How to Shield a Guitar Using Aluminum Tape
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- Опубліковано 24 кві 2017
- An easy mod you can do to your guitar that makes a huge difference is properly shielding the guitar cavity. This is really an easy upgrade to do to your guitar, but must be done right. In fact, the first two guitars I shielded, I basically wasted my time because I did not know I needed to ground the cavity. I thought I would do a tutorial as I shield a stratocaster that I am building. Hopefully, I clear up any confusion you may have and you will feel confident in shielding your guitar yourself.
Giving credit where credit is due. I learned a lot of these techniques on youtube myself. Mostly from willseasyguitar. Like most of us. We learned how to do stuff to our guitars right here on youtube. That is why I made this video on how to properly shield your guitar so that others can learn too. I hope you enjoy.
When I use aluminum tape I run a discarded piece of E or B string the length of the compartments, taped in place over the shielding with additional strips of tape thus connecting them all.
Good ideas overlapping the tape and soldering under the tape. Clever.
My hint: Use pieces of ordinary 3M packing tape to insulate in areas where signal wires may possibly make contact with the shielding tape,. I.E. under selector switch on your thin body Squire and in bridge pickup position cavity on the side nearest the trem mount screws. The edge of some vintage style strat pickups can have exposed wires on the edges and can short there.
You can’t have signal wires hitting your shielding. The packing tape is better than electrical tape because it is harder to poke or wear through.
I double it up sticky to sticky and cut it to fit the bottom of the switch cavity and glue it in with just a little of any kind of glue.
You ball up some aluminum foil and stuff it into such cavities, pull it out to get a pattern if you need to.
Mostly I can eyeball it.
Sticking that tape down using it’s regular adhesive side can be easier said than done with my fat fingers.
I prefer copper tape for the shield, it just looks much more professional. I don’t have the patience to wait tfor shielding paint to dry. I like to run it over the side of the cavities a bit to make good contact with the pick-guard foil tape. Solder the bridge or tail piece wire to the shielding and if all this shielding done right, you don’t really even need to connect the extra ground from the back of the volume pot to anything because it is just becomes redundant.
Be aware that shielding to pickup cavities can make things real tight. Use minimum thickness.
I have also found that the pickups will need to be lowered a bit more than usual sometimes to sound right after shielding. It can alter the magnetic field a bit. Proper shielding always works real well.
I just bought a 1in x66ft roll of copper tape from Amazon for $9 and shielded my Tele, I had to use multiple pieces but I believe it was easier than the wide pieces which i would have had to cut down to size and I would probably have wasted some. It was actually listed as "slug tape" because people use it to keep slugs out of their plants!
A detailed and clear tutorial. Appreciated the help as I recall last time I tried this I didn't have a technique to get the solder to stick to the shielding tape.
Excellent video. I'm currently starting a build and this is just what I was looking for. I'm also going to look into the paint option, but this was helpful. Thank you!
Very good tutorial. Connecting plug hole with the rest of the cavity can also be done by letting the connecting wire ge squeezed under the screws holding the pickguard and the connection plate, or by using small screws to hold the wire ends rather than using tape on them, also made easier using screw eyes.
very informative video Sir! I been watching a ton of videos on how to shield guitars, and I am feeling more confident on trying this on my bass guitar.
I sprayed the cavities with rubberized spray can paint, and then did as you suggested. almost no hum or buzzing at all!!
I appreciate you upcoming this video. I had a strat copy that had no shielding. I used copper, because I was able to get it at a good price. I also installed a new middle single coil pickup after that. Really great upgrades. Have a awesome upcoming weekend! - Tom
GOD, I love this video! You explained so much and answered to all questions I had In my mind in this video
Good job but I would have liked to see the finished guitar plugged in and tested. Also as far as strats go you would have less hum than usual anyway because you have humbuckers at the bridge and neck on that guitar but all in all a good presentation
The paint works. I used it on my SG Standard and it completely eliminated the static crackling that you get with Gibson guitars. The caveat is that it's pretty messy (you'll need to mask all the edges of the cavities to protect the guitar's finish) and you need to wait a full day between coats for it to dry. I put two coats on to ensure coverage. So, it's slower to do. The upside is that you can bend over one of those cheap metal paint brushes (my paint came with two) and get all the way inside the cavities that join different sections of the guitar. I used copper tape on the control cavity cover. Next time I'm going to try the tape only.
Never knew if the tape would conduct piece-to-piece.
Good to know.
Thanks.
Kennis Russell I'm just after covering the pots cavity on my SG with copper slug tape and I was wondering what ohm reading you were getting?
Your not really looking for any Ohm reading bro. Just a continuity check.
You can buy shielding tape with conductive adhesive designed specifically for this application. If you paid someone to do this, certain guitar technicians are quite up on electronics and electromagnetics and will insist on actually soldering copper foil together to make sure it is electrically fastened. Aluminum is better, though.
@@NachoManRandySandwich The lower the better.
Hey Kennis, I found your step of melting the solder under the tape interesting, but I'm curious if it is needed. Even though the voltage can be high, the amount of current from emf can be so low that a thick line drawn on a sheet of paper using a graphite pencil can provide a low enough imepdance path to handle a small charge. Have you thrown your mutli-meter across to test a tape/wire only path vs one that you added solder with to check for a difference in ohm readings? Also, a quicker option may be using a dab of penetrox Al-Cu. it should give you just as good a conductive connection without having to bring out your solder pencil if you are taping the connection anyways. Either way, you've once again made a great vid with some smart ideas!
Very helpful. Thank You!
Thank you for posting this helpful video
Thank you for the video. Very useful
no need to solder to the shield, the pot bodies and jack plate are already grounded and will ground the shielding by pressing against it. Just remember to let some aluminium tape come up on top of the body under the jackplate screws and also between body and pickguard so that all different parts of the shield will touch when mounted together.
Hi Kennis, Thank You for your tutorial. I already had an order of copper tape delivered, so I used that, but I will try the aluminum next time. One roll of tape covered my whole guitar, with non to spare. Also, thanks for the info on the electrical components. You saved me from shocking myself. J
You won a subscriber today, my friend. Very informative.
Several years ago I shielded my Strat with copper tape, and it got rid of the 60-cycle hum beautifully. Now that I play bass I have a Jazz Bass with single coil pickups, and instead of going through all this with copper or aluminum tape I now have a Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor on my pedalboard, and it does a great job of cutting out the noise, and it comes on and off so fast that there's virtually no delay at all.
Same issues...
It’s just compensating $10 (tape) vs $99 NS-2 (new). Used about $60-70 pedal.
i'd personally rather cut it from the source than having to deal with a noise gate.
Learn to love the buzz.
Thanks Kennys your videos are very enlightning, I have a question out of pure ignorance: what happens if the cavities are shielded with copper and the pickguard is shielded with aluminum? will that work or are both metals incompatibles in terms of shielding?
I found that my tape was conducive enough when overlapped without a fold. Also, you don't need the extra wires as long as you get a bit of tape to connect to the jack socket (which itself should be grounded through the earth wire via the socket) and same with the scratch plate foil (grounded through the pots and switch) . But a cool idea that saved me having to pay for special tape, as I already had some of this laying around. In the UK, you can buy this stuff in Screwfix.
I twist some foil and put it through the hole and connect it to both sides. I agree, adhesive is not thick enough to interfere with the conductivity.
Awesome video thanks.
Thanks for the tips
Brilliant! Thanks!
You can also use a straw to put tape through the hole between the jack cavity and the the main cavity,overlapped , this will conduct also instead of grounding a wire
Thanks Kennis Russell liked that video...
Rather than sticking tape for your ground bridge, just get two very short self tapping screws and screw it through the foil tape with the cable wrapped around it. It won't effect the sound or damage the body and will give you a very solid connection.
The cheapest and easiest method: Use contact cement and super-market grade aluminum foil. I take the guts out of my guitar, sand off any horrible rough spots--or use a tiny would chisel. When I'm done with this, I coat the body with contct cement--everywhere I want the foil. Wait 5 min or so (per directions on the cement) and install the foil. To connect seperate cavities I use a wood screw and a little ring connector in each cavity with a wire in between. I screw into the side of the cavity so the screw will not go through the back. I do a similar thing to the back of the pickguard.
If some of the body foil goes under one of the screws for the pickguard--there is a connection. You may have to work with the output jack,depending on your guitar. Cost: 1 tube contact cement, about 20 inches of aluminum foil--I take from the roll in the kitchen, perhaps 2 or 4 wood screws and ring fastners....
Nice video man! I've modded my Yamaha Pacifica 012 following these steps, but I have a few questions: 1.Is it bad to cover the white bit on which the pots sit on the backplate (in my case it was aluminium)2.Why did you remove the tremolo? 3. My output jack cavity is a blind hole and I couldn't tape the very bottom of it, will it affect the cage much?
Ok this works but is a bit of effort. I did this on a MIM HSS Strat just like the video shows. However in the cavity where the guitar output jack goes I found that the foil (ground) could touch the hot (signal) end of the jack when when jack plate is inserted and screwed in. I fixed this by using some electricians tape on the foil side where the jack end could touch and also added a bit of this tape around the jack tip area. I posted this just to let others know what may be the problem when there is no sound when plugged into an amp.
I'm using copper tape with conducive adhesive...easy to apply, though, some spots are hard to get to....I got my tape on ebay for about 5 bucks...looks neat after it's done. I did not do the bridge cavity...does the bridge cavity need to be done? I wouldn't think so with the electronics being shielded....Just finished one strat, pick guard and cavity's are finished.
great video thanks
The best tip I can give is use a small wallpaper roller to press the aluminium, for the pickgard
If you were to build like 2 - 10 watt speakers in the guitar, would that fix the the feedback or loud buzz, electrical interference if i did that?
Thank you, Sir!
Great vid Kennis! Do you have to put the aluminium foil in the trem cavity?
I thought I was gong to watch a Blake Shelton video for a second lol
🤣🤣
Lol. I thought that for a second. He’s a big AZ Cardinals fan maybe you can put a sticker of the team on that red guitar. 😊
Hello,
I am dealing with noise issues, but only when my guitar is plugged into my pedals. I thought the power supply caused the noise (daisy chain) so I bought a new power supply with isolated channels and adaptable voltages. Sadly the noise didn't go away. I've tested every pedal, and with every one of them there were noise issues (some pedals more than other).
When I plug my guitar (which has 2 Wide Range humbuckers) straight into the amp, there is no noise at all, so can I fix this problem by shielding my guitar properly? Could there be other causes?
Any response could be helping me a lot!
Thank you
You can also get a cheap pickup wired in as a shote pickup and it makes the single think they are humbuggers.
Good job man!!!
I just upgraded the pickups in my xtSA which I know you have. It hums like crazy now at high gain. I’d like to do this but getting around the circuit board would be risky.
I'd like to see how effective the work is with a before and after video comparison
For the sake of just, well to be easier could I use a small piece of copper tape attached too the aluminium tape to Solder the wire too?
Lays 220 grit sandpaper paper on body of guitar to demonstrate tape overlapping lol.
Was a crap spray paint job anyway with no clear
Great video! which setting should i sett the multimeter on?
Then have anyone suggestions on a good video that explaining how to us a multimeter on a guitar ?
Thanks !
Put the meter on the beeper and when you touch your prods to something that has a complete circuit the meter will beep. Also for the pups the ohms symbol is a good one to use.
do you have any videos on attaching the ground cables? I am not sure on that part, thanks
Attach your ground wire from the claw or bridge to the shielding and then the extra ground from the back of the pot (the one that you don’t run to the jack) to the shielding at the same place. I would just solder them both but, you could use wire lugs and a short wood screw and secure it to the side out of the way in the control cavity.
Having all you ground requirements attached at the very same spot in the guitar is for the better.
If your pots make good contact at their base where they attach to the pickguard on the foil tape, and the tape in the pickup cavities make contact with the same when the pickguard is installed, you don’t even really need those little ground jumps from pot to pot, nor the one from the back of the volume pot to the shield that I just told you where to hook up.
The idea is to eliminate multiple grounding loops which can attract interference noise. I use an aluminum pickguard shield for over kill. (Guitar Fetish has nice ones) and I don’t even hook up that extra wire from pot to shielding. It becomes redundant.
I can’t believe how quiet my Strat actually is.
Thanks for the video. Is the wire from the router cavity to the volume pot superfluous? as the pocket shielding is in contact with the scratch plate shielding (when screwed back on) and the scratch plate shielding is in contact with the pot that is bolted down on to it. Thanks for an answer on this, I know very little about electronics and I’m just trying to save myself a bit of work.
Kennis Russell thank you very much. My copper foil is now ordered!
Stellar.
any beginners with passive wiring questions let me know. When it comes to copper tape from ebay works wonders as solder sticks to it like he said but one tip no one really mentions on youtube I always give people is use clear packaging tape over your aluminum or copper tape. This way even if you use nickle braided wires in your guitar and they touch something you'll be fine, even if you touch a pots side you'll be fine.
Can you explain the ground wiring? And star wiring?
SG Epiphone do not need tape shield?
For more than looking for examples, is the only type of guitar that I have not seen examples
My loaded pickguard only came with 3 wires to solder: ground to claw in back, ground to output Jack and lead to output Jack. If I want to add copper shielding to my body cavity, how can I connect it to ground without a 4th wire?
Thanks for that.
if i touch the pickguard tape and the cavity tape should have connectivity???
Ignore the poky bits in the bottom of the cavity. If they end up poking through the foil, it's not a big problem so long as they create holes and not tears. These holes will be much too small for radio waves to get through.
Think about the mesh in the front door of your microwave, and how much power that mesh is reflecting. It's full of holes, but it works just fine because the holes are tiny compared to the wavelength at 2.45 GHz. In fact, they're overkill by about a factor of ten -- the holes would need to be about ten times as wide to allow a quarter wavelength at 2.45 GHz to pass. If the holes in your shielding are less than 3 mm wide, they should make no meaningful difference on up to about 25 GHz! While I have no doubt we will eventually use those bands for communications purposes, they aren't a problem yet.
I suppose if you're really dead-set on a perfect shield, you can just paint over the poky bits with conductive paint. It won't take very much, just a dab on each spike.
it would be nice to hear the difference!
Yeah no before, no after, didn't hear any continuity beeeeeeeeeeeep from the meter (I have one) plus he could have shown us the screen open loop closed loop - non conductive adhesive, may as well get the proper copper or gold tape, not even a real Strat
Twist the single coil pickups as with output jack wires. If there's a noise issue then reverse the out put jack wires. These UA-cam videos are all over the place. Cheers
I’m not sure how much a roll of the copper one is although I’m sure one roll can probably do a few guitars. I use the brush on stuff purchased from Stew Mac, I’ve done two guitars but I probably have enough for like 10 more and it looks far better as an end product too 🤙
I like the liquid stuff too.
One thing I'm proud of is I think I shield way neater than you do. Lol. I do the same fold-and-seal technique. but I know I still got a lot of things to learn from you. Those bumps are annoying. They make holes out of the foil every time I flatten it. I just started shielding guitars this year and I haven't been able to invest in better tools.
My strat doesn't have anywhere near the EMF noise that my Epi SG does. Not sure if this would help.
I believe that just having contact between the plug housing and the tape in the plug cavity would suffice in grounding that portion.
I love how u made vid with a few drinks in u...someone who real on here...no way kool i admired it...felt like it was to guys having a beer jus you were chill...idk wtf im sayin buttkool vif
thanks!
I have one question would the tape mess with intentional feed back, like ala Hendrix where he bangs the amplifier to get that howl...Thanks
V Poppawolf - I would think the pickups themselves would continue to generate the necessary loop to create harmonic (intentional) feedback. That's pretty much the essence of harmonic feedback, a loop between the amplified signal coming from the amp back into the pickup(s) into the amp and back into the pickup, etc, etc... So the shielding *should* only affect unwanted radio noise.
this method eliminates the hum of the 60 cycles that comes from the single coils?
Hey can i use alluminum foil and a double sided tape as well?
Perfekt
Thanks for showing us this video. But I just want to say one thing that when you go from the cavity to the Jack cavity, you can actually make little strips of copper and use a little piece of the paper to slide them through I've done it it comes out awesome so you don't have to use a soldering gun in a piece of wire it takes 5 minutes to make 5 or 6 trips slide it through and I use a Bic pen to smooth out the hole thanks for the video
I watched a video recently where the guy from Crimson Guitars was doing a custom build and he used the paint. I don't know how much it costs but imo the paint is a much better option and a lot less hassle
Kennis Russell thanks for the reply, I might give it a go myself when I change my pickups once I've done a bit more research. Is the cost of the paint worth it for shielding just one guitar? I have a Epiphone SG G-400 Pro with quick connect push/pull coil-splitting. I'd like to try different pickups but I'm having trouble finding much info about pickups that will let me keep the push/pull coil-splitting capability. Most of the pickups (Gibson's) I've been looking at have a 2 pin connector where as mine is has a 5 pin one. I'm assuming that the extra wires have to do with the coil splitting but really I'm just guessing.
Kennis Russell no worries, thanks anyways. I'll keep researching. I know I could leave it in to a luthier but like yourself I'd like to learn how to do this kinda thing myself.
NunyerBusiness I've looked on their website before and thought their prices seemed to good to be true. So I did a little research after seeing your post. I would not recommend anyone buy anything from guitarfetish. Literally every single review I've read of their products is negative. From them sending either broken, damaged or wrong parts to refusing to pay for return shipping even when they are clearly at fault. I can only assume that you are paid to spam the comment section of videos like this to try and dupe people into buying their crappy products because from what I've seen no one that has ever bought anything from them would ever recommend their site unless they worked for them
I don't have to prove anything, all anyone has to do is Google them and they'll see for themselves
Paul Hopkins I went with a suggestion that someone else posted of using slug tape which is basically copper tape. I'm really surprised at how well it worked. I didn't even fold a piece of the tape back over. I'd say it got rid of at least 95% of the buzz I was getting especially on a single coil and it only cost me €3
urgh, i did this without thinking earlier about the continuity and of course it didnt work. do i have to retape everything again? or just overlapping all the aluminum tapes with the folded ones? using ibanez rg7321 (cavity pretty similar to les pauls)
joe boto
Bridge the joins with 1/2"x1" patches of aluminium kitchen foil glued on with UhuStick (like PritStik but better). The UhuStick glue is water based & so is conductive. I do my whole scratchplates in one piece using this method. Cheap & very effective.
Do you recommend this on a LP with humbuckers?
Hey man , how do use that device at 9:11 ? and what are the settings? thanks!
Note that you can’t make a complete faraday cage unless you completely cover up the strings and other hardware like the knobs, pickup selector, and bridge - which is obviously impractical. Still, some shielding is better than none.
Greeting from Hollywood. CA 👋🏻😂
Or you could have use a small screw to hold the wires down to the aluminium. Just a suggestion. I prefer everything to be soldered but that would be my second best option.
Hey man, new to your channel, been playing for 18 years and I've been sending guitars to get work on for ever lol but I just shielded my first Stat copy(DIDNT WANT TO MESS UP MY REAL STRATS LOL) ,anyway good job, hope we can stay in touch I have a million questions lol jk awesome channel
so did it work?
You're not messing up anything if you properly do what is needed..original or copy doesn't matter at all.
Many famous guitarists do all kinds of improvements to their already expensive guitars.
Does the wire really need to be at the volume pot? Can't it just be connected directly at the pickguard?
As long as it is grounded somewhere.
Gonna be doing this on a MiM 👌 might use the paint instead though.
If you use good conductive paint more likely the job will be better. You know if it is covered and if you use 3 coats you are good. You don't need to worry about all your little pieces making contact and it is much easier to paint it all nice and even than crap shoot with pieces and worry about good contact with all of them.
You can get copper tape that is conductive on both sides and it's better than aluminium in general.
tns mr
Does it weigh as much as a Les Paul now?....lol....just kidding bro. Great vid. Going to do this to my Strat. Have a roll of that tape I purchased when I replaced my water heater 👍
i did this to my Les Paul with P90s and my strat both 2 wreks ago
Kennis Russell It went really well. Before I had to run a noise suppressor at about 90%, now I have it at about 15%.
Thats good to know! Thx for the info. Im planning to do the same on my old strato. An Im just waiting may noise suppressor coming from china. Instead of using aluminum tabe could be just glue and stand aluminum paper(that cooking one)?
I use a Boss NS-2 for a Noise Suppressor
Can you shield with liquid tape?
you could also tin the copper wire and then put the tape on 😊 7:56
Does this only make sense with single coils, or also with humbuckers?
@Alfred Fabila guitars or basses with humbuckers pickups never will have this kind of problem.
it's just for a single coil, that's why humbuckers are called like that because they "buck the hum" or kill the hum due to humbuckers are made of two coils
did it work?
im building a speaker box for a college project. would this make it sound better?
its also an amplifier
Speakers shouldn't matter but the amplifier does need shielding. It's a good idea to shield all circuits.
This is cool an all, but i like all th extra noise,what fun is a quiet guitar?
Well, you either dont or do, it depends on th style of music you do i guess, some stuff i like to do clean as a whistle, and some stuff i like a lot of chaos,lol! This was a great video by th way, and i did giv it a like, rawk onn!!
I bet if you used your multimeter to test for continuity on those overlapping pieces you'd see that it's fine.
Just use the tape over the screw holes from the jack socket, no need for a ground wire
You should always have a physical ground wire and star ground scheme across all potentiometer casings; no exceptions. Poor coupling between the jack cup or any other point that may interrupt the ground contact with a farady cage will result in buzz. It's extra insurance to make a gig-worthy instrument.
Only doing that will solve? No need for shielding other places?
Is that all just tape the jack socket?
I can answer that no need to shield other cavity, for instance the tremolo one is free from electronic part. Only cavities with pickups, potentiometers , jack plugs...when you encounter a remote toggle switch like Les Paul, you have to create a "floating" ground, with special three conductive wires and the ground around it, so you connect the wires to lead the pickups on the toggle switch but you only solder the ground onto the shape of volume potentiometer , for example.
My Strat is still factory grounded to the claw arm. Could I shield it with tape like this without changing where the ground goes?
I may of missed this but would also shield the tremolo cavity ?
No. You only need to shield electronics.
for kicks and giggles
Hey Kennis, great video!!!!, I'm so stress thinking how to fix the electric buzz on my bass LTD vintage-214, but i have a couple question:
1. screws from the bass pickups, are rusty and can't take it out,
2. there is an other pickup separate from the main cabin and the compartment is tight, It looks like the tape will be scratched when place back the pickup,
3. this pickups are secured with screws that are screwed into the wood, that will affect the shield?
Thank you man!!!!!!, you make my feel that there is hope, aloha Kennis
Kennis Russell thank you!!!!!, I'm going to start working in this project.
looks like too much work. :-) Thanks for sharing.
Because he wasn't using the correct tape
if you use shielded wire on all your signal wires why enclosed the whole cavity with foil or copper tape ? Seem redundant
It is redundant to shield the pickup cavities if the cabling is shielded already. You could electrostatically shield the pickups themselves, but it would affect the tone slightly, similar to what happens when putting metal covers over humbuckers.
Will this also make the guitar EMP proof?
Yeah and if you crawl inside you will be protected from Mind invavding aliens
There's always stacked humbuckers, they look like single coils, so no need for mods.