To shield or not to shield

[Chistopher]

Re: To shield or not to shield

If you are playing live in clubs under show lights, whips with PDUs, stage pins and twist locks -especially in a single coil config, you are going to want to add copper tape the inside cavity and solder ONE wire (ONE PATH) direct to the ground of the 1/4" guitar jack IF the tape isn't touching the control pots (IE you cut around them) -make sure there is only one path from everything to the 1/4" -otherwise, you will have ground loops noise.

Ground loops cannot exist in an electric guitar. The only path to ground on an electric guitar is the amp. You can have fifty wires grounding the shield on your guitar and it will be no different than if you only had 1.

[NegativeEase]

Re: To shield or not to shield

Ground loops cannot exist in an electric guitar. The only path to ground on an electric guitar is the amp. You can have fifty wires grounding the shield on your guitar and it will be no different than if you only had 1.

Ground loops is the wrong terminology, I apologize, you don't want multipath grounding through audio components such as Pots, switches, and especially active components when you can avoid it.

[ehdwuld]

Re: To shield or not to shield

Ground loops is the wrong terminology, I apologize, you don't want multipath grounding through audio components such as Pots, switches, and especially active components when you can avoid it.

Do you mean like al Les Paul guitars since the 50s?
Two volumes each with a ground
Then those combined to the Jack

Every two or three volume circuit has "multiple ground " combinations to Jack

Dont they?

[NegativeEase]

Re: To shield or not to shield

Do you mean like al Les Paul guitars since the 50s?
Two volumes each with a ground
Then those combined to the Jack

Every two or three volume circuit has "multiple ground " combinations to Jack

Dont they?

Passive Humbucking set ups probably not a concern, with Single Coils, active pickups and such, a single path for a Faraday shield in a cavity is one path out of best practice.

[Chistopher]

Re: To shield or not to shield

The logic I've always thought that the "one ground only" idea came from is that although multiple grounds in itself isn't a bad thing, it opens more opportunity for a bad soldier joint to introduce noise. It also looks a lot neater to use a single ground.