To shield or not to shield, is that the question?

[strat dude]

So getting all the bits and whatnots together for another Strat "assembly" but I am wondering about shielding on this one. I normally shield all cavities (yep that one too) anyhoo, I will shield the controll cavity but wondering about the pickup routes. I am istalling STK-S4 and STK-S9 pups in this one and is it nessasary to shield the pickup routes or not? I have other SD pickups but I have just been shielding all my guitars cavities for so long I don't know if these pickups are inherently susceptable to RF interference or EMI or not. Anyway maybe somebody has thoughts on this?

 

[beaubrummels]

I shielded my strat including all the pickup routes and pickguard, grounded all the shielding, because the pickups just have plastic covers; and it was noticeably quieter.

With stacks, I don't think you need to shield. Those pickups are hum-cancelling and pretty quiet, noise-wise. The wires don't really pickup noise that I've experienced.

 

[strat dude]

Screw it dit it anyway

 

[solspirit]

Yeah, I always shield it all

 

[jeremy]

i was going to say, just do it all if youre already in there. you might swap pups down the road and it wont hurt anything

 

[strat dude]

i was going to say, just do it all if youre already in there. you might swap pups down the road and it wont hurt anything

Swap pickups me? no never would I do that once I make my mind up it stays made up.
Are you buying this? Me neither, you make a great point.

 

[Mincer]

If I am building something from scratch, I shield, too. No matter what the pickups (and I love the STK-S4). As long as I have the material, it is a pretty simple thing to do.

 

[GuitarDoc]

Shield everything. Will it help in every case? Maybe, maybe not. Will it hurt anything? Never.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

I hear a noticeable loss of highs with shielding.

I'm kidding. An un-shielded cavity looks unfinished to me now, regardless of active/passive/whatever.

 

[Lucius Paisley]

The Artist Junior I recently had routed was left without shielding by the luthier who did the job. It has a P90 pickup and from memory, comparing the hum level between the old and new route, it's practically the same. The old route was painted, but whether or not it's with shielding paint or not, who knows?

What I get from the screwdriver tapping test is zero hum with volume from 0 to 10 when tone is at 0. Anybody who has used P90s knows what happens when I turn the tone up to 10. From 0 to 10, it's like huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.Nicely tapered, but LOUD.

But I'm just going to leave it as is.

 

[GuitarStv]

I always try to shield if I'm using true single coils. With humbuckers (or stacks) I don't care.