I'm an electrical engineer, and someone that earlier in my career did a bunch of RF stuff. And I just wanted to say that you did a great job of presenting the important information in a way that is simple enough for everyone to follow.
Hey Dylan! Big fan. Couple very important practical things. This isn't academic or pedantic, this is all practical - You can't solve a *magnetic* field (guitar noise) problem by treating it like an electrical field (radio antenna) problem. Using the "pickups are radio antennas" analogy is great, until you try to solve problems like noise. Pickups are not RF antennas. And yes, this difference matters! A 60hz EMI or RF wave is not 18 feet. A 60hz SOUND wave is 18 feet. A 60hz electromagnetic wave is 16,400,000 feet because it's *moving at the speed of light, not the speed of sound.* For your guitar to be a even a quarter wave antenna, the wiring would have to be about *790 miles long.* Further, all of the discussion of a guitar acting as an antenna is assuming it's in the "far field", as radio antennas are. Far field doesn't start until about 2x the wavelength. For 60hz, far field is about 6,000 miles away from the source of the noise. Meaning - *You'd have to be 6,000 miles away from the source of 60hz hum for RF shielding like copper tape to work.* These insane distances mean guitars are strictly in the "near field", which behave incredibly different from far field objects like radio antennas. RF shielding does not work on a problem that is not in the RF far field range. TLDR: Your guitar is not an antenna. You need to shield against magnetic fields, not electrical fields, which are very different, unless your pickup happens to be 6,000 miles long. Thanks for reading, if anyone did.
I was about to do the same kind of comment about the wavelength. Also there is a mention of 'skin effect', and i don't really see the point when talking about guitar shielding. In any case , in the audio spectrum and for an object the size of a guitar the Skin Effect is absolutly negligible. To me the 'shielding' in guitar is a way to establish a good ground. Not more than that. Jazz Boxes and ES-33x guitars are not shielded and not more noise prone than solidbodies..
I am a guitar player that has been completing my own hardware modifications for years. Changing tuners, relicing/aging, set-ups, etc.. but I have always been intimidated with the electronics part and therefore have avoided. After watching this, and a few of your other vids, my confidence has definitely grown. I recently completed a pick up swap on my Gibson Explorer which is something that I never would have attempted a year ago. I have always wondered about shielding, and whether there were any actual benefits in completing it. This video has explained it so well that I am now going to attempt a shielding project on my Classic Vibe Tele. That grounding part is gold. I wonder how many out there have been shielding but not grounding. Thank you so much for this...and all your other videos!
my tele kit is delivering today, call it divine intervention or what ever, but found you today and this saved me a ton of time. I was planning to install the tape in all cavities, connect them via 24ga wire and claim victory. Now pick guard to control screw ground, boom done. thank you sooo much. great job
Thank you for the clarification! I have a roll of copper tape with conductive adhesive to put in the pickup cavities, and pick guard. Staying out of the control area is really great news! Eliminating possible shorting issues, with low to no benefit, will save a little sanity! ...I just have to remember, “Stay grounded!”
It’s very refreshing to hear people that are super knowledgeable explain things in an understandable way without being pretentious. Thank you for this!
Once upon a time, I was awarded a degree in electrical engineering from an accredited university, so I've met the kind of people you're talking about, Dylan). For the record, I thought you did a great job of explaining the general ideas without dragging non-technical types into the weeds. For practical purposes and simplicity's sake we often neglect those higher-order effects, meaning that engineers usually deal with approximations of varying precision. Enough to get the desired results while still making the math possible. Looked to me like you walked that line very well with this video.
I'm sure its been said before, but I wanna say it again; who bothers to click through to this video and then give it a thumbs down. Were they displeased with you simple and effective message, or are they people who say "no" before the question is asked. I am totally befuddled about these folks, and have made a mental note not to go out of my way to meet them anytime this century or next. They need to take a long hard look at themselves.
I have used aluminum foil tape for HVAC use on a budget build for my seven year old. It had real shotty single coils and when you combine a 7 year old with little skills and a loud hum along with a cranked combo amp... It can be hard to keep your sanity.. Lol All I had on hand was my HVAC tape.. It worked pretty good..!
Hi Dylan. I enjoy your videos, so thank you for making them. I thought i would chip in with my experience here, specifically shielding of the electronics compartment. Not to disproof you at all, because i think that you are correct in what you are saying, just to share my personal experience. I have this Tokai strat that i really love playing, but i found myself using other guitars more because the buzz/hum from the guitar annoyed me. I have a godin session, which i had installed Mojotone quiet coil pickups in, and the thing was dead quiet. So i thought i would put the quiet coils in my Tokai and all would be good. So i swapped the pickups and to my surprise the Tokai was still quite noisy when i did not touch the strings. The only thing that was different on the two guitars was the shielding. The Tokai was shielded in the pickup routing and on the pickguard. Because i ran out of cobber tape, the electronics compartment did not get shielded. The Godin Session was shielded all over also in the electronics compartment. I thought to myself i had to try shielding the electronics compartment of the Tokai to see if this would change anything, and sure enough it made the Tokai i dead quiet aswell. I do agree with you that shielding the electronics compartment can lead to some issues, but if you look at the components and your space in the compartment,you can tell where you might run into trouble. I just put some vinyl electrical tape in the two areas i saw as potential issues. This is just my experience, shielding the electronics compartment did make a pretty big difference in my Tokai.
For my sins, I spent 2-1/2 years working on building cryogenic-soaked receivers for radio telescopes. The "cage" was about 10' x 10' x 7'. The contact setup around the door was really interesting and really complicated. As you say, people REALLY don't need to go there. I'm all in favour of proper shielding, but that's a whole other thing, and much easier. Glad to see this explained in straightforward layman's language. Thanks, Dylan.
I copper-shielded my Fender strat and it helped to a noticeable degree. I did the same with my Franken-Squier (with new Fender pickups) and while it helped, it was much less noticeable. But with the Fender it was absolutely worth the 30 min. and $4 of copper-tape. If you have the materials, I don't see why NOT to do it. It may help, it may not, but so long as you don't short something out it surely can't hurt...
Thank you! I did a Strat copper shielding project this weekend - including the output jack bc the other youtube examples did NOT mention to avoid jack cavity shielding. Shielding made a huge difference, but I started having some popping sounds when moving around. So I swapped the jack for a new one. Then I had NO sound after screwing jack into cavity w cover, but it did work w/o cover. Noticed that jack plug was just touching shielding, and had watched this vid, so I removed. Problem solved. And the guitar is still quiet w all of the other copper foil treatment and groundings.
Thank you so much, Dylan. I had a lot of annoying static electricity on my G&L Asat classic. I've just shielded the pickguard the way you explain with conductive copper tape and it works fantastic. Have a nice day and happy new year. 🙂
Funny thing is, I rewired my guitar completely yesterday. A strat. Went online, looked for tips, instructions and aaaaaaall the major names (and forums) tells you to shield the whole thing. And I did. And my guitar, although quieter, still noisy. AND, I had to remediate it cause I shielded the jack hole as well and I grounded the whole thing. Good to come online and seeing a video of a dude saying what actually works, with facts, data. Awesome, thanks! Oh, first time using the copper tape, and love it. It's clean, easy, and works (being conductive)
I shielded my Tele pickguard & grounded exactly as you specified (nothing else). For all practical purposes, it eliminated a very noticeable 'hands-off' hum. Thanks so much!!!
Hey Dylan! Great vieo! You said that shielding controll cavity would not change much. I have old Framus guitar, with Bill Lawrence LTS pickups. I decided to change wires in cavity, which were old and degraded. I didn't want to mess with shielded pickup wires which were fine. Cavity wires were also of shielded type. I changed them to regular wires and instantly i got massive noise. Then i shielded that cavity with tin foil and averything was back to normal.
Ive experienced similar. I reshielded my guitar from stock and it is much much quieter. It is especially noticeable when using high gain. Its a day and night difference. It was unbearably noisy before.
Put an aluminum pickguard plate under my AmStd Strat pickguard. Looks cool, really made a huge difference in noise, and did effect the tone a bit. Positively in my opinion.
I did my 89 Kramer Nightswan a few years after I bought it. I use copper foil and I did solder the joints between each strip. Now my volume pot is a push/pull as it's my pick up selector switch, I have a Seymour Duncan JB pickup in the neck (passive) and a Seymour Duncan heavy metal live wire (active) in the bridge. The guitar is completely silent with the volume cranked until I hit the strings and it's full sound. I wish all my guitars were like this. It's a guitar with pass and active and works wonderful. Anyone who knows those pick ups, knows how hot and loud the Heavy metal live wire is, 18volt , lots of jam lol. Probably the most versatile guitar I have, the JB has a coil tap, so the guitar goes mild to wild. Each pickup cavity has copper tape and the control cavity with a wire soldered to each joining them. Lots of work, but well worth it for me. Also did my Epiphone Zakk Wylde model and changed the 9volt setup to 18 volt on it and works just as well.
Had to have a custom pickguard made (a surprisingly difficult venture) and they offered a copper foil option so I figured why not. One single piece of copper on the back of a Strat-ish pick guard. Thanks for the vid. Satisfyingly geeky. 😊
This is the best video I’ve seen in a long time! I have an Epiphone Les Paul I was redoing and wanted to do it right. I shielded everything, and lo and behold, it didn’t work. I hadn’t touched it for a couple months, until I watched this video, the second you said to not shield the control cavity, I jumped, a half hour later, I was playing! Thanks bro!
Between you "guns n' guitars" and Highline guitars, I'm building a killer bass, thanks man, knowledge that comes with experience is powerful and you got it.
I am always thankful for your logical approach to guitars. Thanks for the download of good solid info. I'll use these shielding (or not shielding) principles in my builds and mods going forward, for sure!
excellent presentation. I like the "here is why" and " this is how shielding works" instead of just, "stick tape here and here now it's quiet because science" Cheers
For the shielding: wood glue, standard tin foil, desoldering copper mesh as a ground wire, small wood screws to fix the copper mesh in a few points and to have good ground to the tin foil, the bridge and the pickguard. For the wiring: twisted pair wires from an old ethernet cable and shrink tubes over all terminals, so i don't have to worry about anything making shorts, therefor I shield all cavities and don't have problems with shorts. I also use a TRS jack to keep GND and low side of the signal separated. With classic TS cables the GND the low side of the signal will get connected when the guitar is plugged in. With a TRS cable and amps with balanced inputs, i can reduce hum even more, because now i have a balanced signal and shielding to the amp.
Great video. Used your method of a tiny strip of shielding to have continuity between control plate and the pick-guard. Super- Genius Level. Wyle E Coyote....Super Genius.
i added copper shielding to each of the individual pickups. I shielded the top of the coils and ran it down to a shield wrapped around the coil itself. This was grounded with a solid wire directly to the pickup ground. The top shield is one long U shape with a tab at the bottom of the U to wrap over the end of the bobbin and down on the end of the coil. This runs alongside of the pole pieces. The top of the bobbin, opposite the tab end, has to be open. The shield can't totally surround the pole pieces. This lets out eddy currents. If you shield in the eddy currents, the highs will be sacrificed. The same applies to the shield wrapped around the coils. It can't be a complete wrap. I leave about a half inch gap open. This wrap goes over the tab from the top shield. I put the gap on the side opposite the pickup wires. This way I can solder the wire right from the ground connection to the copper shield. I use copper shielding with conductive adhesive, so I don't have to solder the two shielding pieces together. I think this may stop the "sticking out" scenario from letting EMI in through the front of the pickup. Some people put the upper shield on the inside of the pickup cover. That requires that piece to then be connected with a wire to ground or to the other shield piece. Easier to just do it on the bobbin itself.
Thanks Dylan for a very informative video. I'm definitely going to use copper sheeting that I have bought to shield my D.I.Y. Strat kit that I built, using your method. I'm glad that I looked this up and found your video.
you immediately answered my question at about 3:30 , any need to keep watching? Edit - okay, so I did. I understand the idea of shielding the rear of the pickguard only. But I believe it is not necessary to run a ground jumper from the pickguard. The pickup mounting screws & springs are grounded to the pickup, so the copper shield will ground via the springs. You can test the pickup mounting screws are grounded by touching them, hum reduces or goes away completely.
THANK YOU ! Fine!... My new Vintera 2 it had a bizarre buzz when I touched the pickguard, after making the aluminum shield and placing the little strip from the potentiometer cavity it disappeared. Cheers from Paris.
Great video glad I found it. The most important thing that you mentioned is it's about location. I never had a problem until I moved. Cell tower, hydro towers and transformers all within sight.
I have already shielded several guitars with copper foil (single coil pickups), in the best possible way, and star-grounded everything possible. I noticed a clear improvement. However, I have the impression that certain very high treble frequencies are a little lost. I'm not 100% sure because I didn't record the sound before/after to compare. It's just an impression, perhaps due to the fact that there was no more buzz...? What is certain is that it is very appreciable to have less buzz when you use gain pedals or play loudly. The buzz is not 100% eliminated with the gain pedals, but in clear sound yes.
You're the best Dylan. You've saved me quite a bit of money by just being as straightforward and honest as you are. I seriously appreciate what you do man. Thanks. Rock on man
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Does the back of the metal control plate (mounting plate for the pots and switch) need to have shielding tape applied to the back of it as well? Or will the metal itself shield once it comes into contact with a strip of the copper tape?
Yet another excellent tech video! I think you are right about trying to simplify the theory behind and focus more on the practical application. Thank you Dylan
Great video again. Yes, I use the foil you use. I looked into the paint, only to discover they recommend several coats. Well that means I would be sitting around waiting for paint to dry.lol How silly is that. I understand from a manufacturing view,(making big batches) they can put them aside while making other parts. For me, if I take the strings off of a guitar, I want to get the new strings on asap or at least,the same day...
Dan. The paint actually dries rapidly. If you go that route do tel solid coats. Like all paints shake it up good in the container first. Paint is glue with “stuff’” and color in it ….. no paint in the world works properly without all elements up in suspension. Now go out and bend it like BECK… Jeff that is 🎼🎸
If your electronics cavity is shielded (either by a foil job or conductive paint spray) and something is touching where it shouldn’t, leading to a short or one pickup not working or whatever - just put clear packing tape in the insulated cavity over the foil. Insulates it electrically from the wiring harness while still retaining rf isolation.
the graphite paint does seem to help. but if a pot feels loose,don't turn it till the body moves cause one of the solder lugs could ground out. so tighten it pronto. Every little bit helps.
Hi Dylan, I use the conductive copper tape too. I tried the paint but it takes two coats and takes too long to dry . Guitars still hum but not as bad . It would be cool if pickups had covers that were emi resistant
Truth you speak. I've done it wrong before. The shielding was working better than not having it except I had already added an extra switch. What kind if switch? It was the early 1980's so of course it was an in\out of phase switch. I did it correctly but since I only had one conductor and a shield per pick-up, if I used the pick-up that was effected by the switch, guess what happened? If the one with the switch was the only pick-up on and I left it in the "out of phase" setting the shield was the HOT. Man let me tell ya, in standard position it was nice&quiet. The other way, not so much. Mixed with the other pickup the overall volume drop made the hum get lost in the wash of cymbals and vocals. By itself however the spread of the copper foil became the antenna for everyone, everywhere, everything, all the time including next Thursday!! I didn't use the out position that night so no harm except for the first time the sound man heard it. He made me tape the switch in the 'Normal' setting.
I am super grateful to find this video. Doing home recording I cannot stand the noise. I’ve purchased noise eliminators, gates etc. I probably have more of them than I do FX pedals. I could care less about all the science, and all the nerd stuff. I find people on RUclips, and the Internet tend to beat there chest to seem more intelligent than they actually are. There’s an old adage keep it simple stupid. I really appreciate this more than you know. I’m going to order the tape and follow everything that you said and I really hope it works. Thank you for putting this up!
Thank you!!! You are a voice of reason in a sea of misinformation about this subject. Even when we filter out ridiculous snake-oil sales pitches, there's still a ton of information that is intentionally withheld, like what we really need to do to keep our electric guitar as quiet as possible. The sales pitches for all these expensive conductive paint products draws our focus to the technicalities of it's ingredients, continuity, and attenuation curves. You've refocused my attention to what I need to do to shield my Take build. Again, thanks thanks thanks!!
To all the Propeller heads that try to correct Dylan’s “science” He is teaching concepts/ practical applications for laymen guitarists. Not mathematics or physics. Lay off... Most guitarists... even legendary ones ... Don’t know shit about guitars... and they will tell you. They just pick it up and if it sounds great they love it... If it doesn’t they leave it. Us hobbyists love tinkering though, and need practical applications to improve what we are doing and BASIC concepts that we can apply to our next guitar or project. For instance... I’m betting that trying to shield the output jack cavity is a bad Idea on any guitar not just a tele... If your solder joint for the signal wire or a bare part of your signal grounds on that shielding..... Welcome to Zero output. Keep putting it out the way you do Dylan... We get it.
After watching, I went and opened up my strat and ripped out allllll the copper tape I lined the cavity with. I them added allllllllll the copper tape I DIDNT originally add to the pickguard. 😂 By golly it sounds so much better! Thanks Dylan!
What are your thoughts on the aluminum pick guard shield that Fender sells for strats? I know it's not copper but it seems to be an effective solution.
I will try to use fine copper mesh I ordered in the US. It seems like it’s much better than the other stuff. But that one I will have to glue or fix and solder it together afterwards.
Lot of good info in this, would a sheet of aluminum foil attached to the back of the pick guard and a wire to the volume pot case work? I was thinking the aluminum foil could be attached to the back of the pick guard with some 3m spray glue and flattened out with the edge of a credit card.
Good stuff. I like to know the theory, but yeah, I just want to reduce noise on a guitar here. I guess grounding happens at the point where the cable makes contact with the jack on the guitar and then stray 'juice' flows out the cable. Correct?
Interesting video. So, just to make sure. If I'm building a Telecaster (I am), and I want to shield it, all I have to do is put the copper on the back of the pickguard, add a little piece of tape to make the shielding on the back of the pickguard come in contact with the control knob plate and it's shielded? I don't have to wrap all the routed cavities in copper tape and connect them with shielded wire to the ground lug on the input jack?
Thank you for sharing tips and saving time subscribed..thumbs up! Had to edit most important thing you said is you're trying to minimize the hum no way to eliminate it
I have some thin copper sheet that I was planning on using to make a pick guard with but I didn't know anything about shielding I just thought it would look cool. It would probably shield pretty good I'm assuming.
Great video but........didn't really catch if shielding the guitar is even needed at all, seems optional. Maybe I missed it. It was rather nice to hear that you don't need to shield the control cavities. I will be doing a Tele build and like the pick guard application, but do you need to also shield the bridge position? Or do you not even need to shield anything? There are so many videos out there on this, it's hard to determine who knows what they are actually talking about.
I got a roll of aluminum for my guitars. It works well no I think i paid $5.00 for the roll at Home Depot. I used paint to cover the gaps and tested it with a multimeter set on continuity. That way it beeps whenever here is a good connection. Then, if I need to I bought plastadip to keep things from shorting out!
I use aluminium foil tape but when I overlap the tape pieces i fold over the next piece so aluminium is touching aluminium. If your adhesive is conductive that isnt nessesary but if it isnt that will work for sure.
@@swisstraeng If you only fold over a small piece and run it the length off the strip it wont come up but I typically put another piece over the folded seam for aesthetics anyways lol. I building a telecaster now and I made my own conductive paint. Tested it out and it conducts perfectly. It's just graphite and black gloss acrylic paint. Foils will easily show continuity(very very low to no resistance). But what most people fail to realize with conductive paint is that just cause your not getting solid continuity diesnt mean it's not conductive and working as a sheild. A better test for conductive paint is an ohm reading or if you dont have a meter use a 9v battery and an LED. If having solid continuity is important to the builder/modder then mixing on more graphite and adding more coats will get you there.
I was going to say the same thing. I found some aluminum tape in my parents' attic and used it for shielding years ago. Testing it with a meter showed an open circuit so I just folded down a corner to make contact. Since then I've upgraded my pickups and the wiring is shielded so it's probably not even necessary anymore.
I know there is more noise introduced through old wiring in homes and bad wiring in general,than all the wayward signals in history. A power conditioner really works, way better than trying to shield against radio signals that don't exist. Remember. Tvs,plugged into the same circuit of a guitar rig causes horrendous noise. Bad ground on houses,or entire grids cause this also. I lived in an apt one time,every plug in the house introduced bad noise. I was hearing air traffic and pilots talking through my amp. I changed outlets and it all disappeared. The fuhrman power conditioner works too.
I have DIY project without a pickguard. HSH-Configuration. 3 pupcavities + controls backside. How am i gonna shield n ground successfully the neck-H through middle-S & bridge-H with also controls cavity? The wireholes thru Hum-S-Hum are already ridiculously little and no way i can extend the copperline thru first neck pup to controls cavity.
Bingo...is exactly what happened to my perfect cooper faraday cage(all copper was soldered )...that would not have worked perfectly anyways. I figured that out and made it work eliminating the shorted points but upon more thought, I'll just rip it out as I want to experiment with other pickups/pickguards and don't want any shooting going on and that is the only way to make sure.
I have seen people run wires between the cavities and solder to the foil. If the pickguard is shielded and you have overlapping shielding (for example as you have from control cavity to body), then doesn't the pickguard tie them all together and you don't need wire between the cavities?
Picked up a 1st year Eric Johnson strat in a trade. It's almost perfect but, as Dylan says, it has the "hum" which goes away putting your hand on the bridge. Not a ground issue. Turnbguitar volume down & hum is gone. While I had it apart I admired how nice the inside looked. I decided not to shield because of how good it looks. I've just learned how to keep it quiet and crank the amps. Nice video brother!😎
I built tv and cell towers. Ive had lots of engineers explain this. You have done the best job of explaining.
I'm an electrical engineer, and someone that earlier in my career did a bunch of RF stuff. And I just wanted to say that you did a great job of presenting the important information in a way that is simple enough for everyone to follow.
Hey Dylan! Big fan. Couple very important practical things. This isn't academic or pedantic, this is all practical -
You can't solve a *magnetic* field (guitar noise) problem by treating it like an electrical field (radio antenna) problem. Using the "pickups are radio antennas" analogy is great, until you try to solve problems like noise.
Pickups are not RF antennas. And yes, this difference matters!
A 60hz EMI or RF wave is not 18 feet. A 60hz SOUND wave is 18 feet. A 60hz electromagnetic wave is 16,400,000 feet because it's *moving at the speed of light, not the speed of sound.*
For your guitar to be a even a quarter wave antenna, the wiring would have to be about *790 miles long.*
Further, all of the discussion of a guitar acting as an antenna is assuming it's in the "far field", as radio antennas are. Far field doesn't start until about 2x the wavelength. For 60hz, far field is about 6,000 miles away from the source of the noise. Meaning - *You'd have to be 6,000 miles away from the source of 60hz hum for RF shielding like copper tape to work.*
These insane distances mean guitars are strictly in the "near field", which behave incredibly different from far field objects like radio antennas. RF shielding does not work on a problem that is not in the RF far field range.
TLDR: Your guitar is not an antenna. You need to shield against magnetic fields, not electrical fields, which are very different, unless your pickup happens to be 6,000 miles long.
Thanks for reading, if anyone did.
I read it! And now my head hurts, and I'm further confused at to what do with my guitar! Maybe I'll just learn the harpsichord.
@@ajb625 - Get an acoustic. ;-)
So how do you shield against magnetic fields then?
I was about to do the same kind of comment about the wavelength. Also there is a mention of 'skin effect', and i don't really see the point when talking about guitar shielding. In any case , in the audio spectrum and for an object the size of a guitar the Skin Effect is absolutly negligible.
To me the 'shielding' in guitar is a way to establish a good ground. Not more than that. Jazz Boxes and ES-33x guitars are not shielded and not more noise prone than solidbodies..
73
I am a guitar player that has been completing my own hardware modifications for years. Changing tuners, relicing/aging, set-ups, etc.. but I have always been intimidated with the electronics part and therefore have avoided. After watching this, and a few of your other vids, my confidence has definitely grown. I recently completed a pick up swap on my Gibson Explorer which is something that I never would have attempted a year ago. I have always wondered about shielding, and whether there were any actual benefits in completing it. This video has explained it so well that I am now going to attempt a shielding project on my Classic Vibe Tele. That grounding part is gold. I wonder how many out there have been shielding but not grounding. Thank you so much for this...and all your other videos!
my tele kit is delivering today, call it divine intervention or what ever, but found you today and this saved me a ton of time. I was planning to install the tape in all cavities, connect them via 24ga wire and claim victory. Now pick guard to control screw ground, boom done. thank you sooo much. great job
Thank you for the clarification!
I have a roll of copper tape with conductive adhesive to put in the pickup cavities, and pick guard.
Staying out of the control area is really great news!
Eliminating possible shorting issues, with low to no benefit, will save a little sanity!
...I just have to remember, “Stay grounded!”
It’s very refreshing to hear people that are super knowledgeable explain things in an understandable way without being pretentious. Thank you for this!
Once upon a time, I was awarded a degree in electrical engineering from an accredited university, so I've met the kind of people you're talking about, Dylan). For the record, I thought you did a great job of explaining the general ideas without dragging non-technical types into the weeds. For practical purposes and simplicity's sake we often neglect those higher-order effects, meaning that engineers usually deal with approximations of varying precision. Enough to get the desired results while still making the math possible. Looked to me like you walked that line very well with this video.
I'm sure its been said before, but I wanna say it again; who bothers to click through to this video and then give it a thumbs down. Were they displeased with you simple and effective message, or are they people who say "no" before the question is asked. I am totally befuddled about these folks, and have made a mental note not to go out of my way to meet them anytime this century or next. They need to take a long hard look at themselves.
I have used aluminum foil tape for HVAC use on a budget build for my seven year old. It had real shotty single coils and when you combine a 7 year old with little skills and a loud hum along with a cranked combo amp... It can be hard to keep your sanity.. Lol
All I had on hand was my HVAC tape..
It worked pretty good..!
Hi Dylan.
I enjoy your videos, so thank you for making them. I thought i would chip in with my experience here, specifically shielding of the electronics compartment. Not to disproof you at all, because i think that you are correct in what you are saying, just to share my personal experience.
I have this Tokai strat that i really love playing, but i found myself using other guitars more because the buzz/hum from the guitar annoyed me. I have a godin session, which i had installed Mojotone quiet coil pickups in, and the thing was dead quiet. So i thought i would put the quiet coils in my Tokai and all would be good. So i swapped the pickups and to my surprise the Tokai was still quite noisy when i did not touch the strings. The only thing that was different on the two guitars was the shielding.
The Tokai was shielded in the pickup routing and on the pickguard. Because i ran out of cobber tape, the electronics compartment did not get shielded. The Godin Session was shielded all over also in the electronics compartment. I thought to myself i had to try shielding the electronics compartment of the Tokai to see if this would change anything, and sure enough it made the Tokai i dead quiet aswell. I do agree with you that shielding the electronics compartment can lead to some issues, but if you look at the components and your space in the compartment,you can tell where you might run into trouble. I just put some vinyl electrical tape in the two areas i saw as potential issues.
This is just my experience, shielding the electronics compartment did make a pretty big difference in my Tokai.
For my sins, I spent 2-1/2 years working on building cryogenic-soaked receivers for radio telescopes. The "cage" was about 10' x 10' x 7'. The contact setup around the door was really interesting and really complicated. As you say, people REALLY don't need to go there. I'm all in favour of proper shielding, but that's a whole other thing, and much easier. Glad to see this explained in straightforward layman's language. Thanks, Dylan.
I copper-shielded my Fender strat and it helped to a noticeable degree. I did the same with my Franken-Squier (with new Fender pickups) and while it helped, it was much less noticeable. But with the Fender it was absolutely worth the 30 min. and $4 of copper-tape.
If you have the materials, I don't see why NOT to do it. It may help, it may not, but so long as you don't short something out it surely can't hurt...
Thank you! I did a Strat copper shielding project this weekend - including the output jack bc the other youtube examples did NOT mention to avoid jack cavity shielding. Shielding made a huge difference, but I started having some popping sounds when moving around. So I swapped the jack for a new one. Then I had NO sound after screwing jack into cavity w cover, but it did work w/o cover. Noticed that jack plug was just touching shielding, and had watched this vid, so I removed. Problem solved. And the guitar is still quiet w all of the other copper foil treatment and groundings.
did you shield the portion with the tone knobs etc
Thank you so much, Dylan. I had a lot of annoying static electricity on my G&L Asat classic. I've just shielded the pickguard the way you explain with conductive copper tape and it works fantastic. Have a nice day and happy new year. 🙂
Spot on! if you're looking for info describing how to shield your guitar from electrostatic interference, it's all here in this video.
Funny thing is, I rewired my guitar completely yesterday. A strat. Went online, looked for tips, instructions and aaaaaaall the major names (and forums) tells you to shield the whole thing. And I did. And my guitar, although quieter, still noisy. AND, I had to remediate it cause I shielded the jack hole as well and I grounded the whole thing.
Good to come online and seeing a video of a dude saying what actually works, with facts, data.
Awesome, thanks!
Oh, first time using the copper tape, and love it. It's clean, easy, and works (being conductive)
I shielded my Tele pickguard & grounded exactly as you specified (nothing else). For all practical purposes, it eliminated a very noticeable 'hands-off' hum. Thanks so much!!!
Excellent!
@@DylanTalksToneGood day sir. Are you saying that I do NOT have to shield the cavity on a Stratocaster build?
Building my first guitar and I am confused with all the info on the net. I trust you from watching your videos so thought I would ask you.
Hey Dylan! Great vieo! You said that shielding controll cavity would not change much. I have old Framus guitar, with Bill Lawrence LTS pickups. I decided to change wires in cavity, which were old and degraded. I didn't want to mess with shielded pickup wires which were fine. Cavity wires were also of shielded type. I changed them to regular wires and instantly i got massive noise. Then i shielded that cavity with tin foil and averything was back to normal.
Ive experienced similar. I reshielded my guitar from stock and it is much much quieter. It is especially noticeable when using high gain. Its a day and night difference. It was unbearably noisy before.
Put an aluminum pickguard plate under my AmStd Strat pickguard. Looks cool, really made a huge difference in noise, and did effect the tone a bit. Positively in my opinion.
I did my 89 Kramer Nightswan a few years after I bought it. I use copper foil and I did solder the joints between each strip. Now my volume pot is a push/pull as it's my pick up selector switch, I have a Seymour Duncan JB pickup in the neck (passive) and a Seymour Duncan heavy metal live wire (active) in the bridge. The guitar is completely silent with the volume cranked until I hit the strings and it's full sound. I wish all my guitars were like this. It's a guitar with pass and active and works wonderful. Anyone who knows those pick ups, knows how hot and loud the Heavy metal live wire is, 18volt , lots of jam lol. Probably the most versatile guitar I have, the JB has a coil tap, so the guitar goes mild to wild. Each pickup cavity has copper tape and the control cavity with a wire soldered to each joining them. Lots of work, but well worth it for me. Also did my Epiphone Zakk Wylde model and changed the 9volt setup to 18 volt on it and works just as well.
Had to have a custom pickguard made (a surprisingly difficult venture) and they offered a copper foil option so I figured why not. One single piece of copper on the back of a Strat-ish pick guard.
Thanks for the vid. Satisfyingly geeky. 😊
This is the best video I’ve seen in a long time! I have an Epiphone Les Paul I was redoing and wanted to do it right. I shielded everything, and lo and behold, it didn’t work. I hadn’t touched it for a couple months, until I watched this video, the second you said to not shield the control cavity, I jumped, a half hour later, I was playing! Thanks bro!
Copper tape for me too. Thanks for the tip on the control cavity, I didn't know that. I always learn some good info from you.
Thanks for your shielding information.
St. Augustine,Fl
Michael
Between you "guns n' guitars" and Highline guitars, I'm building a killer bass, thanks man, knowledge that comes with experience is powerful and you got it.
I am always thankful for your logical approach to guitars. Thanks for the download of good solid info. I'll use these shielding (or not shielding) principles in my builds and mods going forward, for sure!
Just found this guy .. Love the videos.. Practical science without getting lost in the theory.. Thank you sir !
excellent presentation. I like the "here is why" and " this is how shielding works"
instead of just, "stick tape here and here now it's quiet because science" Cheers
You asked - I use conductive paint in cavities, always have. I use foil on pickguards. Nice review : -)
For the shielding: wood glue, standard tin foil, desoldering copper mesh as a ground wire, small wood screws to fix the copper mesh in a few points and to have good ground to the tin foil, the bridge and the pickguard.
For the wiring: twisted pair wires from an old ethernet cable and shrink tubes over all terminals, so i don't have to worry about anything making shorts, therefor I shield all cavities and don't have problems with shorts. I also use a TRS jack to keep GND and low side of the signal separated. With classic TS cables the GND the low side of the signal will get connected when the guitar is plugged in. With a TRS cable and amps with balanced inputs, i can reduce hum even more, because now i have a balanced signal and shielding to the amp.
Great video. Used your method of a tiny strip of shielding to have continuity between control plate and the pick-guard. Super- Genius Level. Wyle E Coyote....Super Genius.
this is the most helpful video on this subject.
I've got my tape, I got a Tele, let's see how this goes
Great explanation, very informative. Subscribed
Shielded my tele per this video and it sounds soooooo quiet! Thank you very much brother!!!
Thanks for this video. This is going to be very useful info as I build my new kits and repair/upgrade some of my older projects
Thank you for saving me time, money, and and breath with people who don't know what their talking about.
Thanks you, I did follow your advices and It worked perfectly.
i added copper shielding to each of the individual pickups. I shielded the top of the coils and ran it down to a shield wrapped around the coil itself. This was grounded with a solid wire directly to the pickup ground. The top shield is one long U shape with a tab at the bottom of the U to wrap over the end of the bobbin and down on the end of the coil. This runs alongside of the pole pieces. The top of the bobbin, opposite the tab end, has to be open. The shield can't totally surround the pole pieces. This lets out eddy currents. If you shield in the eddy currents, the highs will be sacrificed. The same applies to the shield wrapped around the coils. It can't be a complete wrap. I leave about a half inch gap open. This wrap goes over the tab from the top shield. I put the gap on the side opposite the pickup wires. This way I can solder the wire right from the ground connection to the copper shield. I use copper shielding with conductive adhesive, so I don't have to solder the two shielding pieces together. I think this may stop the "sticking out" scenario from letting EMI in through the front of the pickup. Some people put the upper shield on the inside of the pickup cover. That requires that piece to then be connected with a wire to ground or to the other shield piece. Easier to just do it on the bobbin itself.
Thanks Dylan for a very informative video. I'm definitely going to use copper sheeting that I have bought to shield my D.I.Y. Strat kit that I built, using your method. I'm glad that I looked this up and found your video.
I did this today in my favorite, but noisy Squire Precision. Dead quiet. Even more my favorite now.
you immediately answered my question at about 3:30 , any need to keep watching? Edit - okay, so I did. I understand the idea of shielding the rear of the pickguard only. But I believe it is not necessary to run a ground jumper from the pickguard. The pickup mounting screws & springs are grounded to the pickup, so the copper shield will ground via the springs. You can test the pickup mounting screws are grounded by touching them, hum reduces or goes away completely.
You just saved me a bunch of time and tape. I was planning on putting tape everywhere like some recommend.
This is one of your best videos.
THANK YOU ! Fine!... My new Vintera 2 it had a bizarre buzz when I touched the pickguard, after making the aluminum shield and placing the little strip from the potentiometer cavity it disappeared. Cheers from Paris.
Great video glad I found it. The most important thing that you mentioned is it's about location. I never had a problem until I moved. Cell tower, hydro towers and transformers all within sight.
Same for me !!! New techno became cancer for old techno !
I have already shielded several guitars with copper foil (single coil pickups), in the best possible way, and star-grounded everything possible. I noticed a clear improvement. However, I have the impression that certain very high treble frequencies are a little lost. I'm not 100% sure because I didn't record the sound before/after to compare. It's just an impression, perhaps due to the fact that there was no more buzz...?
What is certain is that it is very appreciable to have less buzz when you use gain pedals or play loudly. The buzz is not 100% eliminated with the gain pedals, but in clear sound yes.
ahhh, I wish I had watched this four guitars ago...would have saved a crap load of copper!
You're the best Dylan. You've saved me quite a bit of money by just being as straightforward and honest as you are. I seriously appreciate what you do man. Thanks. Rock on man
Great video! Clarification is great. .So you don’t put the copper tape inside the pickups cavities?
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Does the back of the metal control plate (mounting plate for the pots and switch) need to have shielding tape applied to the back of it as well? Or will the metal itself shield once it comes into contact with a strip of the copper tape?
I use shielding paint all day everyday and it works just fine
CAPTAIN MARVELOUS TONEICUS AND THE FORTRESS OF IMPERMEABILITY!!! All joking aside, you, my friend, are a mad genius!!!
Yet another excellent tech video! I think you are right about trying to simplify the theory behind and focus more on the practical application. Thank you Dylan
Great video again. Yes, I use the foil you use. I looked into the paint, only to discover they recommend several coats. Well that means I would be sitting around waiting for paint to dry.lol How silly is that. I understand from a manufacturing view,(making big batches) they can put them aside while making other parts. For me, if I take the strings off of a guitar, I want to get the new strings on asap or at least,the same day...
Dan. The paint actually dries rapidly. If you go that route do tel solid coats.
Like all paints shake it up good in the container first. Paint is glue with “stuff’” and color in it ….. no paint in the world works properly without all elements up in suspension.
Now go out and bend it like BECK… Jeff that is 🎼🎸
If your electronics cavity is shielded (either by a foil job or conductive paint spray) and something is touching where it shouldn’t, leading to a short or one pickup not working or whatever - just put clear packing tape in the insulated cavity over the foil. Insulates it electrically from the wiring harness while still retaining rf isolation.
the graphite paint does seem to help. but if a pot feels loose,don't turn it till the body moves cause one of the solder lugs could ground out. so tighten it pronto. Every little bit helps.
Great Video. This method helped so much and saved me so much time and headache from having to remove everything.
Hi Dylan, I use the conductive copper tape too. I tried the paint but it takes two coats and takes too long to dry . Guitars still hum but not as bad . It would be cool if pickups had covers that were emi resistant
Such a great film. I had a feeling that creating a Faraday cage was never going to happen!
Truth you speak. I've done it wrong before. The shielding was working better than not having it except I had already added an extra switch. What kind if switch? It was the early 1980's so of course it was an in\out of phase switch. I did it correctly but since I only had one conductor and a shield per pick-up, if I used the pick-up that was effected by the switch, guess what happened? If the one with the switch was the only pick-up on and I left it in the "out of phase" setting the shield was the HOT. Man let me tell ya, in standard position it was nice&quiet. The other way, not so much. Mixed with the other pickup the overall volume drop made the hum get lost in the wash of cymbals and vocals. By itself however the spread of the copper foil became the antenna for everyone, everywhere, everything, all the time including next Thursday!! I didn't use the out position that night so no harm except for the first time the sound man heard it. He made me tape the switch in the 'Normal' setting.
Dylan, Even being buzzed,... You did a great job on this one!
I don’t get buzzed … ever
Great video, Thanks for taking the time to explain.
I am super grateful to find this video. Doing home recording I cannot stand the noise. I’ve purchased noise eliminators, gates etc. I probably have more of them than I do FX pedals. I could care less about all the science, and all the nerd stuff. I find people on RUclips, and the Internet tend to beat there chest to seem more intelligent than they actually are. There’s an old adage keep it simple stupid. I really appreciate this more than you know. I’m going to order the tape and follow everything that you said and I really hope it works. Thank you for putting this up!
Thank you!!!
You are a voice of reason in a sea of misinformation about this subject. Even when we filter out ridiculous snake-oil sales pitches, there's still a ton of information that is intentionally withheld, like what we really need to do to keep our electric guitar as quiet as possible. The sales pitches for all these expensive conductive paint products draws our focus to the technicalities of it's ingredients, continuity, and attenuation curves. You've refocused my attention to what I need to do to shield my Take build. Again, thanks thanks thanks!!
*Tele build... LOL
It works great when done correctly. I have a Squier Strat. It has no buzz or hum at all after shielding.
To all the Propeller heads that try to correct Dylan’s “science”
He is teaching concepts/ practical applications for laymen guitarists. Not mathematics or physics.
Lay off... Most guitarists... even legendary ones ... Don’t know shit about guitars... and they will tell you. They just pick it up and if it sounds great they love it... If it doesn’t they leave it.
Us hobbyists love tinkering though, and need practical applications to improve what we are doing and BASIC concepts that we can apply to our next guitar or project.
For instance... I’m betting that trying to shield the output jack cavity is a bad Idea on any guitar not just a tele... If your solder joint for the signal wire or a bare part of your signal grounds on that shielding..... Welcome to Zero output.
Keep putting it out the way you do Dylan... We get it.
It's an output jack, not an "input jack".
@@BobaFettBountyHunter it works both ways
@@jennjennjenn61992 No.
@@jennjennjenn61992 What signal do you send to guitar to make that jack "input"?
What's the best way to ground the shielding? A jumper wire to the ground point on the pot? Or is the control plate already grounded?
Awesome content!! 🎉 greeting from mexico 🇲🇽
After watching, I went and opened up my strat and ripped out allllll the copper tape I lined the cavity with. I them added allllllllll the copper tape I DIDNT originally add to the pickguard. 😂 By golly it sounds so much better! Thanks Dylan!
Thank you for this. You saved me a lot of work, and it all makes perfect sense.
You explain it correctly, I did also shield my guitar the same way and that's the right way.
What are your thoughts on the aluminum pick guard shield that Fender sells for strats? I know it's not copper but it seems to be an effective solution.
I will try to use fine copper mesh I ordered in the US. It seems like it’s much better than the other stuff. But that one I will have to glue or fix and solder it together afterwards.
Lot of good info in this, would a sheet of aluminum foil attached to the back of the pick guard and a wire to the volume pot case work? I was thinking the aluminum foil could be attached to the back of the pick guard with some 3m spray glue and flattened out with the edge of a credit card.
Good stuff. I like to know the theory, but yeah, I just want to reduce noise on a guitar here. I guess grounding happens at the point where the cable makes contact with the jack on the guitar and then stray 'juice' flows out the cable. Correct?
Interesting video. So, just to make sure. If I'm building a Telecaster (I am), and I want to shield it, all I have to do is put the copper on the back of the pickguard, add a little piece of tape to make the shielding on the back of the pickguard come in contact with the control knob plate and it's shielded?
I don't have to wrap all the routed cavities in copper tape and connect them with shielded wire to the ground lug on the input jack?
Great - Really liked the video. Thank you for your time.
Truly an inspiration Dylan busted some of my myths for sure. I posted this in several "guitar" groups on fb.
Thank you for sharing tips and saving time subscribed..thumbs up!
Had to edit most important thing you said is you're trying to minimize the hum no way to eliminate it
Thank you so much for the detailed explanations, now I got a hold on dos and do'nts about how to properly shielding my telecaster. :)
I have some thin copper sheet that I was planning on using to make a pick guard with but I didn't know anything about shielding I just thought it would look cool. It would probably shield pretty good I'm assuming.
Great video but........didn't really catch if shielding the guitar is even needed at all, seems optional. Maybe I missed it. It was rather nice to hear that you don't need to shield the control cavities. I will be doing a Tele build and like the pick guard application, but do you need to also shield the bridge position? Or do you not even need to shield anything? There are so many videos out there on this, it's hard to determine who knows what they are actually talking about.
Been waiting for this since last year.. ha ha.. yeah..
I had to carve out my guitar to fit my new selector switch in and was worried about having cut through the metallic paint. I ain't worried a'tall now.
thank you!...I'll give it a try.
So...in a Stratocaster the pickguard is the only part that need to shield as all strat or we can improve to shield other parts ?
Thanks very informative and time saving !
I got a roll of aluminum for my guitars. It works well no I think i paid $5.00 for the roll at Home Depot. I used paint to cover the gaps and tested it with a multimeter set on continuity. That way it beeps whenever here is a good connection. Then, if I need to I bought plastadip to keep things from shorting out!
I use aluminium foil tape but when I overlap the tape pieces i fold over the next piece so aluminium is touching aluminium. If your adhesive is conductive that isnt nessesary but if it isnt that will work for sure.
true but the aluminum touching aluminum part isn't held by glue, so, maybe it could no longer contact after a while?
@@swisstraeng If you only fold over a small piece and run it the length off the strip it wont come up but I typically put another piece over the folded seam for aesthetics anyways lol. I building a telecaster now and I made my own conductive paint. Tested it out and it conducts perfectly. It's just graphite and black gloss acrylic paint. Foils will easily show continuity(very very low to no resistance). But what most people fail to realize with conductive paint is that just cause your not getting solid continuity diesnt mean it's not conductive and working as a sheild. A better test for conductive paint is an ohm reading or if you dont have a meter use a 9v battery and an LED. If having solid continuity is important to the builder/modder then mixing on more graphite and adding more coats will get you there.
I was going to say the same thing. I found some aluminum tape in my parents' attic and used it for shielding years ago. Testing it with a meter showed an open circuit so I just folded down a corner to make contact. Since then I've upgraded my pickups and the wiring is shielded so it's probably not even necessary anymore.
Thank you for taking the time to make this video and explain how it works!
This makes so much sense thanks
I know there is more noise introduced through old wiring in homes and bad wiring in general,than all the wayward signals in history. A power conditioner really works, way better than trying to shield against radio signals that don't exist. Remember. Tvs,plugged into the same circuit of a guitar rig causes horrendous noise. Bad ground on houses,or entire grids cause this also. I lived in an apt one time,every plug in the house introduced bad noise. I was hearing air traffic and pilots talking through my amp. I changed outlets and it all disappeared. The fuhrman power conditioner works too.
I have DIY project without a pickguard. HSH-Configuration.
3 pupcavities + controls backside.
How am i gonna shield n ground successfully the neck-H through middle-S & bridge-H with also controls cavity?
The wireholes thru Hum-S-Hum are already ridiculously little and no way i can extend the copperline thru first neck pup to controls cavity.
Super informative!! Thank you!
Bingo...is exactly what happened to my perfect cooper faraday cage(all copper was soldered )...that would not have worked perfectly anyways. I figured that out and made it work eliminating the shorted points but upon more thought, I'll just rip it out as I want to experiment with other pickups/pickguards and don't want any shooting going on and that is the only way to make sure.
I have seen people run wires between the cavities and solder to the foil. If the pickguard is shielded and you have overlapping shielding (for example as you have from control cavity to body), then doesn't the pickguard tie them all together and you don't need wire between the cavities?
Picked up a 1st year Eric Johnson strat in a trade. It's almost perfect but, as Dylan says, it has the "hum" which goes away putting your hand on the bridge. Not a ground issue. Turnbguitar volume down & hum is gone. While I had it apart I admired how nice the inside looked. I decided not to shield because of how good it looks. I've just learned how to keep it quiet and crank the amps.
Nice video brother!😎
This is such a great video, but what would you do for a guitar with no pickguard? Thanks for posting this video, I’m going to try this on my Strat.
I did it! it’s work 🎉 Thanks 🙏