Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

[MetalManiac]

Take a look at a couple of my guitars and how well they are shielded to mimimize hum. Now they don't have "Star Grounding", whatever that is.

One has copper shielding and aluminum baseplate.

The other has an a full aluminum shield.;

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[AlexR]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Star ground is where anything that needs to be grounded is individually wired to the one point, which then goes to the jack sleeve.

 

[jeremy]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

If assume if you had a full shield on top and full coverage on the bottom with star ground that would be about as good as you could get

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

How quiet do you get them with a little bit of volume or gain?

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

:dunno: I don't play.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Does the Warmoth have a connection from the body's copper shielding tape to ground? It needs to be grounded to do its job correctly.

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Does the Warmoth have a connection from the body's copper shielding tape to ground? .

^ Yes.

 

[dotsdad]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Oh wait. Just saw it. Ok, youre all good there. Ignore that last post. nder:

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Star grounding does nothing of any benefit in a guitar. A guitar has one ground point, and that's at the output jack. All internal ground points are at the same potential. Just make sure you ground all your pot cans and switch bodies together, even if they are sitting on foil.

Also shielding will only help with electrical field noise. That's the high pitched buzz you hear. It will not stop magnetic field interference. That's the mains hum (60 Hz in the states) you hear from single coil pickups.


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[Clint 55]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

David RM: How does signal ground work? Why does the pickups' signal go out the hot lead rather than straight out the ground lead?

 

[MetalManiac]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Star grounding does nothing of any benefit in a guitar. A guitar has one ground point, and that's at the output jack. All internal ground points are at the same potential. Just make sure you ground all your pot cans and switch bodies together, even if they are sitting on foil.

Also shielding will only help with electrical field noise. That's the high pitched buzz you hear. It will not stop magnetic field interference. That's the mains hum (60 Hz in the states) you hear from single coil pickups.


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I see, however I do not see how one would be best served by grounding the pots and switched together with a solid aluminum plate underneath. I would expect that would obviate the need for connecting the pots and switches via wiring.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

If it works, it works. Sometimes that doesn't work. I always use wires. If I can turn the clean channel way up without noise that's good enough for me.

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

I see, however I do not see how one would be best served by grounding the pots and switched together with a solid aluminum plate underneath. I would expect that would obviate the need for connecting the pots and switches via wiring.

Because a soldered connection is always better than a mechanical connection. And the pots are actually grounding the aluminum. If a pot comes loose, there goes your grounds!

Also, as a luthier, I've had noisy guitars come to me, and even though the grounds all looked good, adding a redundant ground wire fixed the noise. Probably because it provided a lower resistance path.


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[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

David RM: How does signal ground work? Why does the pickups' signal go out the hot lead rather than straight out the ground lead?

What do you mean by signal ground? The pickup ground gets connected to ground. There is no signal flowing in the ground. Ground is zero volts.

The hot wire is the signal. This is an unbalanced system. On balanced systems like with low impedance microphones, you have (+), (-), and ground. The (+) and (-) are opposite polarity, so they swing + and - volts and ground stays in the middle at zero volts.


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[Clint 55]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Ok forget about that term I used. Why does the signal go out the hot wire instead of just going straight to ground out the ground wire?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

'Ground' is just one end of the circuit. The signal is A/C, so it travels both ways. You have to have one end being selected to complete the ability for the signal to pass, and we call it the 'hot'.

The fact that to reverse phase you simply swap hot and ground wires should indicate there is nothing special about the connector that is used, merely that one end has to have that connection.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

Why doesn't it just all go to ground like it does if it can in the rest of the circuit?

 

[AlexR]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

This is A/C electrical theory here, and the same principals operate for every appliance you plug into your wall. I have a laymans understanding of it, but as recent events have accentuated the importance of accuracy in descriptions of terms, I would encourage you to read up on the way that A/C operates, and the way induction circuits operate for a more full understanding of the topic.
Any reference suitable for secondary or tertiary education purposes will suit.

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

I read every day. Wondering if you knew the answer.

 

[AlexR]

Re: Shielding of a Single Coil Guitar.

I could only give a basic description.....using analogies like 'water in pipes' etc. For deeper knowledge you'll need to go books or someone 'not me'.

And as to signal 'going to ground', this is simply that the same signal is going both ways in to the same area such that it cancels. The signal in an A/C circuit travels through the ground side of things all the time anyhow.