Quiet the beast

[remi2012]

Did anyone here have reduced the hum from their guitars considerabely with this mod?

I did't hear positive answers from the people i ask to about shielding.

Thanks

And one thing i don't get is the removal of ground loops.

Thanks again

[pollyshero]

I have performed this mod on a Strat, a Tele, and a Hamer SAT equipped with single coil pups and the effort was not wasted. Under less than optimum conditions (bad house wiring, proximity to CRTs, flourescents, and high gaim amps, poor signal chain ie: cheap cords & some older effects) they still do hum a bit - otherwise they are virtually hum-free.

[remi2012]

Thanks... would like to hear some more from other guitar nuts

[sumgai]

remi,

Thanks... would like to hear some more from other guitar nuts

Careful what you ask for, you just might get it!

I have been installing shielding into guitars since I was a kid, and that was a very long time ago. I have never had an installation come out sounding worse than before I started. If you take your time, and use good materials, the results are always worth the effort.

While I personally don't recommend aluminum foil (it's too delicate, and tears too easily), many other 'Nutz here have used it with success, so if that's what you want to use, go ahead. The most I've ever paid for all the copper foil I wanted was $25, USD. That was because the customer was in a hurry, and I couldn't wait on mail order - the local "store" had me over a barrel. There should be no other costs involved, so I think I speak for everyone here when I say, this is by far the "best bang for the buck" mod you can perform on any guitar. ;D

HTH

Oh, and to the forums!


sumgai

[Ripper]

Hey Sumgai...
Fender says my pups are sealed in wax so they wont be microphonic. Would using the copper foil be pointless? I have reverse wound pups so I get silence in the second and fourth positions. Other then that the 60 cycle hum isnt that bad.

[sumgai]

deep,

Good thing I checked back before checking out.

We're talking about two different things here, deep. Microphonic is a term used in "acoustic" situations, whereas copper foil, and shielding, is used in "magnetic" or "electrical" situations.

Wax has no magnetic properties (that I'm aware of!), so yes, copper shielding is still gonna save your bacon when it comes to reducing or eliminating the usual 60Hz hum.

Wax is meant to physically lock-in the windings of a pickup so that they don't move in response to some outside influence. By far, the greater influence there is feedback between the speakers and your guitar body, thus feeding into the pickup mountings. (Now you know why Rune refers to a pickguard as 'tone plastic'! ;D) But even then, you can rap your knuckles against the guitar (or pickguard), and make the pups give out a short, sharp sound. Wax reduces that, too, but I've never seen a pup that totally eliminates it. (In fact, in some music styles, rapping the guitar for percussive effect is an intentional part of the music.)

HTH


sumgai

[Ripper]

Thanks Sumgai...
Helpful as always!...When im off from work next week I may attempt to " Lay some copper "

[jhng]

For what it's worth, my Strat is so quiet with shielding that (in moderately decent conditions) you can't tell if the volume's turned up.

Hastings

[phy7ajw]

My Godin SD used to pick a lot of noise up from the TV in the next room. It also suffered from crackling sounds from touching the pickguard and discharging static. Quieting the beast totally cured all that - highly recommended!

[remi2012]

Some guitar expert told me that the 60hz cycle is actually inside the pick-ups comming from the amp and cord and that shielding wont do anything for that I thought the 60hz was comming from the room

[sumgai]

remi,

Find another expert, immediately! This guy is a danger to all of us, and should be gently but firmly removed from the gene pool.

Hum is magnetically induced not only into the pickups, but also into the wiring and components inside of our guitars. Your so-called expert is trying to say that it comes straight out of the amp, up the cord, and into the guitar. Well, all I can say is, if the hum was already inside the amp in the first place, we would not need to plug in a guitar to hear said hum - it would already be audible!!

Logically, if we need a guitar to hear the hum, then we should be able to control the inducement of that hum into the guitar, right? The proof, of course, is in the pudding. The hundreds of 'Nutz here who have done this job successfully should convince you that this is a good thing to do, but if not, then I have only one question for you, "What have you got to lose by trying this yourself"? Perhaps an hour of labor, and you'll have all the proof you need right in front of you, just waiting to be shown to that idiot.

Go get 'em, tiger!


sumgai

[JohnH]

Theres no doubt that shielding works. Electrically, any type of foil seems to be OK in theory, as long as you can get a good connection between pieces. Aluminium can't be soldered, so you have to make the connections mechanically. Ive had good results with kitchen foil but it is delicate. I used it because I could not find a source of copper foil. I made a template of the cavity base with paper, and spray-contact glued foil both sides to make a much tougher and more stable base. A treble thickness strip went around the sides, lapped under the base. Spray contact and Al foil was very good on the back of the pick-guard, making a smooth, continuous surface.

My LP copy came with conductive paint screening to all cavities. That is also very good, and it might be the best method of all, if you can get hold of the paint, which I can't.

Electrically, each shielding piece has to be connected together. The other principle that I follow is that all of the screening, including any screen wires to pups etc, all of which do not carry the sound signal, have just one connection, as a group, to the 'signal ground', being the grounded side of any switching and pickup coils. Star grounding is one way to achieve this principle, and it ensures that signals intercepted by the screening cannot induce any signals within the sound circuitry.

On my Strat guitar (Al foil screening), I can demonstrate the effectiveness of the screening as I lower the pg down onto the cavity. With a lead to the amp inserted and a neck-middle (humcancelling) combo selected, theres initially a hum, then a crackle as the rear screening gets connected by contact with the pg, then quiet.

John

[fobits]

So long as we're sharing experiences...

I used the thickest aluminum foil at the grocery store, Reynolds HEAVY DUTY for cooking and grilling. It is heavy, too.

For good measure I doubled it over, sticking the pieces together with dabs of contact cement. The dabs were in a rough grid, with plenty of bare metal between for good electrical contact.

It didn't have to be glued into the cavity at all. After massaging it down into a dish with a rim around the top, it was stiff enough to hold itself in position. It was glued onto the pickguard with spray adhesive.

I can't testify about it's effectiveness, though, because I switched to humbucking pickups at the same time. That might make a difference.

[CheshireCat]

sumgai said:

Find another expert, immediately! This guy is a danger to all of us, and should be gently but firmly removed from the gene pool.

Paging Dr. Darwin . . . Dr. Charles Darwin . . .

[sumgai]

Chesh,

Find another expert, immediately! This guy is a danger to all of us, and should be gently but firmly removed from the gene pool.

Paging Dr. Darwin . . . Dr. Charles Darwin . . .

Winner! Ding Ding Ding! Winner!

Definitely a +1 for that guffaw, I just about wet my panties! ;D


sumgai

[vonFrenchie]

Do you think I could perform the "QTB" on my Peavey MIII bass? Its pretty much a jbass that looks like a percision. When I have the neck and bridge volume all the way up there is no hum. When I turn one of the two down and have the tone up there is a slight, but annoying, hum.

[sumgai]

vonFrenchie,

Sure, no problem. Doing such a job on a back-loaded guitar is no different, with one slight exception. Because the pickup leads don't run to the controls inside of a main cavity, you should plan on using thin but good quality shielded cable between the pickup and the controls. Other than that, everything you read in the QtB article applies to your situation.

Buried Gem
Because lots of forum members read every post in every thread, I'll extend this discussion a bit..... When you have a single coil pup with only two leads, you can safely use a single conductor shielded cable. That is, one conductor is located inside of the shielding wrap, and between them, they comprise the ability to carry a complete circuit. However, if you have a pickup such as any humbucker with 2 or more wires (in addition to the ground/shield), then you should use an appropriate number of center conductors to suit. You can order cabling that has as many single or paired wires inside of a shield wrap as you need, so 2, 3, or 4 wire pups can be properly hooked up for maximum "quieting".

Two more details: 1) Two center conductors that are twisted together are called a 'pair', and are usually color coded with a matching stripe. This is an enhancement to further reduce noise where the pairs is not within the shielding wrap (at the very ends). For our purposes, we don't need that kind of protection, but if the stuff comes your way, and the price is right...... 2) The term 'co-axial' (or 'co-ax') describes one or more center conductors within a shield wrap, so if you see this nomenclature in a catalog, you're at the right place.


sumgai

[vonFrenchie]

Makes sense. Considering that my bass is pretty much a stripped down strat with different pickups, it should be fairly easy.