Just sheilded my strat....Help

[Illini1330]

There is even more buz than before. Theres a total of 3 stages of buzz. I touch the strings, and its the loudest, I let go and theres more buzz. I touch metal on the amp and the buzz goes away. I didn't shelield the body cavity, only the pick gaurd. I didn't ground the pickgaurd. Did I not re-ground the wire from the tremlo the right way? Does the sheilding have to be grounded? How should I ground the sheilding if it needs to be grounded? Sorry for the stupid questions.

[rspst14]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

Yes, the shielding needs to be grounded. First, I would recommend shielding the entire cavity, as well as the pickguard, and the part of the body that the pickguard touches when it's screwed on to the body. It'll work much better if you do it that way.

Did you shield with paint or copper foil? If you used paint, I'd recommend shielding the rest of the cavity as I mentioned above. Then drill a small screw into the body in the control cavity, and run a wire from the screw to ground.

If you used copper foil, hopefully you used the kind with conductive adhesive. Otherwise, you'll need a small bit of solder to connect each extra piece of foil you used. You can solder directly to the foil to ground it.

Ryan

[Quencho092]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

how bout aluminum? and about that drilling into the control cavity, is there any alternative to actually drilling the guitar? So you cover the cavity and pickguard in foil, then drill a screw into the cavity with a wire to ground? Can you clarify on the screw part? Where is the screw attached to the shield?

[rspst14]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

The screw method is only if you shield with paint, rather than foil. If you use foil, you can solder a ground wire directly to the foil.

Depending on the guitar, you may or may not have to use a screw to ground the shield. If you use several good coats of shielding paint, and the metal from the controls is touching the paint, you shouldn't need to use the screw method if all the parts are sufficiently grounded.

You can use aluminum foil and adhesive spray in place of copper shielding tape, it should work just as well if you do it properly. But one way or another, the shield has to be grounded.

Ryan

[Jeff_H]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

Check your connections to your input jack also. If you reverse the hot lead and the ground at the jack, it will make an awful humming noise.

[Illini1330]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

Ahh^^ thanks, I think thats what I did.

[Illini1330]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

So I should ground the foil on the pickgaurd?

[korovamilkdud]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

It doesn't matter where you ground the foil, so long as your shielding is consistent. Ideally you would solder the foil together when you use different pieces.

The input switcharoo is a pretty common mistake. And make sure you only use one ground point, made a world of difference for me. I've got everything grounded to the back of my bridge tone pot.

[rspst14]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

Here's another idea...if you shield with paint, and you have a piece of foil with conductive adhesive, couldn't you tape down a small piece of foil and then solder the wire to that? Anyone know?

Ryan

[Twang Man]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

If you ground the pickguard by way of a wire going from the pickguard shielding to the volume pot or to the pickup cavity then you want to make sure the pickup adjustment screws don't come in contact with the shielding foil on the back of the pickguard. I think that would cause a grounding loop. Someone correct me if am wrong.

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: Just sheilded my strat....Help

If you ground the pickguard by way of a wire going from the pickguard shielding to the volume pot or to the pickup cavity then you want to make sure the pickup adjustment screws don't come in contact with the shielding foil on the back of the pickguard. I think that would cause a grounding loop. Someone correct me if am wrong.

Actually i'm curious about that as well... when i was shielding I just pretty much tack soldered every piece of copper tape together, and grounded every pot to the pickguard's tape, screws were what touched the pickguards grounding to the body, AS WELL as a grounding wire from the volume pot's round nut to a screw under the bridge pickup in the body. To put it bluntly EVERYTHING is grounded to each other! I have great hum performance. PC Monitors still cause me some hum though as well as other sources of interference