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Electric tone - it can do. Paint is fine, and foil lining the control cavities also doesn't seem to change anything, but overdoing foil around the pickups does seem to make a difference, and the closer the shielding is to the pickups the worse it is. If it's conductive metal foil the effect could either be due to capacitance or the generation of 'eddy currents' in the foil, just as with metal pickup covers - only not as much, because those are thicker and much closer to the coils normally.
I've come across a few examples of over-shielding dulling the tone on Strat-type guitars - including my one many years ago when I was just starting to mod guitars - because I'd read that you could cure the typical Strat noise by foil lining the pickup covers and replacing the wiring with shielded cable. Firstly it didn't cure the noise (as I only realised later, that's mostly magnetic, not electrical interference) and secondly it very noticeably muddied the tone. I removed it all - very annoying given how much of a faff it was to do in the first place! - and shielded the cavity with paint instead and it was fine.
"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
To be honest, I don't find it quite as effective as a shield as foil anyway - although it's certainly less hassle to do than a really complete foil job. But it's a good halfway house.
"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
(formerly customkits)
ideally though, to *truly* shield a guitar properly you need to make a faraday cage. If you’re just going to use copper foil or paint in the cavities and not convert it into a faraday cage (ie. shielding the cavity covers or pickguard so that when screwed back down in place it comes into contact with the shielding inside the guitar, it’s not as effective.
https://sixstringsupplies.co.uk/
Our YouTube Channel for handy "How-To" Wiring Tutorials
I'm more into gibbo stuff and no one really complains about them, maybe a bit of p90 noise but nothing worth bothering with imo so I don't
I'm of the opinion if it ain't broke don't fix it
(formerly customkits)
I just worked on this - which is a Custom Shop Fender, no less - and the wiring is an utter disgrace. Unsurprisingly it was very noisy - there's no shielding at all, and there's miles (well, at least a foot in total ) of loose single-core wire which all picks up buzz and hum.
Simply taking it all apart and re-doing it like this at least *halved* the noise level, without adding any shielding - and without altering the tone in any way. Twisting the wires together both partially shields the 'hot' wire against buzz and gives pseudo-balanced hum rejection.
"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
Looks much better too and more professional,
(formerly customkits)
I need to tidy up the wiring in my JM, you know how you see those photos with amazingly neat wiring like this -
Well mine is nothing like that, must be about a mile of extra cable in it. It's silent though.
I think that’s highly unlikely. There’s no significant change in capacitance, unlike with using extra shielding.
"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
Twisting makes sense, computer network cable (cat5 etc) doesn't have a shield but uses what's called "twisted pair", ie. each pair of conductors (there are 8 in total) are twisted together to avoid noise being induced from outside.
Very very pleased...!
A lot of the stuff I have read and seen on youtube about shielding recently seems to point to its better (read easier) to use shielded wire for your circuits than using paint or copper tape to create a Faraday cage...
http://www.rabswoodguitars.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/RabsWoodGuitars/
My Youtube page
To be honest I have found conductive paint to be a less effective shield than thoroughly-done foil though, so it's likely that shielded cable may be more effective than paint.
What I mean by 'throughly-done' foil is a complete cavity lining of copper tape with all joints soldered across in at least one spot to ensure complete conductivity, and a wire linking it to a ground for the same reason - not just relying on contact between the pieces to make the connection. I've done a few of these in instruments which were still noisy even with a painted cavity, and cured it.
"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
Yes... I do shield my guitars now with copper tape and I also have read the same thing about joining the pieces with wire and grounding that wire... I do it by running a piece of wire from one corner so it goes over each leaf and then stick some copper tape on top of it rather than soldering and run that back to the control cavity where it get twisted with the bridge and other grounds. Seems to work ok for me. Had no complaints so far
In saying that ive sold a guitar which had no shielding at all and has been used in studios and on stage and he says hes never had an issue.. Go figure But I just think now, better to do it than not cos I do know that electrical interference can be a big issue for some.
When I was in a band years ago, the other guitarists had something about his rig where he would occasionally pick up some local radio frequencies ... (it was a Strat)...
http://www.rabswoodguitars.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/RabsWoodGuitars/
My Youtube page