internal tape shielding take away any tone

H

halfmanhalfbiscuit

New member
hi, my tele with vintage 54s had bad hum which was inappropriate in some settings, but i could live with it. A guitar tech put conductive tape in the cavaties to prevent the hum. Does it alter the tone even a tiny bit? Are there any disadvantages to shielding like this?
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

if it aint attached to the cable ground it will act like an antenna
create noise

other than that

no
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

I think that there is a part of hum that we perceive as part of the tone. When you remove the hum there can definitely be a perception of having last part of the tone.

Personnaly, I prefer good shielding and can live with any small difference it may make.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

It has been said by more than one tech that the tape can muffle some vibration, and therefore affect the sound. Personally I switched to the paint simply because it is 100 times easier to apply than the tape.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

Ayrton said:
It has been said by more than one tech that the tape can muffle some vibration, and therefore affect the sound. Personally I switched to the paint simply because it is 100 times easier to apply than the tape.
Click to expand...

paint is easier

tape muffling sound???

hmmmm

naw cant bite on that

EDIT
then stickers would be tone suckers too

naw
 
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Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

I have read about concerns that certain types of shielding affect the capacitance of the circuit, impacting tone. Personally, I'd rather lose a bit of frequency response than deal excessive content at 60 Hz.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

aleclee said:
I have read about concerns that certain types of shielding affect the capacitance of the circuit, impacting tone. Personally, I'd rather lose a bit of frequency response than deal excessive content at 60 Hz.
Click to expand...

That's what I've read as well. Shielding the entire cavities and grounding it all together adds capacitance and as a result rolls off some treble, or "sparkle".

It sounds like corksniffer to me, but I'm sure 90% of the deaf population hears better than me. And I mean that in the least derogatory way possible.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

Ayrton said:
It has been said by more than one tech that the tape can muffle some vibration, and therefore affect the sound. Personally I switched to the paint simply because it is 100 times easier to apply than the tape.
Click to expand...

I have heard only a handful of techs suggest shielding alters tone but it ain't because of "muffling vibration". Its because they claim the additional capacitance introduced rolls off a little high end. The absence of the high end noise component of the noise that is no longer their is likely what they are no longer hearing.

I have not found any noticeable change in tone with a properly shielded, cleanly wired instrument.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

halfmanhalfbiscuit said:
hi, my tele with vintage 54s had bad hum which was inappropriate in some settings, but i could live with it. A guitar tech put conductive tape in the cavaties to prevent the hum. Does it alter the tone even a tiny bit? Are there any disadvantages to shielding like this?
Click to expand...

Which cavities? Electronics cavity or pickup cavity?
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

Having just sheilded the guard and cavities of a guitar I use a lot I can't say I hear a bit of difference.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

I don't buy it. I shielded my '88 frankenstrat with copper tape as I built it, and to this day it still cuts like a knife. (Na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na, na-na...)
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

The treble loss caused by capacitance of shielding tape, even on a huge control cavity, is insignificant compared to the treble lost via bleed through a 500k or even 1 meg pot, or heck, even a 15 foot cable.

This is assuming, of course, that the shield is in any way connected to the signal path, which it is not. A properly made shield absorbs EM interference from the environment and shunts it directly to ground. If your shield is interfering with your signal, you have done something wrong.

This is another one of those Internet rumours that has absolutely no basis in reality and needs to go away ASAP.
 
Re: internal tape shielding take away any tone

The capacitance is definitely negligible compared to the huge capacitance that the guitar cable has. That's easy to measure and the topic can be closed.

However, if you have shielding near the pickups, such as in the cavities of a Strat pickup, there will be eddie currents. Enough to be audible? No idea. You can't directly measure the effect that this has on the resonance peak of the pickup.

Also, there is a possibility that the hum itself enhances the sound. Namely for dirty sounds you would add "salt" to the input that isn't at all harmonic with the notes you are playing and is hence causing the clipping to go beserk (think of playing a Major 7 chord with a metal distortion). Normally that's a bad thing but for a very light crunch this added "salt" could cause the added randomness from clipping to be an enhancement.
 
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