How To Shield Your Guitar (Busting Some Myths)

[@Balardamnation]

I am an electrician an have played guitar for many many many many years (said Lassard). I´ve just recently discovered your channel and I got to tell (you people out there) you really know your stuff. What I mean is, even if we both work in The same "branch", this knowledge can be pretty hard to come by, so thank you for sharing. So suck it in guitar people, this stuff is golden.🤓

[@telegaller8524]

Hi Dylan, even far away in Western Germany we learn soldering, shielding and guitar-tec watching your clips. Be-CAUSE nobody else does is with this clarity and knowledge-background. Thank you and keep on!

[@GratefulBamboo]

I have now watched several shielding videos. You are the only one that correctly says anything about grounding. Thanks for great instruction. I used to install radio communication equipment and grounding is the only thing that bleeds off EMI and stops buzzing.

[@johnkammerer2198]

You're an excellent teacher, Dylan. I sure appreciate all your knowledge sharing! ~j in Utah

[@Cre8tvMG]

So glad I've finally found a way to keep slugs out of my guitar! 17:25

[@mistergoat7357]

There were 11k subscribers at this time. Love your growth and approach to your viewers

[@arcaicorecords]

This is so insanely useful for us DYI guitar pple!! Thank you Dylan!

[@ChadwickRider]

One thing I love about the copper tape compared to the aluminum tape is the fact that you can solder to copper tape, which makes connecting all the shielded cavities a piece of cake. Glad I ran into this video... I just spent the time shielding the control cavity on my tele... I'm about to build a thinline and I'm going to skip shielding the control cavity on it. If it serves no purpose I'll save my tape $$$

[@jessebreakspear6656]

thank you that confirms for me what i already kind of suspected more shielding doest help if it's not grounded plus Dylan confirmed it in the video

[@tylerrose2891]

This man speaks the truth. Before I truly understood shielding do’s and don’ts, I shielded my entire Telecaster, INCLUDING the output jack. Problem being I have one of the jack cups that screw directly into the body. Well since I decided to use graphite shielding paint which apparently works really well 😂, when the screws on the jack cup were screwed into the body everything grounded out. I probably replaced every component before I finally figured it out. An hour later of sanding in the output hole to get the shielding paint out and it finally worked again. #DylanTalksTruth

[@NSS5773]

thankful I saw this comment before I did that exact thing this weekend on my first build. thank you!

[@marvinstorm9153]

Terrific video. I went down this rabbit hole in ignorance some years ago. The accidental upside I discovered using conductive paint in a LP control cavity is that it grounds all the pots together, no need for that ring of wire one often sees. Ditto output jack socket but make sure you insulate the + on outer ring with a bit of tape or it shorts to ground. Don't have to do a super neat job, just under pots and continuous up to side of jack route to connect all grounds. It's just a failsafe for me, nickel paint. Cheap. One myth gave a positive outcome somewhere else. I also never use that 50s braided uninsulated wire. Looks"cool" but the braid can short things in a small space.

[@WillFix]

Do you have anything that tells the benefits or lack of, concerning a dummy coil ?

[@barbmelle3136]

From Leo: Thank you for your time. An old alarm installers trick with foil is to take a sharp tool and peck a dozen tiny holes where ever two foils overlap. This guarantees that there is a good mechanical contact between pieces of foil. Solder is best, but I do not like to use heat on foil on back of plastic

[@KennethCrickmore-sl8jl]

Since the Pick guard on my Stellarcaster is Brushed stainless steel acts as a shield already I didn't need anything else.in the cavity and U used it as the main ground for the pots and all conveniently works well.. A benefit I didn't think of but realized would work as I wired it for all the tricks I had in mind for the way the controls work. as this was my very firsty guitar project I learned a lot as I progressed in this build. I learned the tricks for soldering the guitar wiring since there was so much to connect the way i wired it up to work how I wanted.. using 500k audio taper pots and .047 orange drop caps. wired like a '50's les Paul I get the sounds and the control set up O wanted and had designed it to work. I had an idea of how it might sound when all put together as designed.. it actually sounds better than i thought it would. experience in using salvage stereo and TV components taught me that just because the previous owner was un informed as to how it works .. I found that just a simple blown fuse can be the cause of it not working.. ewasy fix i capitalized on and even a bvusted console had good parts I could use for my home built stereo component system.. all from cast off bits. I did the same with building bikes to ride at next to no money spent.. why pay more that you have to to get what you want when a little labor woll save you so much... I saved so much with my guitar build as opposed to what it might have cost from somewhere like the "Fender Custom Shop" perhaps more that ten times the just under $500 I have in it all told with some tools and supplies for the build I have into it over all.... plus my time and labor I did. but one benefit was that I learned how much work is involved in building a guitar and I now know why they cost what they do.

[@karlsonkab51]

would use of decent shielded coax from the pups and braided shield where appropriate tied only to "ground" at one point accomplish the task as well as lining the cavities ?

[@fergusryan1486]

Thanks, I learned a lot. Just fixing up an old gtr for a pals Xmas gift to her man. Honour requires that ground hum is minimal! 🤺 Wishing you all the best for your pickup success in 2023 and beyond :)

[@robinflick5516]

I'm really thankful for this video! I built a guitar a few weeks ago and shielded it with aluminium foil. I did a bit of research online about this online and there are many different opinions on if it even works. I'm glad you also used it before. I will also have to write a paper about my built with a port on electronics and so on. Your videos are really helpful for that.

[@albertplaysguitar]

Did the aluminum work???

[@mistergoat7357]

@@albertplaysguitar no one knows

[@costasarantidis4499]

Aluminum foil works fine...hard to work with because it tears so easily but it got my pbass quiet

[@scottlarue5432]

Thanks Dillon, again you have taught me so much, Thank you. My guitar is quiet now!!

[@markkornett]

Thanks! This worked for me.

[@Black-Jack-2022]

I am shielding my Telecaster. I covered my new pickgaurd and pickups. Should I put a ground wire from the copper shielding to the back of a pot? Thanks Michael, Florida

[@ByGraceThroughFaith777]

Does an active pickup that requires a 9v battery inside the control cavity benefit from shielding the cavity?

[@charvDKgtr]

best way to ground a shields strat pickguard I have seen i) wire to volume pot or ii) run shielding tape from bottom screw of bottom tone knob?

[@SergeiVlassov]

in my case (via trials and errors) control cavity is the most critical place! The noise my unshielded guitars pick (not hum, but buzzing) is strongly amplified when I bring guitar closer to my body and don't touch grounded parts. As you said - I am also an antenna, and if I am not grounded, then I redirect the signal towards the guitar. And just by moving the hand close to various places of the guitar I found that the places where the noise is amplified the most are control cavity and pickups. Even if I just put a piece of foil between the hand and a cavity, then if a foil is not grounded, noise will get worse (antenna), but if a connect the foil to the ground, then the noise will decrease and will not react to my hand movements. The same is valid for the foil between back of the guitar and my body - the best results are if foil is big enough so it shields also pickups, but smaller piece at the location of cavity gives a huge effect (when grounded). I also did a Faraday cage in cavity without grounding the shielding - things got worse (as you described in the video as well). So, taking into account that my body amplifies the noise, complete shielding and grounding of the cavity gives a huge result! Tested on several guitars!

[@michalkysel4351]

I have same experience with this … maybe I need to share my experience with shielding. I shielded my Harley Benton active LP Eclipse clone. Guitar was not shielded from the factory. Out of the box, when I not touching the strings, it had horrible crackling buzzing noise. When I touch the strings, noise was quieter. Firstly, I shielded and grounded the switch cavity. It radically supressed the hum and buzz. Next, when I shielded and grounded control cavity and cavity for the output connector, noise almost gone, but when I don’t touch the strings, it was slightly increased. Finally, when I did this job also with both pickup cavities, hum and buzz was totally supressed, even I not touching the strings, it makes no difference. So, I recommend complete shielding of all cavities, where are electronics components. It will make noisy instrument sounding as good as possible, eliminate annoying noise, and get the best even from cheaper pickups.

[@DocHelliday]

@@michalkysel4351 I've always wondered why my full hollowbodies are my quietest guitars... no shielding. Still haven't cracked that nut

[@richsanchez622]

Very interesting. I played an outdoor festival and I had a radio station come through my Strat and BlackStar tube amp. It only lasted about 20 minutes then it was gone.

[@ronkunk144]

Dylan, you are in lighting! Thanks Pal

[@KennethCrickmore-sl8jl]

the copper tape in the guitar control cavity might even act as a dish antenna to some extent if the pick guard isn't shielded at all.. I used brushed stainless steel pick guard in my "Stellarcasater" build that acts as the main shielding to start with as well as acting as the main ground for all the controls. I still get microphonic sounds from the pick guard and Pick ups from any kind of minor im[act to either, but while playing doesn't matter as It will be so minimal you won't notice it. and if you can hear it I don't think it really matters, like the feedbsck in classic guitars.. It's just part of the sound. so I don't sweat the details when it works better that I thought it would...

[@KirkDickinson]

Is Galvanic corrosion a concern at all with copper touching steel?

[@SteveReid-c3r]

Is it grounded if your are plugged into an interface into an iPad , which is battery powered and not grounded to an ac /dc charger ? As I mostly play through my iPad with bias fx (and think it sounds great btw)

[@Crypticmaskguitar]

Excellent Video - Kevin

[@butthole4185]

I approve this message

[@randyclementelopezcarrasco2106]

DYLAN! MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS, ERES REALMENTE ELOCUENTE EN TUS PODCAST!👍👍👍

[@KoshNaranick]

Great video sir!

[@raymondruiz1843]

Hi there! Can I sheild a pickguard over the aluminum shielding that comes from factory?

[@dinamoarg]

Yes, of course, as long as it's grounded (like the original has to be).

[@raymondruiz1843]

Thanks! 🙏❤

[@darrenwest1969]

Just a question on the one ground for a guitar, what happens if you are using a wireless guitar bug, like an xvive, I’m assuming there is nowhere for the ground to go?

[@stevekirkby6570]

Talking of ground 'loops' is tricky (4:00min onwards) - what it really is? A 'potential difference' between the grounds caused by a difference of resistance between the grounds - so best bet is to have all your audio equipment use the same ground. i.e. a star system (mains). With big set ups this is an issue due to limitations on the current draw on an outlet. Best bet here is have your electrician / contractor focus on this to make your grounds common and efficient. Most won't do this as for regular domestic systems; it is not an important consideration, but of course in a studio or venue it is crucial, so you need an experienced and qualified tech. Beware of 'ground lifts'... take pro advice. Really interesting video - totally agree about grounding in a passive guitar. Great explanation about interference noise.

[@a1s1pinky]

Noob Question! I shielded the pickguard of my strat with copper tape but now, how do you send the pickguard to ground? Where and how to ground it? I have an ibanez with HSS config and all the components are on the top of the guitar. What would you recommend, solder a cable from the pickguard to where? Thanks in advance bro!

[@juanfischer4813]

I have the same question, especially since Dylan suggests a different approach to other videos I've watched :(

[@ivywilson6515]

Pots are mounted to the pickguard. They are grounded. As long as you have continuity between the pot and the shielding you should be good.

[@danielbarbieri8199]

Sorry if my question is stupid... When you play loud, is the electromagnetism of the amp speaker catched by the coils of the guitar pickups ? I ask, because in that case, shielding is not necessarily a good idea...unless copper shielding doesn't stop you amp speaker and guitar to interact. I think that it's a serious question.

[@kevinsutherland2207]

What about aluminum pickguards… do they help shield 60 cycle? Are they a good thing or bad thing?

[@workshopmedia4903]

When inside a jaguar has shielding paint and even some copper tape that hits the upper metal plate, wouldn't that (as you said) be grounding the mini pots and roller wheels to the shield? I'm pretty sure jaguars come from the factory like that. Am I missing something?

[@willherrington2012]

I'm getting to wire up a strat in a hum/single configuration with a three way . My question for you is, I'm getting to wire up a strat in a hum/single configuration with a three way . My question for you is, in the middle position will I still get that stratocaster 2 and 4 quack ? The neck pickup is a true single coil. Is one of the humbucker coils rwrp? I'd really like for the middle position to have that funky quack. Also I'm using a fender dual pot for the volume. Does it need two treble bleed circuits or would it be easier to use resistors on the single coil leads on just a 500k pot. I have a million other questions but I'm trying to keep it simple . Thanks Dilly🙏

[@jessebreakspear6656]

Thank you so much for this video! it's so refreshing to hear from someone who actually knows what they are talking about. sayings that make no sense: (1) "There's a ground loop on my guitar" (2) "there's is power amp distortion going through my fx loop" (3) "my Celestion V-30s have great speaker distortion" (4) "the VoxAC30 is a class A amp " (5) "6l6 tubes are brighter than El34 tubes" LOL it's crazy how many nonsense sayings and myths there are in the electric guitar community but you know what i could, and probably should care less 😉😉

[@jimt2221]

Hi Dylan. Great info. Sorry, but I didn't hear you talk about shielding the pickup cavity. Everyone else I've seen does it. Is it really not necessary ?

[@joshuarobbins9264]

I'm new to all of this, so forgive me for stupid questions... I'm building a Brent Mason tele with a bigsby. I want to put a mini humbucker in the neck and a bridge pickups in the mid and also in the bridge. Will this be ok? If so, I could really use some advice on good pickups. I see that you build pickups and are interested. Also, should I raise the bridge and shim the neck for a better breakeven angle?

[@SteveMavronis]

Your video's are very informative. When I got my first (standard) Strat the single coils were very noisy and drove me nuts. So I upgraded to a set of stacked humbuckers and that fixed the problem, no shielding needed. Now I got a budget T-style guitar with HH pickups that are meh so replacing them along with all the electronics. I was going to shield everything until I started watching your videos and see it isn't really needed. I may only shield the pickguard (and some extra for the bridge plate ground wire) and ground it to the control plate. But since both pickups and copper act as antennas, why attract extra noise with copper as an antenna dish just to direct it to ground? Wouldn't grounded humbuckers and grounded copper multiply the initial problem (making a bigger antenna dish) we started with and have to solve instead of just letting the humbuckers (as a smaller antenna dish) do all the work? It's like those trick math problems where you add and subtract just to get the same result.

[@richardstones6445]

You mentioned you sometimes put drops of soldering tin on the shielding tape. Do you try to run those to ground somewhere, or what are they for?

[@MarkBatchelder]

Dylan, I suggest that you cover using a no-load pot as a blender control on a strat. I have re-wired two of my single coil strats using a Mojotone wiring diagram. The other tone pot becomes a single tone control for all three pickups. I feel that the blender - which allows the neck and bridge pickups to be on at the same time - gives me a tele-like tone that is more useful and unique than two separate tone controls on a strat. I know you have mentioned blenders in a previous video, but it is such a cool and useful mod - I thought it might be good to go more in depth. Thanks for what you do!

[@owenryland2359]

I know Im randomly asking but does any of you know a trick to log back into an Instagram account..? I somehow lost the login password. I appreciate any tricks you can offer me!

[@axtonvance3634]

@Owen Ryland instablaster ;)

[@owenryland2359]

@Axton Vance i really appreciate your reply. I found the site on google and Im in the hacking process now. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@owenryland2359]

@Axton Vance it worked and I now got access to my account again. Im so happy! Thanks so much you saved my ass !

[@axtonvance3634]

@Owen Ryland You are welcome :)

[@iliasliakos6692]

wathced various vids about shielding, should have come straight to dylan

[@TheHomeForWorkGuy]

If I coil split two humbuckers, would I need any shielding when I flip the switch from Humbuckers to single coil?

[@damienbevan9732]

I use a mlcc treble bleed on my volume potentiometer in my control cavity and mlcc's are very susceptible to (emi) I've sheilded it with graphite paint and I must say before I was getting noises from my TV wireless microphone not having that problem anymore

[@TheDistortionPrinciple]

I have a humbucker guitar that is very noisy. The noise will disappear when i roll the tone knob down. Would shielding help?

[@littlesciencemd]

How would a 9v for an on board preamp in a bass factor into noise and shielding? Pickup itself is passive.

[@mnpd3]

I've used a lot of copper tape, but never seen any with conductive adhesive. Wish i had some; it would save me a lot of spot soldering.

[@topfloorstudio2684]

Dimarzio "branded" copper shielding tape from like Musiciansfriend or Guitar Center. Ever hear of it?

[@Dbj5555555]

I shield the cavity and pick guard. Plug in the guitar to an amplifier with the guard apart from the body a few inches grounded with a wire between the top of the box I’m creating and the bottom. Noise. Put the top (shielded pick guard) on the bottom (body shielded) and the noise is gone. Making the box makes a difference. Not saying I know what it is but it works.

[@iliasliakos6692]

do you pull a wire from the shielded pickguard to the control's ground? like the back of a pot or something?

[@JasonWW2000]

Yes, he puts the copper tape all around the pickup cavity and has it overlay slightly on the top Edge so that the pickguard touches it when it is screwed in the place. And then he runs a wire from the shielding in the body to a common ground point. I'm describing a strat style guitar. Telecaster Style you can connect the foil on the pickguard to the control panel just by having a piece of foil tape under both pieces.

[@Auxend]

So does this mean that if you have ground loop issues in a live setup, lifting the ground on one side isn’t dangerous? Is there a way to confirm multiple paths?

[@BrewerShettles]

What about having no Tone Controls on a Squire Strat

[@KennethCrickmore-sl8jl]

how uch di the pick ups make anyway I think you said it's something in low millivolts and that's so minimal that I don't think it's an issue..

[@Black-Jack-2022]

Can you do a vedio about using a mixer?

[@martymcmannis6581]

What about preamps?

[@lorencing]

Thanks for the video, useful info. So you're saing just ground the pickguard copper shielding and not to shield the cavity?

[@JasonWW2000]

No, I'm pretty sure he's saying to add a grounding Shield only around the pickups since they are the parts that are sensitive to picking up Emi. The rest of the components don't really need to have any shielding around them. Make sure to get electrical continuity between your cavity shielding and the pickguard shielding as well as run a wire from those Shields to the main ground.

[@agroindosa]

hi Dylan, whats the difference between aluminium shielding and copper, which is best ??? or are they the same ??

[@UTBIsrael2011]

Hi. I play at a church where a TV monitor is over my head, a speaker monitor is beside me and an amp from another player. Is there a chance that I could fix the noise by shielding my guitar?

[@mistergoat7357]

Try it if you haven’t. Church sound is hard. For many reasons that extend beyond instrument amp and soundboard

[@CarsInDimension]

What's your opinion of using conductive paint to shield? I shield the cavities of the Harmonicaster electric harmonica with conductive paint because the shapes preclude using copper or aluminum. I think the thin stuff Stew-Mac sells takes forever to use (they recommend three coats) but I've had good results with the stuff Guitar Fetish sells. It covers very well, and is conductive but it's very expensive, about $9/oz. I used to work in a DuPont paint lab. Paint is just pigment and binder. I got some Minwax Polyacrylic clear coat at the hardware store and some carbon black at an art supply and mixed up my own. Before actually using it, I painted test strips and then measured resistance to make sure it's in the same range as the GFS stuff. For the same cost as a few ounces of the GFS stuff, I can make a quart of my own recipe and it works just as well. I'm still not convinced it's quite as good as copper but that's not a choice.

[@causetherat308]

Which brand of carbon black did you get? I know some of this stuff is ground mica and not real carbon. Allergic to copper so using it is out of the question.

[@CarsInDimension]

@@causetherat308 General's Pure Graphite. I bought it at Blick art supplies. Keep mixing graphite into the acrylic paint until you have a nicely bodied paint. Before using it, I'd paint some test strips, let it dry and check with a ohmmeter. It's not going to be close to zero ohms like with copper foil but as long as you show some resistance and not an open circuit between the test points, it should work.

[@causetherat308]

@@CarsInDimension AWESOME! Thank you!.

[@jeffreytelmo2135]

Thank you for going back to the more technical side of things😄

[@DylanTalksTone]

we will be doing a little of both

[@haveagoodone5830]

@@DylanTalksTone , you insist there's no such thing whithin a passive guitar as a ground loop because there's only one path to the ground. What about stereo guitars with two separate jacks (some Rickenbackers), or magnetic / piezo guitars with two separate jacks (EBMM JP models)? Both have optional stereo outputs to one jack so can run on two TS or one TRS.

[@haveagoodone5830]

@@DylanTalksTone , and another question. You said a few times there was no point in shielding a humbucker. However, I did own an EBMM JP7 no-piezo, two stock DiMarzio humbuckers, that didn't have any shielding, not even conductive paint, and it was noisy as hell. And not only that! The previous owner added a mini-switch kill switch, which is kind of useless to make rapid on-off effects, but was helpful to use instead of a noise gate when I wasn't playing. So I had copper foil shielding done on it, and it then was totally noiseless. I don't understand how it works, but this actually happened to me and my guitar.

[@gabecicale1860]

Don't know if this will be of help to anyone, but I recently shielded a strat with copper foil thinking it would solve my noise problems. When I put it together, while it had improved somewhat, it was still much noisier than I thought it should be. After several futile attempts to fix it, it dawned on me that the interference could be coming from internal components with each other. I then wrapped the pickups, tone and volume pots with electrical tape. Bingo! All hum and noise gone.

[@matthewbeebe344]

I want you to make and sell stickers that say "Dylan is my tech" or something similar. Thanks for everything.

[@jounistactics]

What about ground loops in an active pickup guitar?

[@lachlanplache7148]

Old video, and this might be a dumb question, but would shielding a strat be as simple as taping up the pickguard and putting it back together? Would the volume put touchIng the tape ground it?

[@swisstraeng]

To ground your shield it needs to go in contact with the wire, one wire of the jack is used as the ground. This wire needs to be connected to every shields your guitar has. Because the ground, as we say, is literally the ground like, dirt and stuff that's under your house. The shield needs to be connected to your amp, which is connected to wall plug, which yes, goes to the ground.

[@dmitryhetman1509]

So in your opinion we can shield only pickup and it will work?

[@JasonWW2000]

Yes, because it's only the pickups that are going to be sensitive to the Emi.

[@jimt2221]

Well he is just saying shield only the pick guard is needed. If you need to shield the cavity why wasn't that made clear ? @@JasonWW2000

[@thejovialpanda]

I know this is an older video, but wouldn't shielding the cavity add additional square footage (square inchage??)?

[@agentcalm]

Subscribed :) Great vids good sir

[@mistergoat7357]

45 min in, what wire from where do you ground?

[@JasonWW2000]

In this example all of the parts are grounded and since they are screwed into the Chrome Telecaster cover plate, it means that cover plate is grounded. So then you add that piece of foil underneath the plate going across to the pickguard and that will electrically connect the two pieces together making sure that everything is grounded.

[@sjoerdfeenstra010]

What if you're using a aluminium black anodized pickguard can you still shield the guitar?

[@swisstraeng]

If the pickguard is made of metal, it is a shield in itself. You can put a wire from your pickguard to the jack. That will work.

[@williamholcomb5979]

Why do you or anyone not want to use steel wool? What would you use to polish frets with? I have a wood issue too but this steel wool first...

[@JasonWW2000]

My guess is that a tiny stray strand of steel wool could fall into the control cavity and potentially short something out. You really don't want to have steel wool you're any kind of electrical equipment. I don't see a problem with using steel wool to polish frets , but just make sure you don't let it Fall Apart and get near any of the electronics. Clean up after your done really well. I think Dylan doesn't allow steel wool into his work area just as a basic principle. This eliminates any chance of stray strands getting into a customer's guitar and causing a problem. If it lands on a workbench you might accidentally set a guitar body on top of it and slide it around and then you end up with scratches in the Finish. That's another good reason to not have it anywhere near the work shop.

[@johnsieff2921]

Steel wool sucks! Plain and simple. I quit using it years ago when I discovered ScothchBrite by 3M. I was an Aerospace Machinist and we used it at Sikorsky Aircraft for polishing Metal components. the White Ultrafine stuff is Great! Remember pickups are magnetic and tiny particles of steel wool get sucked into your coils, even if you tape every up. I've seen to many ruined pickups to EVER use steel wool anywhere near an instrument.

[@TDDmusique]

29:49 Your wife is leaving in a plane? Those 5 cents sure are paying off ;) Fantastic video by the way!

[@thewrongbike7709]

Working with a lot of RF guys so I put your points to them. Their reply was yes but also no. Radio signals are reflected, but they arrive from different angles so you cant simply cover the scratch plate and call it done. Its true that its not a complete faraday cage, but just because its not perfect does not mean you shouldn't do it. The metal will absorb some RF and the harmonics. Also Some RF is absorbed, converted to electrical energy and then re-radiated on the other side of the shield, so they definitely advised connecting the shield to ground to bleed that away. Nothing is a perfect solution, but that's do reason not to make use of it.

[@jaimealvarez143]

Next time... take a note about where you put your notebook... hahahha ...Great video as usual Dylan!

[@christopherstorrier5560]

Balanced single coils ,same electrical measurements,1 reverse wound...are quieter when using more than one at a time...they noise cancel better if balanced but you get a lot more treble on bridge pickup which is why some people use a master volume & 2 tones,1 tone for the bridge as brighter if a balanced pick-up set...that's what my ears & measuring equipment tell me...& am i only one that uses linear only CTS 10% 250k pots with a Strat ?..at least it has a bit of bass & full mids...very versatile set up....fully sheilded of course...

[@dalybaz]

Try a fibreglass printed circuit board to make plates and scratch plates for guitars.

[@nOpOrOpMoP]

yeah, grounded aluminum pickguards and/or pup rings do wonders.

[@Magnulus76]

It seems to me alot of vintage style single coils, like Danelectro style lipstick tubes, are already shielded by design.

[@JasonWW2000]

I don't think you can technically say it's shielded unless it is grounded to the electronics(True). A lipstick pickup when installed in a guitar is definitely not connected to ground(False). I don't know what metal the lipstick tubes are made from (brass), but since it's chrome plated, it should at least have a thin layer of copper on it(Maybe, but not necessarily. There are different chroming techniques when it comes to brass). The magnet inside it is going to make the lipstick tube itself magnetic (maybe a little) so the two pieces work together. In essence, the metal lipstick tube is taking the place of the six individual metal slugs in a single coil pickup design(Maybe). They use a strong alnico magnet in order to get enough sensitivity because a weaker ceramic magnet probably would not work well.(Accurate)

[@JasonWW2000]

I've learned some more since this. It turns out that there is a grounding wire from the lipstick body to a ground source. It's wrapped up with the other two wires and hard to see. The lipstick tubes are made of brass, which is conductive. So it seems there is at least some RF shielding going on. It may also be reducing the magnetic field some, but enough is passing for the pickup to work. This somewhat reduced magnetic field may be the cause of lipstick pickups reduced output even though they use a quite strong magnet.

[@riffcrescendo1740]

I live in Vietnam, where the plugs have live and neutral - but no earth. How can you ground something when there is no earth?

[@diemturner5755]

"There's a thing called Eddie currents..." There's also a thing called psychosomatically induced audio hallucinotory malfunctions. I don't even mean this in a disparaging way (although the figments of audiophiles imaginations can be annoying AF) because I've witnessed first hand how susceptible the perception of what you're hearing is related to what your eyes are seeing that I was afraid to admit what I'd done until several years later when I heard studio mixing professional Fab Dupont (who is a fucking amazing engineer and funny AF if you understand how to take his seeming elitism) speak about his own experiences with what I had come to term "phantom equalizing". I believe this is something that only relates to people who work in DAWs and not in a puristic world of mixing only on analog hardware. I was working on a track in Ableton and had an 8-band paragraphic EQ open on a drum loop while playing back an 8 bar loop EQing the loop to taste. I'm not gonna lie, I was just messing about, tweaking for I'd guesstimate 10-15 minutes, boosting and cutting, adjusting Q values, etc. when I suddenly felt like something wasn't doing exactly what I would expect to happen. If I had to describe it, it sounded like it was a piece of hardware that was bleeding off voltage and the discernible changes to the sound were becoming weaker (of course the notion is absurd on its face in a DAW, it's just the best way to describe what I was hearing). So I thought "balls to the wall", set a high pass filter and pulled the frequency up to 1khz, 2khz, 3khz....and nothing changed. NOTHING. It was at that moment, I'm sure you've all guessed by now, that I discovered that the EQ had been deactivated the entire time. ANY and ALL changes in the sound (and these changes were VERY real...to me....audible and tracked perfectly to the changes I was making in the GUI of the EQ) had been produced from whole cloth by my brain while no changes whatsoever had actually been occurring the audio signal. Having worked in audio engineering for many years...had someone told me something like this I'd have bet money that they were pulling my chain. I could not have conceived of imagining such audible hallucinations based purely on what I was looking at. And before anyone asks, no. There were no drugs involved that day. I wouldn't be telling this story if there had been cuz then I'd at least have had a satisfactory explanation for the whole experience and I'd not have wasted another thought on whatever the hell that just was. "JUST IMAGINED SHIT! LEL...coulda swore it was real...". I also experienced an intense embarassment immediately after that was, at least mildly, painful to admit. I did this shit for a living...how could I have NOT NOTICED a disengaged EQ while happily masturbating to my imaginary frequency bending? I know my posts today have been verbose to say the least, but this was probably one of the most bizarre experiences when it comes to audio FAILS and its difficult to express the relief I felt when consummate professional and audio nutter Fab Dupont told his version of the experience and only then realizing that, in all likelihood, most if not all DAW mixers have had this exact same experience. I thought my brain, ears or both had disintegrated and as someone who works on music on daily basis, its slightly more than a little confounding to suddenly mistrust your ears and everything you're hearing. So just for the lulz, are there any other followers of this channel, or maybe the channel owner himself, that have had this experience and was it anything like what I've described. I will say this as a silver lining though...ever since the revelation of how much I can bend sound with my eyes and what I expected to hear, I'm 100% convinced that audiophiles and what they claim to hear differences in (some even purport to be able to aurally detect differences in 1,5mm² and 2,5mm² loudspeaker wire and swapping out the bog standard RCA cables that came with HiFi tower systems of the 80's and 90's with high quality leads with gold plated plugs) is pure imagination. Some double blind testing I've looked at since have confirmed my suspicions. When they have no idea what is being changed (or if anything at all has been altered) they have the same success/failure rate as people just guessing blindly (or deafly as it were). If anyone actually read this block of semi-useful audio fuckery, I'll be surprised but maybe there's someone else out there who just found out a few minutes ago that his 10 minute phantom equalization session is a far more common occurrence than he had thought just a moment before. While I'm blathering on I just wanted to say a massive Thank You to Dylan for dispelling (or in some cases) confirming some old and road worn guitar mythologies because much is stuff that has just been repeated for so long it became true just because everyone said it and not because it did what people thought it does, in some cases netting zero effect falling squarely in Spinal Tap style lore and legend. Again, my gratitude as some things are obvious as soon as someone begins explaining why its bunk and other stuff you actuall need to understand the physics of what is happening to state with authority that what's been promulgated for 40 years as fact of the matter is just made up tosh. I can do with less esoteric shit, though you could argue it takes some mistique and magic out of the craft. But I'll take honest physics over imaginary magic nitro lacquer and tone wood any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Much love and respect from (a very verbose) Germany, -Diem P.S.: Moral of the story - When you're EQing, use your ears, not your eyes lads n lasses. Your eyes can bend sound every bit as good as an EQ except the improvements will be heard by no one. Ever.

[@DylanTalksTone]

Diem Turner this.... was fantastic

[@ThomasGeist]

AMEN !!! You speak the truth more than you might even imagine! And this “measurebating” is happening in many other places. Photography for one (I’m a professional photographer and I can 100% confirm) and even ... cooking! So many myths out there in cooking! I bet even woodworkers on a woodworker forum are measurbating about chain saws. But yes ... the audiophiles probably win the cup. Thanks for your great write up from another German (= pea counter 😜😂) living in the US.

[@hawkenfox]

Happened to me just a while ago.

[@diemturner5755]

@@hawkenfox It's amazing anyone actually reads that shit up there and doesn't abort 1 or 2 sentences into it....so, was it surreal or bewildering at all you realized what had occurred (like how a breaking shoe lace in the middle of lacing can catapult you into a higher state of consciousness)? I don't mean to sound overly dramatic but to me, for a brief moment, it was as though I had stepped out of the wrong side of a mirror and wondered if I could find the way back out ;-)

[@marvinstorm9153]

That was painful. I gave up.

[@MCRoadk1ll]

Nice video, really thorough. I think there is a lot of nice to know vs. need to know and thus cutting down in video length and ppl switching off because of too much technical talk while ppl want to know about the how to. the video could've been a lot shorter. or do a "do you want to know more" in a seperate video. non the less, great video, good info. @36:10 thing with the magnet, copper is a non-ferrous metal, magnet won't stick.

[@generalawareness101]

I am on the other side as I love the technical shit and have watched hour long YT vids just for the techie talk. I don't want TikTok style vids as I am from an older generation before ADHD hit the world. I suffer from it at times myself but not when I am after pure knowledge.

[@pageveazey9874]

I understood everything you were talking about because I've studied and worked in electronics for years. I had to laugh when you were calling it shielding and then described what you were doing as a dish antenna. It sort of was an oxymoron. When I was doing guitar tech work, I had a lot of players come in and ask me to shield their guitars. I saw the shielding as the world's worst Faraday cage because there were so many entry points. Now, did it actually quiet the guitar down? Sort of. I always pointed out to the customer that even though I had everything shielded, the pickups themselves were sticking out through the shielding so there is no way to completely shield the entire guts. I sort of like shielding but in the end, it's pretty stupid. Hmmmmm.... Let's try shielding an archtop Jazz Box. Nope. That ain't gonna work. Now, would I shield my personal solid body guitar? Maybe, if I was bored and didn't have anything better to do. I did shield a guitar that I built that had 2 Humbuckers. I did it just because I had a roll of foil and nothing better to do. I don't recall ever shielding any of my other factory built solid body guitars. Hum just never seemed to be a problem.

[@lemmy546]

Something I was a bit surprised to NOT hear about in this video was that the fact is that you can't get your guitar "antenna" picking up hum (EMI) any lesser by shielding it as long as you're playing it. As soon as you touch the strings or a grounded metal part (Bridge, Tailpiece or strings) it doesn't get any better than that! What you will achieve by shielding though is that the difference between not touching the strings (or any grounded part, which accumulates hum) and actually doing it by playing will decrease the difference. In short: Shielding your guitar will only make the guitar a bit more silent from hum (noise) when not playing it while your body is not working as the shield, but it won't make it much more silent while you're doing it, just decreasing the difference between playing it (your body to ground) or not.

[@scramblesthedeathdealer]

He mentioned it briefly.

[@lemmy546]

@@scramblesthedeathdealer You mean at 17:58? There he talks, briefly as you say, about how the body will make up as the shield, yes, but he doesn't mention what I stated above about the real difference between a shielded guitar and a non shielded one and why it doesn't make a difference as long as you're playing it or touching the strings. The whole point of shielding is to minimize the difference in noise when playing or not playing (touching strings, bridge or whatever vs. not).

[@gsbguitarsgsb679]

Shielding paint is just easier than tape. Works just as well imo. Al though I find using tape on pickguards in combination with paint in the cavity is the best way to go.

[@arnieg65]

I usually agree with Dylan on most things, but there is not a need at all to shield the entire Tele pickguard. You only need to shield the area that covers the routed part of the neck pickup. Anything more than that, doesn't do anything!

[@JanetGraceMuse]

Hey, Dylan! Hope I'm not late to the party. I see this is many years old, but I'm just discovering you now. I'm getting into luthier work, not so much the woodwork build yet, but doing my own tech work, fret jobs, setups, etc. Shielding tape is where I'm at right now cuz the newest guitars I'm about to be working on, one is a 70s starcaster the owner didn't realize was distinct from the new ones and gave it to me for $20 with electronic issues .. heehee, and the newest one, a,$149.00 2021 Kramer Focus VT 211S, HSS, which was shit right out of the box with frets so proud, Mary would have given up. Nothing is shielded on that. I was about to order your Amazon shielded copper tape, and then I saw this one. I don't know if you'd be interested, but I'm putting it out there for you. 3m*50mm Guitar Copper Foil EMI Shielding Tape for Electric Guitar www.walmart.com/ip/1559719689 If it helps you, good. I was going to use heavy-duty aluminum and spray on glue like I saw the dude on Guns & Guitars Podcast do, but how long would that last? I'll stick with your Amazon copper for now because it'll be here tomorrow, and I'm chomping at the bits to get started. The starcaster, I'm rewiring for a little 7yr old boy who just lost his Mom. I asked his Gramma his fav color, and she said he likes purple because it's her favorite color, so of course I ordered a purple pearl pickguard It's not shielded. Ergo the copper tape. I'm also printing out pics of his mom and he, which I'll be placing on the back of guitar and shellacing it on so he'll have his mom pressed against him when he plays. ❤️🌺❤️🕊 Music's all I've got to give. I hope it brings him peace n joy. 🙏 I'll be learning how to do it with your video. THANKS!!

[@TheMarcoFiles]

i get what you're saying but maybe i missed something really important here and i don't want to have to watch this again. do you, shield the pickup cavity too? or do you ONLY shield the pick gaurd?

[@diemturner5755]

Surprised no one got back to you on this. Shielding the cavity is only of use if your axe does not have a sizeable pick guard. What you're trying to achieve is maximum contiguous surface area of shielding (he used the analogy of a satelite dish). Teles, Strats - just the full back side of the pick guard and create a connection from that shielding to your ground. That's it. On an LP you would do the cavities and connect it to the PU covers to create as much square footage (or inchage as it were) of "satelite dish" as possible. Shielding the smaller cavities below a big full face pick guard is of no use as the "dish" in front of them would have already caught the EMI making them a pointless waste of aluminum or copper.

[@TheMarcoFiles]

@@diemturner5755 hahaha! thanks man! yeah, i ended up watching again and figured it out. I'm going to open up my Tele and see what type of shielding I did about 20 years ago (it may be a redo). Thanks again! I wish @DylanTalksTone would send me the Lizard Spit I ordered already, so I can get it all done at once.

[@OliverGreschke]

@@diemturner5755 Yeah, I wonder, if you really don't need al that cavity shielding work, that's actually a big time saver! Now I would like the difference between a guitar with pickguard shielding and complete shielding ;)

[@jimt2221]

Thank you. Now I think I'm convinced. Only the pick guard. Everyone else shows shielding the p/u cavities. Glad to know it's a waste of effort. @@diemturner5755

[@Santaheckler]

100% correct on the control cavity…leave it alone.

[@billshiff2060]

I held my oscilloscope probes in my hands and it detected an ac milli voltage 60hz. Just absorbing the ambient noise.

[@bedroomrockstudios408]

Great points so many myths out there, I'll always shiled my strats and for LPs just use the black conductive paint. On ground loops two amps is the issue, which is why the A/B Y boxs most of them have the grnd loop isolation button.

[@generalawareness101]

If what you say is true then why do the manufacturers paint the inside with that black graphite conductive paint?

[@JasonWW2000]

I assume you're referring to the component cavity where all the hot switches are. I would imagine the guitar manufacturers got really tired of explaining to people why it was unnecessary to add the conductive paint to the control cavity, so it was simply easier for them 2 paint that area as well. If this is what customers are expecting, they will give them what they want. Can you imagine getting a negative review by someone who took their guitar apart and saw that they only added the conductive paint around the pickups and not around lots of switches? That would probably upset the manufacturer even though they are correct in that it's not necessary. It's definitely easier to just add a little extra paint

[@sebastianestrada1311]

shielding for p90?

[@SomeCanine]

If all the noise is coming from the pickups, why don't people just create a small cage around the pickups themselves?

[@swisstraeng]

so. I did go through this whole video. There are a few things wrong. For example, yes, shielding the exterior of a potentiometer will shield it, as the exterior is not connected to the interior. Which means that yes, shielding is effective. Connecting everything together to the ground is effective. Then, about wires that don't catch RF frequencies? They actually do. See, an antenna can be full length, which is 1 wavelength, but it can also be 1/2 and 1/4. However, even if the distance in wrong, it will still catch said frequencies. Just less. basically, shielding a stratocaster does work, as long as all shielded areas are linked together and grounded. It's also not so important to cover all area possible, it's just that, the more the better. The biggest change we will see is when grounding the strings. That should get rid of the hum when not touching the guitar. now. shielding paint? Aluminum? Copper? I think the best shielding option is copper tape. The best shield is the most conductive, which is copper. (or gold but please no) The shield also needs to be a bit thick, so, look up for different tape thickness and take the thickest. The aluminum foils you have in your kitchen, while they may shield a bit, won't be as effective, let's say they'd shield 50% less than copper tape. Which hey, it's still something noticeable. The questions I am not able to answer are the following: -Would shielding near pickups affect their magnetic fields, thus their sound? -Would grounding the strings also affect how they interact with pickups? This may mean we want to put a resistor in serial with the strings to the ground? Sadly I don't own a decent oscilloscope, and my guitar is coming next week. so I can't do any tests.

[@DylanTalksTone]

Lol...

[@JasonWW2000]

Shielding near the pickups should not have any effect on the sound/tone. The strings should already be grounded through the bridge. That ground path goes from the bridge through the strings and into the tuners. On a strat there's a ground wire that goes to the claw on the back side of the tremolo, and on a Telecaster you might find a wire drilled underneath the bridge and folded so that the bridge screws down on top of it.

[@murpsman]

I only use conductive pajnt to great success.

[@pallecla]

When you touch the strings on a guitar and the noise goes away, it isn't because you ground the guitar through your body. It is because your body acts as a big antenna picking up noise that transfer to the guitar and when you then touch the strings, it is actually your body that is grounded through the guitar thereby no longer acting as an antenna. Most people get this wrong :-)

[@danstheory4164]

Does shielding helps with this ? I'm having the exact same issue

[@2000SkyView]

what about static on the pickguard? can shielding help?

[@swisstraeng]

I think Yes, shielding the pickguard will help. just make sure it's connected to the ground, like all shields, and the ground comes from the jack. (which goes to your amp, to the wall, to the ground)

[@aleksandrnestrato]

Each time I watch stuff about electricity from the US I freak out how the come is that possible that I understand all the electric measurement figures! I've already got used to that a guitar weighs 75 Bla-Bla and the neck is 16.8 Bla-Bla thick at the nut. And the temperature outside is 527ºRa (this one is actual existing number of degrees btw). Why don't they use Imperial Electric Measurement Units? Come on, it's America, there have to be those! There should be no Volts, there have to be Thumbs. 1 Thumb = 8 Volts No Amperes, it has to be Roosters. Instead of Ohms there have to be Deeps. And to make things easier things like kiloVolts should have their own name-Twats. Instead of 1 kiloVolt=1,000 Volts it must be 1,250 Thumbs in 1 Twat. And in 1 Thumb there are 12 Sparkles. Which leads to 15,000 Sparkles in 1 Twat. However a megaTwat should stay Metric-ish. 1 Mtw = 1,000 Tw. And it should be obvious that Thumb is shortly written as RQ, cause those letters are transparently seen in the word 'thumb'-as letters lb are obvious in the word 'pound' (cause each American is an Ancient Roman inside and he/she carefully cares the memory of Ancient Roman weight measurement unit 'Libra', this word reminds to Americans that they are free people). 😁😆😁 * No offence, just kidding! :)

[@indiedavecomix3882]

You're using that EM meter wrong. Everyone knows it's supposed to be used to find ghosts. 🤣