shielding a strat?

[flank]

hey guys.......could you give me some simple shielding techniques to make my strat a tad quieter...... i know of that GuitarNuts site in which he has a very detailed process of sheilding a strat that involved wiring in capacitors and stuff........rather, id like to just find a simpler alternative that might help with a little bit of the noise, is there any techniques like that, are simple and not too time consuming? :smack:

something maybe with just aluminum foil or something?

any suggestions i would deeply appreciate

 

[Quencho092]

Re: shielding a strat?

the guitar nuts shielding can be summarized very easily:

Wire up your strat like usual, but send all of the grounds to a ring terminal, and from there to the negative terminal on the output jack. Don't solder them to the pots.

Put foil on the inside cavity and secure it with spray on elmers glue. Solder a wire from the ring terminal i talked about earlier to a small screw ring terminal that is screwed into the body. This will ground the inside cavity rendering your strat near noiseless.

Dont forget to ground the bridge too.

 

[FretFire]

Re: shielding a strat?

Solder a wire from the ring terminal i talked about earlier to a small screw ring terminal that is screwed into the body. This will ground the inside cavity rendering your strat near noiseless.

Dont forget to ground the bridge too.

I thought you wanted to keep that ring terminal 'o grounds AWAY from the shielded body cavity (I wrapped that whole conglomeration in electrical tape as it said to on the site) and sent either a .1 uF 400V capacitor or wire (your choice) out from there to another ring terminal stuck between a pot casing and the cavity wall. Here's what the site says:

"Insulate the signal return ring connector and any wires or control terminals that might touch the inside of the body when the pickguard is installed. Remember, the body cavity shielding is now our "chassis" ground and we don't want any part of the circuit to touch it, not even those parts of the circuit that are at signal ground."

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: shielding a strat?

The pots are touching the pickguard shielding, the pickguard shielding's connected to the cavity shielding, the cavity shielding's connected to a ring connector which connects to the star ground, all the pickup, volume pot and tone pot grounds are connected the star ground, and the star ground is connected to the output jack. One path to ground for everything is the idea.

John Atchley - the man behind GuitarNuts - is adamant about having a capacitor or capacitor & resistor between the bridge/string ground and the rest of the circuit to avoid electrical shock. I guess whatever the pot shells connect to electrically, and therefore knobs, should also be on the "string" side of the shock protection.

From what I understand, this stuff is seriously important for safety if you play out in locations where the polarity may not be constant between different electrical outlets that are connected to, say, your mic pa and your guitar amp. If you only play at home, then you probably don't need to worry about it.

Chip

 

[stratsandaks]

Re: shielding a strat?

The pots are touching the pickguard shielding, the pickguard shielding's connected to the cavity shielding, the cavity shielding's connected to a ring connector which connects to the star ground, all the pickup, volume pot and tone pot grounds are connected the star ground, and the star ground is connected to the output jack. One path to ground for everything is the idea.

Chip has got it right. The star ground is connected to the cavity shielding, it's all one big electrical can.

To the original question. Sheilding with copper or aluminum foil is pretty much the same process and it takes time. The only thing that I know of to speed up the process is conductive paint like StewMac sells.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Electronics,_pickups/Supplies:_Shielding/Conductive_Shielding_Paint.html

 

[FretFire]

Re: shielding a strat?

The pots are touching the pickguard shielding, the pickguard shielding's connected to the cavity shielding, the cavity shielding's connected to a ring connector which connects to the star ground, all the pickup, volume pot and tone pot grounds are connected the star ground, and the star ground is connected to the output jack. One path to ground for everything is the idea.

On GuitarNuts it says the star ground goes to the output jack AND to a ring connector on one of the pots. Then the pots touch the guard shielding, which touches the cavity shielding. Wouldnt THEN touching the star ground to the cavity shielding create a ground loop? On the site it says to insulate the star ground, not touch it to the cavity shielding...

Or perhaps you guys are saying to send the star to the cavity INSTEAD of to one of the pots and I'm making a stink about nothing :laugh2:

 

[flank]

Re: shielding a strat?

so just shielding with aluminum could help a bit?

 

[rspst14]

Re: shielding a strat?

Yes, shielding with aluminum foil will help if it's done correctly. Personally though, I would strongly recommend the copper foil. Aluminum tears easily and is somewhat difficult to work with. Copper foil is much heavier, and you can also solder directly to it which makes it much easier to ground the shielding. Stay away from the shielding paint. When applied properly it works just as well as the foil, but it makes an absolute mess and it's not easily reversible. It's a good choice for guitars with one or two small cavities, but not a top routed Strat.

Ryan

 

[TheArchitect]

Re: shielding a strat?

Yes, shielding with aluminum foil will help if it's done correctly. Personally though, I would strongly recommend the copper foil. Aluminum tears easily and is somewhat difficult to work with. Copper foil is much heavier, and you can also solder directly to it which makes it much easier to ground the shielding. Stay away from the shielding paint. When applied properly it works just as well as the foil, but it makes an absolute mess and it's not easily reversible. It's a good choice for guitars with one or two small cavities, but not a top routed Strat.

Ryan

I don't know about all that. I've done 3 top routed strats with stew-mac paint. With a little care there is no mess. 3 heavy coats in each. True, you can't just pull it out like you can copper tape but why would you need to?

Of course I enjoy being anal and if paint is good, copper foil over the paint would be even better right? So thats exactly what I did. Overkill? yes. Unecessary? Probably but they all turned out fabulous and are as quiet as any strat I have ever heard with real SC's. I record in front of a PC monitor now with minimal problems. Just have to face left if the gain needs to go up. I couldn't play in the same room with those guitars before shielding them. I've considered Kinman or 2.2's in the past and now the new Duncan noiseless when they are released might make these babies the perfect strats.

 

[MikeRocker]

Re: shielding a strat?

Having tried self-adhesive foil and conductive paint, I have to say the paint is much easier to work with. You have to put on several coats before it's conductive, so check with a multimeter.

 

[Fresh_Start]

Re: shielding a strat?

On GuitarNuts it says the star ground goes to the output jack AND to a ring connector on one of the pots. Then the pots touch the guard shielding, which touches the cavity shielding. Wouldnt THEN touching the star ground to the cavity shielding create a ground loop? On the site it says to insulate the star ground, not touch it to the cavity shielding...

Or perhaps you guys are saying to send the star to the cavity INSTEAD of to one of the pots and I'm making a stink about nothing :laugh2:

My bad - you're right! :blackeye:

The wire screwed down to the inside of the cavity comes from my tremelo claw. I carry the copper shielding up onto the top of the guitar in a couple of places so that it connects to the pickguard shield.

I put a pot through one ring connector so it contacts the pickguard shield, and that ring connector is wired to a second that serves as the star ground. And yes, I do wrap the star ground with tape after everything is wired up.

I also line the bottom (and sometimes sides) of the control cavity with electrical tape to avoid the shorts that seem to happen too often.

Sorry about the confusion and the stupid post.

Chip