If everything beeps, you have successfully created a fully grounded Faraday cage and therefore a well shielded guitar. The paint is very easy to apply in small, tight areas. Volt/Ohm meter Use the self-adhesive copper foil on the back of control cavity covers and pickguards. They will allow the foil to go down smoothly on both the bottom and the sidewalls. Adjustable jaw wrench, socket set, or nut drivers Before soldering you will want to check to be sure the cover can still be installed. Just solder a wire from the volume pot's casing to this lug for a good ground. Remove the pickups from the pickguard assembly and make note of which lug is hot and which is connected to ground. The paper is left in the area of the overlap because it reduces the risk of getting the area too hot when soldering and shorting out the windings. This kit is even beneficial for most production instruments as it lets you completely encase all of the pickups and controls with a grounded foil. Not a kit, this guitar is finished, assembled and wired! It is also recommended to solder the point where the foil overlaps itself. Bring the foil over the top of the body in the area that would be under the pickguard and around the pickguard screw below the bottom tone pot. Do not make the wires too short. The days of damaging the surface of your guitar when removing the pickguard is over! All of the shielding must be in contact with ground. Unless you feel completely competent in soldering, desoldering, and a basic understanding of guitar wiring, you should take your instrument to a qualified luthier or repairperson. Heat-shrink tubing or black tape will protect hot connections from touching the shielding. Applying ground to a Strat type guitar is very simple. Adjusting pickups any closer (especially with single-coils) can cause false notes or "wolf-tones." Carefully tin these wires by coating the tips with a small amount of solder. Control cavities Healing Shield Pickguards are the ones for you! Let’s get into it. If your volume pot housing is in contact with the foil, a ground jumper is not necessary. Depending upon the type of humbucker(s) in the instrument, you may not need to do any additional shielding. Basic skills required Fender's most popular pick shape in different materials. In order to completely shield your guitar you will have to dismantle and desolder a majority of the guitar's components. Strip back 3/4" of the outer gray insulation on both ends and separate the outer braided shield from the blue and white wires. Cut the foil 1/4" outside your crease mark. How to Shield a Guitar Pickup Demonstrated on a Tele - YouTube Knowing how to tune and take care of your guitar is one of the most important skills for a beginner. Once this is done, test for continuity between the copper shielding and the casing of the volume pot (ground). 99. It is highly recommended that you make detailed notes on how every component was wired, as well as marking specific wires and solder points with tape labels to help in rewiring the instrument. Pickups shouldn't be adjusted too close to the strings. Shielding paint (#0029, not included with the Self-adhesive Shielding Kit) is also very good for shielding control cavities, pickup routs, and drilled holes. Very carefully desolder the two pickup lead wires from their lugs. To test conductivity – use your multimeter on the continuity test setting….if you have done it properly, you should have full conductivity between any two given points on the pickguard. Reattach and remove at anytime! This is caused by radio frequencies and electrostatic fields. Conductive shielding paint or Copper/Aluminium Tape? To hook up the pickup: solder the white wire to the selector switch; the blue and outer braid to the back of the volume pot (unless you are using a phase switch). Remove all but 1/2" of the protective backing and start to wrap the foil around the bobbin. This now means that the control circuit is grounded. If you wish to learn more about guitar wiring and electronics, we recommend #0570 "The Guitar Player Repair Guide" by Dan Erlewine. To save on tape you can use these excellent aluminium shielding plates designed for Strat pickguards. BY KATE KOENIG. Bring some 1/4" wide tabs of copper foil over the top edge of the rout in control cavity areas to come into contact with the cover plate or pickguard. Many guitars will come from the factory with conductive paint covering the control and pickup cavities but this is not always the most effective way to shield a guitar. It is particularly common with single coil pickups (more so than humbuckers), which is why many guitarists opt to shield their guitar. This is a delicate job that may be better left up to a professional. Single coils Using your VOM (Volt/Ohm Meter), check for shorts that may have occurred due to overheating one of the wires. Healing Shield Pickguards are the ones for you! This guide covers how to shield a Strat but the principle is the same regardless of what model you use. Watch your fingers! Finally, we need to connect the cavity shielding to the main circuit. They are very effective and were used on vintage Strats back in the 50s and 60s. from the pickup cavities). Run a string ground unless you are using active pickups. This will give you some foil that will extend up the sides of the cavity and will be overlapped by the foil applied to the sidewalls. The shielding of the output wire also allows you to switch the phase of the pickup (swap hot for ground) while still maintaining your shielding network. Reattach and remove at anytime! When shielding pickguards, the foil only needs to be applied in the area of the control cavity. The acoustic guitar is easier to use due to its simplicity form. Start by applying some of the copper foil to the bottom of the cavity. With Tons of designs to choose from, your guitar can now look as … To size the piece, lay the foil on top of the cavity and drag your finger around the edge of the rout. A Precision bass which uses a split humbucker and plastic covers could benefit from additional shielding. Be sure to make notes on how these parts were oriented and hooked up. On top of this, conductive (graphite) paint is a lot more expensive – you only justify the price if you are shielding several guitars. We also carry a 2' wide copper foil (#0028, sold separately) that is very useful for shielding. There are several ways to apply a ground to a shielding network; when dealing with copper shielding foils, the ground wire can be soldered directly to it. This is sufficient for a grounding plate but offers little to no shielding and not even close to creating a Faraday cage. 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