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Ok, so ive never really had this chat before since I haven't been on a forum with so many builders before.
As I was talking about on my Korina build thread. Before this build I never felt shielding was necessary. My reason being that in all my years of playing ive always played a Gibson and none of them are shielded and ive never ever had an issue with interference at all.. So my thinking was well is it even necessary....? And indeed have never had issues with my own builds and interference...
I decided however that this latest build im doing wanted it (it whispered in my ear ) and so went with the copper tape route.
So this leads me to questions.. What do you guys think about shielding in general ? and what sort have you found the best (tape or paint or whatever)?
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Shielding is necessary where there is exposed single-core wiring for any distance, or you will definitely get noise. Like Roland I much prefer copper tape, I find it far more effective than shielding paint and easier to make sure it's a complete shield - I solder across each joint (just one spot is enough) too.
Just don't overdo it on something like a Strat - too much shielding too close to the pickups dulls the tone, so don't shield the pickup covers. I did this once thinking I was doing a really thorough job, then had to take it out again when I realised why the tone was so muddy. It's ok to shield the cavity in the body.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I had a Gibson P90 LP model that I also had no problems with. Then went to one venue - and couldn't use it at all (there was a bank of fluorescent lights at the bar). Then went to another and the same happened (that was something causing it from the room below the venue room). Had to sell it in the end.
I've had that experience too which is why I would not normally use any guitar without at least one hum-cancelling setting - even if it's two RWRP single coils - as my only gigging guitar. I have done in the past, but that was in a band where I only used a clean sound so it was never a noticeable problem - but I've also been in at least one venue where even that would have been.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Has anyone done some proper experiments of shielded vs non shielded single coil guitar in exactly the same conditions ?
I'm always under the impression that a lot of it is hearsay and psychological, but I'd be happy to be schooled if someone had some scientific info ?
Yet the guitar has very little noise simply because all the pickup positions are noise cancelling.
I originally found it as an aerosol - you can still get it at RS components.
However, I got a bigger 5L non-aerosol tin of it (as it would go a lot further as much of the 400ml tin was propellant) - cost me £700+ but we shared it between a few luthiers so the cost was shared)
I screen all my own builds - I think it makes a difference and it's very good on noisy strats and teles so we get to use it as a treatment during repair work as a requested extra.
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
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4 inchs od unshielded wire between a Strat and a hotrod deluxe on the drive channel will produce noise that was easily measurable on a DB metre ..... because of this I had to modify one of my own designs
I have heard the difference because we get very noisy guitars in that leave with much lower noise once we have added shielding.
Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.
Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.
Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com. Facebook too!
http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/99720/tele-deluxe-hum-fix#latest
However for single coils / P90 I just don't get it - the coil itself is basically 1/4 mile of antenna ( and is in fact very similar in design to some amateur radio antennas ) and will pick up a ridiculous amount of interference, so I just don't see how shielding a few inches of wires is going to make a noticeable difference to a signal which is already irreparably noisy.
The two types of noise are actually different, and you can quite effectively stop the single-coil noise by using RWRP pickup pairs - which retains the single-coil tone - or if you really have to, by orienting the guitar at a precise (usually awkward!) angle to the stage. These things don't stop the type of noise that shielding does at all though - which is omnidirectional - so it's still worth shielding even a single-coil guitar.
On a Strat in particular, the unshielded wire from the jack to the volume pot is a major source of noise, and if you do nothing else, replacing this with shielded cable will make a difference - particularly if you often play with the guitar volume down a bit, since it comes after the volume pot and so the noise is always present at full volume (unless the pot is right off, which does ground it out). Shielding the control cavity and the wiring channel will also help even on a Strat without RWRP pickups.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Thanks for the input everyone..
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To slightly sidetrack this thread, how would you go about shielding a hollowbody-style guitar? Or is it the case that you would just live with the interference?
I ask this as I will be building another hollowbody or two, and I'd like to make them as unwanted-sound-proof as I can...
Cheers,
Adam
If you want to do it really thoroughly you could use shielding cans on all these as Gibson did in the 1970s, but it's a lot of work and makes future maintenance - even simply cleaning the pots - difficult.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein