Who shields their guitars?

lincolnblue

As per my recent threads I'm doing up my Strat copy and am probably going to shield the scratch plate and cavities.
Just curious to know how many people shield guitars and how many don't bother?

jellybelly

I have though it doesn't always work brilliantly. Putting an aluminium scratchplate on my Jazzmaster did far more to reduce hum! If you're going to have it apart though you might as well

SteveF

I haven't in the past, but I do have a couple that seem to hum quite a bit that I am planning on having a go at shielding.  My Strat has a full aluminium plate on the back of the scratch plate, but still hums, so I am going to try shielding the cavities with copper tape and run shielded wire to the jack.  Hopefully that will help. 

ICBM

It's important to distinguish between *hum* - magnetic field interference which shielding will not do anything about, only hum-cancelling or RWRP pickups will - and *buzz*, electrical field interference which shielding is very effective against. Hum-cancelling pickups don't stop buzz either.

It's become more difficult now because many modern power supplies produce "hum" interference which sounds buzzy - but it's fairly easy to tell them apart -

If turning the guitar orientation round alters or cancels the noise, it's hum (from pickup coils), and if it doesn't but touching the strings or metalwork on the guitar alters or stops the noise, it's buzz (from unshielded wiring).

Most humbucking pickups do also have shielded cabling, so it's normally only any exposed wiring in the control cavities which causes buzz, but uncovered pickup coils do also contribute.

SteveF

@ICBM, yes, a couple of mine buzz rather than hum and it drops very significantly when you touch anything metal on the guitar. 

RonnieHotdogs

Peter Belt foil or nothing   http://www.pwbelectronics.co.uk/free-sample-of-pwb-silver-rainbow-foil

ICBM

RonnieHotdogs said:

Peter Belt foil or nothing   http://www.pwbelectronics.co.uk/free-sample-of-pwb-silver-rainbow-foil

Well it is April 1st...

I assumed Peter Belt and his ludicrous nonsense had long since disappeared, but apparently not!

p90fool

Nope, never have in over 40 years and never had a problem. 

SteveF

RonnieHotdogs said:

Peter Belt foil or nothing   http://www.pwbelectronics.co.uk/free-sample-of-pwb-silver-rainbow-foil

WTF?

johnhe

I’ve never done it to any of my strats, but I did buy a strat once where someone had shielded it internally. As far as I could tell, it didn’t make a single identifiable bit of difference. But it was a total pain in the ass to work with the guitar afterwards - I had all sorts of earthing issues when changing pickups at a later date.

One of my strats is fitted with Kinmans. If I have a problem, I use that one, or a humbucker equipped guitar. If buzz (or hum or whatever) is a big enough issue at a gig (for example with induction hearing loops which are a nightmare) then shielding won’t make enough difference imo.

stickyfiddle

I think my strat has foil on the pickguard, but only if it came like that. My JM has a metal shield under the guard because JMs tend to be buzzy fuckers otherwise with all that unshielded wire everywhere. But even that is not the full guard - only about half the area iirc. Nothing else I own has anything. 

ICBM

johnhe said:

I’ve never done it to any of my strats, but I did buy a strat once where someone had shielded it internally. As far as I could tell, it didn’t make a single identifiable bit of difference. But it was a total pain in the ass to work with the guitar afterwards - I had all sorts of earthing issues when changing pickups at a later date.

Then it wasn't done correctly. Don't judge it by a bodge job.

johnhe said:

One of my strats is fitted with Kinmans. If I have a problem, I use that one, or a humbucker equipped guitar. If buzz (or hum or whatever) is a big enough issue at a gig (for example with induction hearing loops which are a nightmare) then shielding won’t make enough difference imo.

That's true up to a point, but recently the guitar player in my band bought a humbucker guitar which sounded great and didn't hum, but it did buzz - badly and annoyingly, with any amount of gain. I found that it was fitted with unshielded wire from the jack to the control cavity - simply replacing this with shielded cable fixed the problem completely.

Most Gibson-style humbucker guitars are *also* shielded properly from the factory - usually with fully shielded cable throughout - and most vintage-style Fenders are not, so you might think they are the same problem, but they're actually not.

SteveF

One of the guitars I have some buzzing with is my Les Paul.  As far as I can tell the only exposed unshielded wire is the little bit seen here from the selector switch.  The wire from the pickups, to the jack and between the switch and control cavity is all shielded.  There's also a shielding plate under the pots.  Would some foil on the back of the cavity cover make any difference? 

ICBM

I would try shortening the wires as much as you possibly can first - the green and shield (under the yellow sleeve) wires should only just be longer than the grey outer sheath, right up to the terminal, which will let you make the black wire only reach across to the other terminal, and the red and white wires can be much shorter. You don't need the yellow sleeving at all if it's done right.

Check the switch cavity and see if it's the same there too.

If that doesn't make enough difference, foil on the back of the backplate and round the walls of the cavity will probably do it, as long as you make sure they're both connected to ground - it doesn't work at all otherwise.

The amount of unshielded wire which was causing the trouble in the guitar I mentioned was about the same as the combined length of unshielded wire there, if it matters.

SteveF

Thanks @ICBM I'll give that a go. 

sixstringsupplies

I don't, but that's because I'm a bedroom player 

If you play live regularly, surrounded by lights/equipment and therefore more susceptible to interference, then a good idea.
But only if you get interference.

ie. if it's not broke, don't try to fix it.

MagicPigDetective

My Les Paul buzzes with gain. It stops when I touch the strings or bridge. When I put my hand on the cavity covers the buzz increases. The wiring looks similar to the photo posted above. Same recommendations here, @ICBM ?

 

ICBM

MagicPigDetective said:

My Les Paul buzzes with gain. It stops when I touch the strings or bridge. When I put my hand on the cavity covers the buzz increases. It looks similar to the photo posted above. Same recommendations here, @ICBM ?

Yes, definitely. Extra buzz when you put your hand near those wires confirms that at least some of it is coming from them.

Jeremiah

Any ideas why a guitar with 2 humbuckers would still hum a bit when one pickup is selected, but the hum completely disappears when both pickups are selected?

Are two humbuckers together somehow better at cancelling hum than one alone?

fandango

To those with Gibsoon Les Pauls, I had a buzzing LP that kinda became unplayable. The cure was to copper shield the cavities. Still got the guitar, and no no buzzing. Happy days.

Dominic

I always get a static buzz from the pick guard on Tokai guitars........especially les Paul and 335 
I dont know why but I wipe them with tumble dryer anti-static sheet like Bounce and it goes away for a few days