shielded wire loom for pickup wires?

[EDG]

Hello, new here. I installed a set of Black Winters last night into an LTD EC256FM. The volume pots and the tone/coil tap pot were pretty far apart so i had to cut back alot of the black wire cover to get enough wire to reach. The Black coating on the pickup wires had shielding inside silver and blue. How important is this and is there a product someone can guide me to to either wrap or tape around the wires ? Is this needed? The ground wires arent really near each other, I ran one along the top of the cavity, and the other down by the bottom. Is this something I need to do? They sound great. The only thing I noticed is the coil tap function is nowhere near as much different as it was on the stock pickups. Perhaps this is just part of the new pickup design? or could it indicate a problem?
Thanks
Ed

[ArtieToo]

Hello, new here. I installed a set of Black Winters last night into an LTD EC256FM. The volume pots and the tone/coil tap pot were pretty far apart so i had to cut back alot of the black wire cover to get enough wire to reach. The Black coating on the pickup wires had shielding inside silver and blue. How important is this and is there a product someone can guide me to to either wrap or tape around the wires ? Is this needed? The ground wires arent really near each other, I ran one along the top of the cavity, and the other down by the bottom. Is this something I need to do? They sound great. The only thing I noticed is the coil tap function is nowhere near as much different as it was on the stock pickups. Perhaps this is just part of the new pickup design? or could it indicate a problem?
Thanks
Ed

Within the confines of a control cavity, shielding is not super important. I've done that before too. You should be ok.

Split sound should be considerably different than series mode, but only slightly different than parallel mode. Double check your wiring to make sure everything is connected properly.

[ThreeChordWonder]

If the control cavity is shielded you shouldn't need individual shielding on the wires within.

It's always a "should I or shouldn't I" question about chopping into the original pickup cable, or indeed, shortening it. I've taken to soldering "tails" to the ends of the original wires in such situations. Done properly, the soldered joints have ZERO effect on the signal, the somewhat thicker wires are more robust, if you do have to chop back and re-solder you're chopping back cheaper "sacrifical" wire, and it can make building complicated push-pull circuits on the bench far easier.

Of you want to shield long runs, e.g. like between the switch and the control cavity on a Les Paul, use the stuff below. $20 for a 10 foot length. It will take 4 individual cloth covered wires. Solder "tails" to the sheathing on your bench, then solder those tails to your grounding points. A little heat shrink on the ends keeps things neat.


Electriduct 1/4" Tinned Copper Metal Braid Sleeving Flexible EMI RFI Shielding Wire Mesh (0.16" Diameter) - 10 Feet https://a.co/d/5VZy72S

[beaubrummels]

Wire shield helps but isn't going to cause a major problem. Black Winters, when split, turn Fendery and lower output like the Duncan Custom does, IME. So something sounds off on the wiring there.

[ThreeChordWonder]

If you're not getting a reduction in volume /output when you coil split, then check that the red and white pair are grounding when you activate the push pull. If they're not then you're not actually managing to split them.

Also make sure you're grounding each red and white pair separately. You need to ensure that the two pairs aren't inadvertently connected to each other, except when grounded of course. This can be done using a separate push pull for each pickup or using one push pull, connecting one red and white pair to one "common" contact and the other pair to the other common contact. The common contacts are labeled C1 and C2 on a CTS push pull (with the black plastic casing) or are the middles in each set of two sets of three contacts on a Bourns type. If the two red and white pairs are connected, you're probably getting cross connected pickup coils.