How to Shield a Guitar Pickup Demonstrated on a Tele

Instructions on how to properly shield a guitar pickup from electronic interference - Buzzz be gone!

Brought to you by Davey Lee Goode of Greasy Groove Custom Guitar Parts.

http://www.greasygroove.com

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Fender
• Tele
• Telecaster
• Pickup
• Pick-up
• Shield
• Shielding
• Electronics

[shlomiya]

8:30 - didn't you do a ground loop right there ???

[greasygroove]

@shlomiya Good question and one I get asked a lot. There are such things as ground loops which can cause problems on longer cable runs where the screening needs to be grounded at one end only - Grounding both ends will be a ground loop. In this video it is most definitely not a ground loop - I am making a secure ground connection between the pickup cover and the copper shielding only. Some pickup covers do not have a good electrical contact with the ground - that can cause issues.

[Xevamir]

How can I shield my other two pickups in the Tele? They don't have a metal plate covering like the neck pickup!

[greasygroove]

@Xevamir You can just shield the pickup pockets and make sure that they get grounded by connecting the shielding to the ground wire or pots on you guitar. Even without a metal cover, your pickup mounts (metal frame) will be part of the ground system.

[SolidSnakeBossMGO]

@greasygroove Thanks for replying, i did end up wiring the bridge plate to the control plate so now it stays quiet when i touch the strings. Might try the shielding soon though, thanks.

[greasygroove]

@SolidSnakeBossMGO Check that you have the control plate and bridge connected together there should be a cable that sits under the bridge plate and attached to groung - that will make the noise go when you play the guitar by touching the strings (A pretty common occurance). Sheilding could help eliminate this.

[greasygroove]

@hackmiker I would have to know how you are wiring your pickups to the preamp to help here. This does not sound like a shielding issue so hold off on that route.

[SolidSnakeBossMGO]

@greasygroove Hi, finished wiring a tele but i get more noise than my other teles. It goes away when I touch the control plate or the neck pickup. Will shielding fix this, or do i have to do something else? I already checked the wiring but can't figure out what's wrong. Thanks.

[hackmiker]

Hey, I have an Epiphone SG. I placed some passive pickups in it, and added a Seymour Duncan preamp, but when the preamp is working (it's called Blackouts Modular Preamp BMP-1), there is lots of noise, even on a clean setting. I tried disconnecting the pickups from the preamp, and the noise goes away 100%. So I figured it might be the pickups. The guitar inside is coated with some black substance, so I'm curious whether using copper shielding will help reduce the noise. Thoughts on this?

[Xevamir]

@greasygroove Thanks! Will get on it.