Does shielding your guitar really do anything?

[@Dave_Mayberry]

In the late 80’s I was an alarm company installer. We had long 200 yard wire runs, and a 12 vdc, low milliamp microphones, and we sometimes had bad RFI (radio freq. interference). Only thing that worked was putting double-backed 3M foam tape behind the pc board, and then more tape between the metal case & the post or pole the mic was mounted on. Many of us requested plastic device cases instead of the steel ones, and that helped also. But if the install was within a few miles of a AM radio tower? Forget it..😄😄

[@RandyLott]

There should be pickups with a differential amplifier built in (foil around pickup would be grounded). You could run differential pairs over twinaxial cable. They are basically immune to common-mode noise.

[@rustyaxelrod]

I’ve never seen anyone offer a pickup with a balanced output. That might be fun to experiment with…

[@snakeeyes3733]

@@RandyLott they're called active pickups..

[@RandyLott]

​@@snakeeyes3733 Active pickups use single-ended output difference/differential amplifiers. I meant "fully-differential" Op-Amps, which have a differential output and have multiple feedback paths. Sorry, I didn't clarify!

[@snakeeyes3733]

@@RandyLott oh OK, maybe you could protype something like that. I'd love to hear it.

[@Meteotrance]

Maybe a D.I can solve that on passive pickup on active the problem is already solve but there also less magnetic field to them the active circuit compensate a lot but build in that to the AMP is not a Bad Idea...

[@handcraftpickup]

Glad to know your videos are back.

[@1040ecapja]

This video is one of my personal favorites. It's eye-opening.

[@mbg4041]

All fine and dandy if you wanna rewire your guitar. But much easier to just shield the whole thing and leave the wiring as is. And it works

[@Meteotrance]

In fact it work only with already shielded microphone like EMG pickup , so shield a noisy mic won't make it better, start with good pickup, better pot and it should be fine, using some kind of carbon or copper paint like Cramolin help shield the wood cavity of your instruments too, but it's not a miracle most serious guitar factory already do that process... It's also change the tone of the pickup a lot you can't have that ( vintage ) fender stratocaster tone, thats why they still make noisy versus noiseless pickup and also why noise gate pedal exist.

[@rullopat]

When I made some single coil pickups, what reduced a lot the noise for me was copper shielding the pickup coil and then connecting the shield to the negative wire connection of the plate, but it also changed a little bit the pickup sound.

[@Meteotrance]

Thats a good tips especialy if you want to make a coil yourself it's not so hard with a wiring machine that count the number of cycle.Thanks for sharing that.

[@rullopat]

@@Meteotrance no problem! Of course remember to put a “tissue tape” between the coil wire and the copper shield outside the coil

[@kentharding5874]

Very cool idea! I started using sheilded wires from the pickup switch to output jack but using sheilded wiring throughout would be very effective. Bad sheilding is worse than no sheilding.

[@spookybaba]

Shielded quality cables, both in the guitar, and from guitar to amp, makes a load of difference in reducing noise.

[@clivegregory4126]

Great video. Great to see someone doing some experimentation, as apposed to the recent raft of copycat 'screen your guitar' videos talking about Faraday cages without understanding what they are doing.

[@chaoznofx]

I am shoked.. and thankful.. for this info, and all the hours Im gonna save from now on. THANK YOU WILL ! !

[@snakeeyes3733]

For very hot sounding single coils which produce a lot of unwanted noise like say Texas Specials I've had good results just putting a couple of wraps of copper foil around the coils and grounding it. To me, shielding an entire guitar is a waste of time. Also, this will act like a capacitor and kill a lot of your high end along with the unwanted noise. So, if a customer wants me to do that; and would you believe they will request me to do that after I have wired in a brand new set of pickups that they haven't even tested out yet. So, I will just wire it up as normal and tell them to play it for a while and see if they like the pickups. Speaking of capacitance, why not just put a capacitor with a very low value across the pickup wires and test out different values. RF is really the biggest culprit so the capacitor will eliminate it.

[@SianaGearz]

Maybe some ferrite beads, because why not. They even have some common mode choke behaviour if you were to run thin coaxes inside them.

[@cameronfarrell9076]

@@snakeeyes3733 can you please explain how the shielding acts as a capacitor?

[@snakeeyes3733]

@@SianaGearz I was gonna mention that as well and you could put a small inductor in there as well. A guy gave me a guitar to rewire one time and he had an old pickup with the slugs knocked out which he was using as a hum eliminator..

[@snakeeyes3733]

@@cameronfarrell9076 copper foil and dielectric, in this case air

[@johnterpack3940]

A coil of wire is literally an antenna. It doesn't matter what you put behind/around the pickups. The pickups are always out in the open, pointing at any signal they can find. And a bit of foil or conductive paint isn't magic. It takes some thickness to block EMF. Put a layer of foil around your cellphone and you can still make a call.

[@RandyLott]

You're shunting the high-frequency noise via the capacitance of your body when you touch the shield, creating a low-pass filter. You're acting as a decoupling capacitor and a ground path. The capacitive reactance of your body determines the crossover frequency.

[@Meteotrance]

Thats why the ground wire is often sold to the metallic part of the bridge , especialy on strat and telecaster...

[@Slothclawcolseslaw]

@@RandyLott 1950-2023: tone is in the hands 2024: tone is in the capacitive reactance of your body

[@gm-lb9oe]

I just use the coax cable from stereos. Of course i test the resistance and keep the wire to the bare minimum in length. It works for me

[@JoeThornhill]

I was gonna say solder the ground to a humbuckers surround but... Do away with plastic single coil covers (or faff around trying to shield the inside of a plastic one) and just put a strip of tape or paint from one pickup screw hole to the next? Even lead that to a screw in the electronics cavity which you can wrap all the ground wires to?

[@robertstan2349]

awesome! but i wonder what effect winding a wire across your pole pieces will have on the tone.

[@rustyaxelrod]

Coaxial cable has a smaller center conductor as you go down in size. I’m not sure a 28g would carry the signal without resistance, is a booger to solder and delicate even once the job is done. I’ve seen pickup leads with braided wire shields, insulate the cavity and you have everything covered except the pickup magnets. I suspect shorting them to ground may change the sound. The string is ground, the pole is signal, just changing pickup height affects the voice of many instruments.

[@George.___]

Interesting experiment. Have you tried it on your guitar and heard how it might affect your tone or overall sound in general?

[@TheColonelKlink]

I don't think any of your videos has amazed me quite the way this one has Will. I already have a couple of guitars in my kit that potentially qualify for this approach. Looking forward to more of your experimentation. 👍

[@shadowminister4090]

Will, thank you for your out of the box thinking. It got me thinking that a sheilded hot wire is the go. Were Leo's Ashtray covers on Teles designed to minimise interference? If so, maybe they need to come back?

[@angryroostercreations5194]

One problem is the perception among guitarists is that shielding a cavity equates to a higher quality instrument. There are those guys, just like with wood, or orange drop caps, or other nonsensical component of least concern, who with make a big fuss on how an instrument is shielded, and demand that the cavities be shielded, often times demanding copper foil. For all their faults the one thing Gibson actual does right often times, is using shielded braided cables inside their guitars. If your guitar is already built, and wired, shielding the cavity is probably easier than cutting and replacing the wires to quiet the guitar (sourcing shielded coax cable in a small enough gauge is actually not very easy, unless looking for 4 conductor wires) If your building the instrument though, especially if your winding the pickups, shielded leads, and wiring is the way to go, and skip the foil or paint.

[@gm-lb9oe]

I may add too ive been doing this for the last 30 years except for the wire across the slugs, interesting though

[@kennethcohagen3539]

Shot gunning is how most mechanics worked back in the day. Now they have these ODB ports that point them in a direction, a direction to shotgun!

[@misterguitargeek]

Sure sounded much better the moment you added the shielding. Eliminated? No. Better? Totally.

[@willhaylock3769]

The first thing to do is to understand the nature of the interfering sources, once that is understood then you can tackle the problem with science :)

[@clutch2827]

Wrap the wire with copper tape?

[@andrewbecker3700]

I do believe upgrading the electronics on a guitar can effect the tone. So there's the flip side to this argument. There's alot of people that insist nothing you can do to a guitars electronics will matter much, including changing the pickups? Thats just taking the chugga chugga play on the bridge only with everything dimed mentality. That seems to prevail in many circles, a bit far. I've never once even considered shielding any of my guitars more than what comes from the factory. The new PRS NF3's have a killer job done on the back of the pickgaurd with the gold foil tape. Very rare on an import. Using Fast Fret and wiping a guitar down before putting it in an actual hardcase. Is certainly nothing to be ashamed of. But climbing the damn thing like its your old lady, is definitely a bit odd. If your dating your guitar. You need professional help. Peace!

[@b-spot]

RG-174/U is great for shielded runs

[@stevepelham9010]

No it does not. The problem about many guitars lays in faulty wiering and bad soldering. Got an LP clone that crackeled and hummed when rolling back on tone it also reacted to some of my cables and as picking up this and that. Crazy God knows what kind of wiering a messy soldering, hot and ground cross connected on several points as I sorted it out all that noice was gone.

[@upreydeen]

If you use active pickups there is no need of any shielding

[@Jeremya74]

You def didnt need to turn it up..we heard it fine...ugh Than was brutal..need to shield my ear drums..lol

[@TheGhostGuitars]

That's nothing new when wiring around anything that involves RF and/or power amplification. Grounded wires and grounded shielding around anything that acts like an antenna amplifier (for example the pickup coils and slugs). The amplifier world already uses these strategies internally. I'm just amazed that the guitar world hasn't largely adopted these measures. Especially in the Stratocasters and Telecasters. They often just use shielding paint in the cavities and shielding tape behind the pickguard. Only the American and some Japanese JDM Fenders may add a pickguard plate and better cavity shielding. Many newer Gibson & Epiphone Les Paul uses grounded hots and shielded pups but often uses painted shields in the cavities. I've had over a hundred guitars pass thru my hands, of many different brands and ages. I've seen some old guitars that used hot wires that have grounded braided wire sheathing. I've seen some new alnico single coil pickups that already have from the factory, at least a strip of coper tape applied across the back of the alnico slugs and is grounded. The Telecaster has been using grounded copper plated steel back plates for decades. In the old 80s era Schecter F500 single coil pickups, they're used a strip of grounded copper metal sheet wrapped around the coil. Of course, the better humbuckers uses German nickel silver backplates and top covers that are grounded AND uses two coils that have one coil that is reversed wound and reversed polarity (RWRP). So far, they're generally the quietest pups ye can get. This is why I preferred quality humbuckers. However of late, I'vee been using alnico single coil pups that has the grounded copper plated steel back plate or at least have the alnico slugs grounded with grounded copper tape with conductive adhesive, grounded copper strip shielding the coils themselves and/or have a metal pickup cover that is also grounded. Absent these pup shielding strategies, I at LEAST use conductive adhesive copper sheets in the cavities and use an anodized aluminum pickguard that are both electrically grounded. This works on the Strat and the Tele. On the Les Paul, I use shielded hot wires, coppered control cavities (with either shielded cavity covers or grounded metal covers) and quality humbuckers to minimize noise. Oh and do NOT forget the string/bridge ground! Those strings can act like lower frequency antennas if they're not grounded!

[@JONDFH]

I have been making cover for transformers in order to reduce hum and Copper, foil, aluminum, inox steel did nothing. 0. Only steel worked

[@JONDFH]

I dont Know the exact translation but a ferrous metal

[@rangolastarfarajevic7151]

Did a lot for my Strat