bonnerik
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Post by bonnerik on Apr 20, 2012 13:30:59 GMT -5
so i decided to do what the title says. i just sanded the 3 pickup cavities (h-s-s) and the control rout, and i have a few questions.
will any shielding paint do ? are there worse and better type of paints? i live in sweden so i might not be able to get what you guys have over in us, so if you know a good paint thats available in europe please tell.
since i have 3 pickup cavities and one control cavity, that will force me to bolt down 4 wires in each cavity to ground right ? anyone know a good way doing this ? 4 ground wires.....can one do without grounding each cavity ?
also, the rear control plate isnt foiled or anything, if i would foil it, would i have to ground it ?
thanks in advance.
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Post by newey on Apr 20, 2012 17:36:32 GMT -5
Yes, if shielding isn't grounded, it isn't doing much of anything. The shielding paint likewise needs to be grounded. The cover might be done via contact with some of the paint.
I assume you mean 4 wires total, one coming from each cavity going to ground. That shouldn't be needed, at least not if you can connect the shielding between each of the cavities with your paint. Check for continuity between the various cavities, if it's all well connected you should see a fairly low resistance between any two points.
I've never used shielding paint, so no recommendations for you on that. Once I discovered the copper tape with conductive adhesive, I'll never go back to other methods. It's fast to install and works well. A bit pricey, but the time savings and quality of the end result justify the extra cost.
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bonnerik
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Post by bonnerik on Apr 21, 2012 20:50:33 GMT -5
since its a rear routed body, i cant connect each pickup cavity to eachother in anyway. hmm. i might not shield my body afterall (havent even put the guitar together yet, so dont know if shielding will be necessary).
another question though. those single coil mounting rings in chrome from stewmac (http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Hardware,_parts/Electric_guitar:_Covers_plates/Metal_Mounting_Rings_for_Single-coil_Pickups.html) are the ones i will use for my singlecoil pickups. my question is, will i need to ground these? and if so, why? how are they connected to the circuit ? i know on humbucker mounting rings they are connected to the circuit trough the mounting holes on the humbucker itself (they are made of metal).
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Post by newey on Apr 21, 2012 23:14:22 GMT -5
Why not? There have to be holes between the pickup cavities and the control cavity for the wires to go through.
You may be able to connect the 3 pickup cavities by using a Q-tip with your shielding paint, into the holes and swab it around real good.
On my P-Bass project, I added a separate cavity for a neck pickup, connected by a drill hole to the regular P-bass pickup cavity. I wrapped the wires from the neck pickup in a "sleeve" of copper tape, then forced the whole mess through the hole between the cavities. I left a bit of extra foil as a sort of "tab" on each end, which then connected to the shielding at each end, in the neck and mid pickup cavities.
However, if you want to try it without shielding you can certainly do so. There's a lot less room to work with in the pickup cavities as compared with a regular top-routed Strat body.
This lack of room has led some folks to try shielding the pickups themselves, rather than the cavity. That, however, may compromise the sound of the pickups- we've had varying reports on that.
If the Strat pickups you are using are of the more modern variety, they will have a bare wire "shield" which connects to a grounding point somewhere (usually to the back of a pot, unless a "star grounding" scheme is utilized). The other end of the shield is connected to the baseplate or frame of the pickup. Thus, your metal mounting rings should be grounded in the same fashion a HB is, through the mounting screws.
If the pickups don't have a shield wire, the baseplate may still be connected to ground- or maybe not, but it can be easily checked with your meter.
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Post by ashcatlt on Apr 22, 2012 0:11:41 GMT -5
If the Strat pickups you are using are of the more modern variety, they will have a bare wire "shield" which connects to a grounding point somewhere (usually to the back of a pot, unless a "star grounding" scheme is utilized). The other end of the shield is connected to the baseplate or frame of the pickup. Thus, your metal mounting rings should be grounded in the same fashion a HB is, through the mounting screws. If the pickups don't have a shield wire, the baseplate may still be connected to ground- or maybe not, but it can be easily checked with your meter. And either way you've got at least one wire going to ground from each pickup cavity already! The chrome rings are connected to the circuit capacitively, just like most of the other noise sources.
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bonnerik
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Post by bonnerik on Apr 22, 2012 5:51:14 GMT -5
hmm might try to connect each cavity through the holes, not a bad idea.
my pickups are seymour duncan ssl-6, and only have a black and white wire isolated with pcv. no bare wire. does this mean i wont have to ground the rings ?
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Post by newey on Apr 22, 2012 8:53:41 GMT -5
First of all, it probably won't matter one way or the other as far as noise goes. Grounding the ring may provide a bit more hum-reduction but it probably won't be a dramatic difference
The likelihood is that the negative pickup wire is connected to the baseplate anyway, in which case yur ring will be grounded as well one it's installed. But you can certainly check to see if this is the case, if you have a meter (or even just a continuity tester).
Just check between the baseplate and the negative wire, if there's no resistance they're connected.
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bonnerik
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Post by bonnerik on Apr 22, 2012 9:01:14 GMT -5
the baseplate of the pickup and the black wire ? because the baseplate of the singlecoil isnt made of meta, its something else
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Post by newey on Apr 22, 2012 11:19:41 GMT -5
Yeah, if it's one of the "fiber" frames it may not have a metal baseplate. I'd not worry about it, I doubt it makes a bit of difference.
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bonnerik
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Post by bonnerik on Apr 22, 2012 11:26:29 GMT -5
yes. its just that, when i put it all together and if i touch the baseplate, i dont want extra buzz going on. i tried the multimeter on the humbucker, and there was 0 resistance between the frame and the metal part of the humbucker. there was some resistance when i moved it around, but when i was completely still there was none.
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