Hi Folks,.
I am building an electric guitar [ made my own box ] using a metal sign for a top, and wondered if it would be a good idea to put that copper shielding on the "lid"/sign. Also wondered if I do shield the sign if it would also be a good idea to shield the inside of the guitar cavity. Any help would be appreciated. I'll be using a pickup from Gitty for the build.
Thx
"rickyboy"
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My band played a gig in a little bar in an older part of town with apparently really bad wiring, really bad noise through my amp, and as I moved around, turned, changed angles, the noise changed pitch/tone/volume, and the character of the noise changed when the kitchen used the industrial grade mixer. Clear indication of RF noise. The only place it disappeared was when I straddled the floor monitor and turned 2/3 away from the audience, which didn't present well visually, lol.
That's the blues
I fell for all that over shielding once. Never again. If your not going to be playing under florescent lights or within 20 yards of a large electrical station you will never hear the difference. Most of your pops and hums are going to come from the electricity itself. Or improperly grounded equipment. Not much beyond getting a line conditioner is going to help there. Lot cheaper just to live with it.
It just happens that I got a good example today that says... don't worry too much about that...
This is a picture of the connections (wiring) of a guitar I had to check for a friend.
One pickup has a shielded wire, one has only 2 separate wires (not twisted) the wire going to the output jack is shielded, and finally the controls are grounded together with a black wire. The 2 volumes controls and the tone are connected with a sinple red wire.
No shielding, just a simple wiring.
So if it's good for a big brand, it's ok for you. Go simple first.
I thought that it could help you understand a bit more what was explained in words...
Cheers,
Gilles
Btw, the problem was not in the wiring... it was the output jack, so...
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The cavity cover plate was shielded with aluminum paper
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hi and thx to everyone for your help......I'm not a complete idiot but I have to say that some of this in the explanations is like a diff. language. { there's a reason I printed the newspaper for a living and wasn't an electrician ..ha ha ha } But I WILL figure this out.One thing I liked hearing was that not everything needs to be shielded but everything should be grd.'d. And that you can use aluminum foil to shield and that it doesn't need to be copper. I have some one sided metal tape I could use under the pick up and the vol/tone controls/pots. I'll keep checking back here to see if there is additional info.. Thx folks !!!!!!!!!
You're of the right track.
Nothing about being an idiot here, I worked in electronics all my life, until I retired. So these things are easier for me. But don't ask me to take care of your budget, I'm not good with numbers.
Have fun...
Oh, and I tried the aluminum foil for aliens, and maybe that I should had tried the thicker one because it didn't work...
And that's why I shield my guitars, because I picked up a strange radio station a few times when I was younger, because the strings were acting like an antenna...
Only in Bob's country bunker...
Rollin Rollin Rollin..
For example, I like to shield my guitars because there is a lot of electrical devices where I use my guitars. But Sometimes I only twist the wires and connect all the negative sides to a commun point which will be a grounding point.
I began connecting (wiring) the electronics of a guitar this afternoon, And I took a photo of the pickup wires.
As you can see, the is a black and an orange wire. The black one will be connected to the metal part (ground) of the jack, I always make sure that the strings will be connected to the ground. In this guitar, I will connect the metal plate of the string holder to the ground.
There was no shield around the pickups wires, but just because I must have OCD... I decided to add a shield to the wires. I took the wires out of a shielded cable, and inserted the pickup wires into that shield.
This will become a shielded cable, and I will connect the shield and the black wire together and then to the commun ground.
Btw, you don't have to read this message... but I hope that the picture will help you to understand.
Good luck
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