Shielding a Tele - what's actually sensible/necessary?

TimmyO

As the subject really - assembling a Tele from parts, is it advisable to paint the cavities with shielding paint ?

Scratchplate shield?

T'internet seems to have many views on the subject

thanks 

ICBM

TimmyO said:

As the subject really - assembling a Tele from parts, is it advisable to paint the cavities with shielding paint ?

Yes.

TimmyO said:

Scratchplate shield?

No.

The Tele is actually reasonably well-shielded - better than the Strat, anyway - by the control plate, bridge, bridge pickup baseplate and neck pickup cover. Shielding the cavities (making sure the paint goes into the jack tunnel) will cover everything else apart from the wiring channel to the neck pickup. If you tightly twist the neck pickup wires that will help a lot - don't use shielded cable, that will muddy the tone.

Remember that the shielding paint in the neck pickup cavity needs to be connected to the ground too, or it won't do anything! Just connect it to the pickup ground - you don't need an extra wire from the control cavity.

TimmyO

Thanks

So just attach the neck pickup ground to the neck pickup cavity (painted) and make sure there is paint continuity from control cavity to neck pickup cavity? 

ICBM

TimmyO said:

So just attach the neck pickup ground to the neck pickup cavity (painted) and make sure there is paint continuity from control cavity to neck pickup cavity? 

You won't be able to get paint continuity from one cavity to the other unless it has an open wiring channel, that's why you need to connect the neck pickup cavity to the neck pickup ground. If it does have an open channel and you can make the paint continuous you don't want the extra connection.

TimmyO

I'm probably being slow but I don't follow.

If the neck pickup has 3 conductors, the ground one will attach in the control cavity to a ground there - so what shjould attach to what to ground the neck pickup cavity ? 

Thanks for the help :-) 

ICBM

The same one that's connected to the ground in the control cavity needs to be connected to the shielding in the pickup cavity as well as to the pickup cover, otherwise the shielding won't be grounded and thus will do nothing.

TimmyO

Ah right I get it - attach the same wire in 2 places. Ta.