Building a Guitar ep17 Guitar Electronics part 2 Shielding

[TheRealSonicYouth]

tht baby in the background scared the crap outta me but good vid man

[marcoamf1977]

@TheRealSonicYouth What baby?!!?

[TheRealSonicYouth]

@marcoamf1977 ummmm i thought i heard a small child in the background........

[marcoamf1977]

@TheRealSonicYouth Oh, probably. My 3-year old daughter. hahaha As I mentioned in some of the videos, this guitar was built at my apartment's laundry room, mainly during weekends.

[97warlock]

Theres 1 thing that truly confuses me.........Hope this makes sense to whoever reads it: When running ground wires in the cavity,If you "loop" a wire back to ground somewhere, it will create a ground loop,Correct? So....Why is it someone can encase the entire Cavity with foil or copper and it does NOT create a ground loop? Yet one single wire ran to a ground point can cause a ground loop. Anyone wanna explain this to me?

[fogaoagas]

@97warlock You CAN'T create ground loops on a passive guitar since there is only ONE ground. And that is the ground from the cable connecting the guitar to your amp... and so on...

[97warlock]

@fogaoagas from things ive read....if u have ground coming from the trem to a pot,then to somewhere else,then to somewhere else,if they arent ran in a sequence,it can cause a loop.

[nickstur]

I am confused about this grounding, some videos dont mention it and some do. When i have finished applying my copper tape do i connect a wire to the spring claw to the tape?

[marcoamf1977]

@nickstur The principle is that "grounding" adds enough conductive mass to the ground wire of your electronics. So people usually attach ground wire to the spring claw, sometimes to screws or even the bridge (I heard there's higher risk of electric shock in this case). But if you do have the shielding, you can connect ground to spring claw and then somehow connect all that to the shielding tape.

[nickstur]

@marcoamf1977 Cheers man, There's so many different ways of doing it i got confused, thanks for a clear explanation!

[BlueSuedeTom]

I accept your reply as correct, and infact your video is VERY good.

If you wish i will remove my comment?

[marcoamf1977]

@BlueSuedeTom No worries, man! I like to keep all constructive comments live. Ends up adding relevance to the videos. Thanks for watching!

[BlueSuedeTom]

It is a "Myth" you will never eliminate or reduce mains hum with copper sheilding.

If it was that simple, guitar companys would provide it as standard.

That is why Kinman, & Fender Noisless pickups are so sucessful.

Waste your time and money if you wish, but i am right.

[marcoamf1977]

@BlueSuedeTom Thanks for the input. shielding the guitar does not cancel pickup hum indeed, you are right. But it definitely and greatly decreases interference coming from other sources of electromagnetic waves and fields, such as computers, microphones, power sources, TV, wireless phones and radio, WiFi networks, etc.

[nickstur]

@BlueSuedeTom Tom, i have recently shielding my strat guitar which had texas special pickups in. Before these suffered a great degree of hum but since shielding they have improved dramatically! So whoever is reading this it's worth the measly £5 i spent for the tape. Obviously it wont work for all guitars, but for £5 its worth a try :)

[axegrinder89]

could i use spray adhesive and aluminium foil?

[marcoamf1977]

@axegrinder89 I guess so. However, aluminum is not as good as copper. And watch out not to make a mess with the adhesive spray. Test first if it sticks to the wood and then to the aluminum foil.

[axegrinder89]

@marcoamf1977 ok thanks so basically i cover the whole of the back of my scratchplate in copper or aluminium foil and then line the whole inside of the control and pickup cavities with it? is there anything else that is important that i need to do?

[marcoamf1977]

@axegrinder89 I noticed after other user comments that it does not make much sense to shield the back / under the backplate, my bad! But in the front side, surely you should shield the control, pickup and jack cavities. And don't forget to attach the ground cable to the spring claw and have some kind of connection to your shielding. The more mass, the better.

[zer0dahero]

OMG the answer to my problem just delivered to me. Since one can't solder aliminium foil I just didn't know how to ensure proper conductivity for the different layers and prorper grounding. Alas, this guy uses copper tape bits to do just that. If I could, I would shake this guy's hand, he really helped me just on the very problem I was having.

thanx dude.

[marcoamf1977]

Glad to help! Thanks for watching!

[HappyLarry0]

extremely helpful vid, just a stupid question though, does copper tape have adhesive

[marcoamf1977]

yep, this one does

[supernouht]

You should probably replace the alluminum with more of the copper tape, having dis-similar metals may cause some electrolysis and lead to corrosion.

I've been thinking of doing this to my noisey strat, how much hum did it kill?

[marcoamf1977]

It´s hard to find copper tape here in Brazil. So maybe I´ll remove the tape from the back and apply to the front where I used the aluminum.

[supernouht]

thinkning about itmore, it's probably not that big a deal, the foil would only corrode itself and not hurt the guitar really. And it might not even happen being that it's dry?

[marcoamf1977]

I hadn't played the guitar without the shielding, so I wouldn't know. But it's much quieter than my strat, even with the SC selected.

Hey, I watched a couple of your videos... some serious parkour stuff, man. Way to go!

[supernouht]

Thanks!

[marcoamf1977]

To add more mass to the ground.

[supernouht]

adding more mass to the ground would increase the capacitence of the ground and may kill a littl eof your high end, I'd take the copper out of the back side?

[marcoamf1977]

Good hint! Thanks!

[EdgarBeja]

Hi there! This shielding have cancelled a lot of hum that I had. But now I´m getting huge electrical shocks while I´m playing and touch somebody or in the mic. I´m almost sure that there is some problem with my shielding or something that i´ve done work or not done yet. Shoult I get a multimeter and see the tension between the strings a ground outlet? Thanks

[marcoamf1977]

wow... weird that your guitar is playing fine.

I did some research and yes, you should get this properly checked, since it can be serious (life threatening even).

Most sites recommend:

- do not ground the bridge / strings, so make sure your shielding is not connected to the bridge

- the polarity of your jack may be reversed

- use an amp with 3 prong grounded cord, and of course, a grounded wall outlet

- you may install capacitors / resistors to make a safety device inside your guitar

[EdgarBeja]

Hi there! I´ve shielded the back, front and the pickguard of my guitar properly. My doubt is what I have to do now ? I´ve to ground the front cooper that is in contact with the cooper of the pickguard to the tremolo claw to ground all this ? thanks in advance

[marcoamf1977]

All shielded parts should be in contact with each other. The grounding capability is directly related to the conductive mass you have. That is also why we connect all this to the spring claw, to add even more mass.

So, with all shielded parts in contact, you should connect the ground cable coming out of your electric part to any part of it. Recommendation: physically connect the ground cable to the spring claw, and add some solder to reinforce.

[144214789]

where is the electronic part 1???????

[marcoamf1977]

Episode 15, in the same playlist.

[144214789]

dude i didnt found... will u please send me a link???

[marcoamf1977]

its video

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[ikarusbodom]

excellent!!!! marcoamf1977, can I ask you a question?? i have my strat MIM with my new pickups which are: YJM and HS3 pickups, the thing is that I bought them because they cancel the hum instead of shielding the guitar and improve the quality of my guitar of course, now they are on the strat but they still give me hum or that little anoying noise but I have not shilelded it yet, do you recommed to shield it or the wiring is bad because I paid to a tech guy recognized in my country??? thanks

[marcoamf1977]

Hi, answered in the messages section. thanks for watching!

[supladito]

marcoamf1977, is this effective for eliminating background hum and buzz...??? by the way, whats the ultimate purpose of this guitar shielding thing...??? i'll be waiting for your response, God bless...!!!

[marcoamf1977]

Definitely! This guitar, when only the humbucker is selected, is the most silent guitar I've ever seen!

[supladito]

man i can't find a copoper tape...!!! what about aluminum duct tape...??? can this do the shielding capability of the copper tape...???

[marcoamf1977]

most probably yes. Just make sure the back side of it is also conductive, so when you overlap two pieces they act as one whole thing.

[marcoamf1977]

test is the tape is conductive! Aluminum can be tricky!

[marcoamf1977]

Good to know! Thanks for watching and don't forget to rate it!

[chakolo]

best shielding vid in youtube, thx!