 

[electric__steve]

I'm on Team Shield. There's no drawback, and potential benefit, so why not do it? Strats get copper tape in the pickup jack route, and I have some Belden 8451 wire that I use to the jack from the pickup circuits. It's shielded, and I use its shield to tie the jack cavity shielding to the rest of the cavity shielding.

 

[Bruce Campbell]

I'm on Team Shield. There's no drawback, and potential benefit, so why not do it? Strats get copper tape in the pickup jack route, and I have some Belden 8451 wire that I use to the jack from the pickup circuits. It's shielded, and I use its shield to tie the jack cavity shielding to the rest of the cavity shielding.

I just shielded a '78 P-Bass and Warmoth Strat that have always been annoying with ground noise pops etc. when hands come on/off the strings - I can't even detect a pop now, and the noise level now with hands off the strings is basically where it was before WITH hands on. During normal playing noise and said pops are also significantly better and not showing up in recorded tracks like before. So I'd have to recommend just doing as well as you possibly can with shielding in most cases, unless keeping vintage stuff stock is the concern.

 

[jay4321]

I've been running an ISP Hum Extractor/Decimator setup and haven't had to have one of these discussions in a while

 

[Strat Avenger]

I use conductive paint in cavities, and aluminum tape on covers & pickguards. So much easier and it works.

 

[Hodgo]

Bill Lawrence Website

You absolutely can change the guitars sound and reduce additional sources of noise with additional shielding even with humbuckers

Whether that is beneficial or not is entirely up to your ears

 

[Heft]

If you don't want to shield and are having noise issues a noise gate should work too. So technically you don't need to shield anything.
That said, I personally shield everything though and don't gate.

 

[Strat Avenger]

I don't care for noise gates. I don't like the way they cut off the decay of notes.