Thursday, January 6, 2011

Copper Shielding a Stratocaster

There are many ways to shield and ground a guitar.  I could write a book, (hummmmmm) Or did I..
I'll get into more details in the future.  For now here is a nice photo of a copper shielded guitar and pickguard.  Notice the seams are soldiered and it is burnished down in the cavity very clean and tight.   There is a wire connecting the copper to the jack ground.
The most important thing about any shielding job is to ground what ever material you use as a shield otherwise it will act as an antenna and the noise you are trying to keep out.
I can't tell you how many times I have seen aluminum foil stuffed into the cavity of a guitar.  If the guitar is luckily enough to even work it is very noisy.  Another odd thing I see more often than that you would think is manufactures using shielding paint in pickup and tremolo cavities, sometimes even for cosmetic reasons with no ground attached.  The pickups are a set of  J. M. Rolph very authentic vintage Stratocaster pickups.  We are also installing his proprietary noise reduction system (not in the photo)