Shielding...

[Musician78]

...I am going to shield this axe I'm building.... but have a few questions.... and yes, I am going to use conductive copper tape... but anyway... do I have to shield the pickup cavities or just the control cavity? Do I have to ground it? If so, then does that mean I have to ground all the pickup cavities as well (providing I need to shield them)? Obviously I am not going to be able to get the tape up in the holes I have drilled for the wires... will this be a problem??

Also... the ground wire from the neck pickup is a little short... I am going to have to extend it. It reaches into the control cavity but not to where I am going to solder it... but the wire I have is not shielded... since I am going to shield the control cavity, will this create a problem?

Thanks much for your knowledge!!

[jet66]

Shielding the pickup cavities is a good idea. How much it will make a difference depends on the pickups. Some are definitely more prone to picking up RF noise due to construction or how powerful the magnetic field is, etc. You will have to ground the shielding to make it actually work as a shield, be it pickup route or control route. If you are using copper tape, you can solder wire right to it, or put small eyelet terminals on it and use small screws to attach through the tape to the wood.

If you are extending the ground wire within the shielded cavity, it shouldn't cause any problems to just use a single piece of unshielded wire. If it is running parallel with the hot wire for a few inches, you can always lightly twist them together, that will help reduce any noise that might be induced. If the integrity of the shield is good, that shouldn't even be needed.

[Musician78]

Sweet, thanks. If I shield the pickup cavity... where do I ground it to? There are no pots in there. Unless I should run more grounds to the control cavity...?

[jet66]

Unless I should run more grounds to the control cavity...?

That's exactly what you will need to do.

[nor]

If you wanna shield everything - buy the conductive paint from stew-mac and enough copper shielding for the cavity cover(s).

[leftybob]

Just use the conductive paint or solder to connect the tape pieces, then no matter where you gound it will be continuous.

[atdguitars]

For your ground lugs in the pickup cavities use mini wire lugs(eyelets) with small wood screws and screw through the shielding into the body. Solder your copper tape at the seems and you should be good to go.