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Post by thedoc735 on May 22, 2020 15:38:52 GMT -5
grounding issue...
why do PRS SE guitars have black carbon grounding paint (poorly) applied to the control & pickup cavities WITHOUT connecting any of them to ground? (that said: none of the cavities possess conductivity/connectivity to ground because the paint is so thin that in places it is non existent, lots of holes!)?
cheers!
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Post by newey on May 23, 2020 6:59:33 GMT -5
Because doing it right would cost more money. Not a lot more, but when you're building lots of guitars, it adds up. Just for example, let's say, between the US-built PRS guitars and the imports, they produce 50K guitars per year (I have no idea if that's a realistic number for PRS or not, just by way of example). Let's say that the extra labor to apply a second coat of shielding paint, and the extra paint, plus the ground wire and labor to wire it, cost $2 US per guitar. That's an extra 100 grand to the bottom line every year . . .
In fairness to PRS, they are not alone in doing this, lots of other mfrs do the same. Looks good to the eye so you think it's shielded, but does nothing. Fender puts a useless piece of foil on the backs of Strat pickguards, for example; it doesn't even cover the whole underside much less connect to anything.
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Post by thedoc735 on May 23, 2020 9:12:52 GMT -5
Because doing it right would cost more money. Not a lot more, but when you're building lots of guitars, it adds up. Just for example, let's say, between the US-built PRS guitars and the imports, they produce 50K guitars per year (I have no idea if that's a realistic number for PRS or not, just by way of example). Let's say that the extra labor to apply a second coat of shielding paint, and the extra paint, plus the ground wire and labor to wire it, cost $2 US per guitar. That's an extra 100 grand to the bottom line every year . . . In fairness to PRS, they are not alone in doing this, lots of other mfrs do the same. Looks good to the eye so you think it's shielded, but does nothing. Fender puts a useless piece of foil on the backs of Strat pickguards, for example; it doesn't even cover the whole underside much less connect to anything. many thanks! |
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Post by blademaster2 on May 23, 2020 10:49:36 GMT -5
Because doing it right would cost more money. Not a lot more, but when you're building lots of guitars, it adds up. Just for example, let's say, between the US-built PRS guitars and the imports, they produce 50K guitars per year (I have no idea if that's a realistic number for PRS or not, just by way of example). Let's say that the extra labor to apply a second coat of shielding paint, and the extra paint, plus the ground wire and labor to wire it, cost $2 US per guitar. That's an extra 100 grand to the bottom line every year . . . In fairness to PRS, they are not alone in doing this, lots of other mfrs do the same. Looks good to the eye so you think it's shielded, but does nothing. Fender puts a useless piece of foil on the backs of Strat pickguards, for example; it doesn't even cover the whole underside much less connect to anything. many thanks! I cannot speak for Strats without taking a look, but I have a guitar that does the same with the foil under the pickguard. The collar of the potentiometers at the base of the threads is metal and electrically/structurally connected to the casing, so when the grounded potentiometers press against it with the compression of the nut and washer it forms a pretty reasonable connection. It is not a full Faraday cage but I am of the understanding that it does reduce noise from EM fields that are incident from many angles. I am curious now about PRS and what they do for their shielding, since it seems pointless to paint on anything internally if it does nothing at all. However I have no PRS available to me to investigate. |
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Post by thedoc735 on May 23, 2020 15:50:25 GMT -5
I cannot speak for Strats without taking a look, but I have a guitar that does the same with the foil under the pickguard. The collar of the potentiometers at the base of the threads is metal and electrically/structurally connected to the casing, so when the grounded potentiometers press against it with the compression of the nut and washer it forms a pretty reasonable connection. It is not a full Faraday cage but I am of the understanding that it does reduce noise from EM fields that are incident from many angles. I am curious now about PRS and what they do for their shielding, since it seems pointless to paint on anything internally if it does nothing at all. However I have no PRS available to me to investigate. the metal washers of the pots do indeed touch the carbon paint in the control cavity and should pass that conductivity to the grounding of the pots casing. but I have probed the entire surface of the black carbon paint with my multimeter and there is no connectivity signal/present anywhere in that cavity, i.e. paint is too thin. The pickup cavities have no such connection of any kind! There is only the suspended pickups. |
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