Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

D

DrewB

New member
Using the aluminum tape that HVAC guys use on ducts (not duct tape!), I shielded a couple of strats. The tape covers the back of the pickguards and the insides of the body cavities. I made sure that the tape came up onto the front of the body so it contacts the tape on the pickguard.

Anyway, now I hear ticking through at least a couple of my amps with these guitars. My tele, which has not had the shielding treatment, doesn't cause the ticking.

Has anyone else here experienced this? Is there a solution, short of tearing out the shielding?
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

hmmm ... what kind of ticking? ... like a regular 1 pulse per second ticking like a clock? or something else ? ... is it at high gain? or all the time? .... i am not sure aluminum tape is your best choice as a conductor/shield - copper would work better ... and are you sure you grounded the foil/tape to the output jack 'ground' properly?

my first thought was that it is picking up the quartz movement from your watch :D ... don't laugh, i've heard of stranger things

t4d
 
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Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

Good grief, it was my watch. I would have never dreamed...
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

DrewB said:
Good grief, it was my watch. I would have never dreamed...
Click to expand...

:laugh2:

Gotta love pickup wiring... this kind of thing happens all the time... :D
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

Does anyone know how to shield a Citizen quartz?

:laugh2:
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

DrewB
You could look at this as a WAS opportunity...someone out there must offer a boutique model, fully shielded and tweaked, using only .00001 tollerance parts, for say $3000:)
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

Ah, another person that wears their watch on their right hand. :) Just look at it this way, it makes a great metronome at 60bpm. ;)
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

I've even heard it occasionally with my watch on my left wrist -- and my guitars have shielding paint at least. Like most noise with SCs, it's all a matter of location, location, location.
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

PFDarkside said:
Ah, another person that wears their watch on their right hand.
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Nope, left wrist. That's why I initially poo-pooed the idea that that's what it could be. I can even hear it faintly with my left hand down by the tuners!
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

tone4days said:
real musicians don't care what time it is :D
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Real musicians have day gigs and want to know how long 'til quittin' time!

:burnout:
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

tone4days said:
real musicians don't care what time it is

:D
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Let the truth be heard. :beerchug:
Coming from a REAL musician :smokin:, it isn't so much that I don't care what time it is, I've just given up on trying to keep track of it. I am possibly the most disorganized person on the face of this earth. Yes, worse than G.W. (I'm Texan, we're allowed to make fun of him):laugh2: Every night, I tell myself, I am going to bed at 1am, regardless of what I'm doing. Pshh!:rolleyes:
Next thing you know, it's 6am, and the morning news is on. I hate it, but I can't help it. Our band is most creative during the hours of 12am to 4am. What am I to do? Actually, I blame this on COLLEGE. I was fine in high school. Got up at 7:30, went to bed around 12. Yeah, school wasn't great, but at least my bed time was decent. Yeah, I know, I'm 22 and already bitchin' about bed time. I got over the whole party scene years ago. Playing guitar was just more enjoyable then getting wasted and waking up with a hang over.
I wouldn't put the guitar down if Penelope Cruz was naked right before me. I would just keep playin' and makin'....Love that is....:laugh2:
 
Re: Foil shielded a guitar, now I hear ticking

PFDarkside said:
Ah, another person that wears their watch on their right hand. :) Just look at it this way, it makes a great metronome at 60bpm. ;)
Click to expand...
it does actually help with timing
 
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