I built a bass with an active set up. I put it together without any finish on it and it sounded great no problems. I stripped it down put the finish on it, shielded the control cavity and put it back together. It now has a nasty buzz when you touch the knobs. Should I not shield the cavity? The only wires I had to solder were the shielded set from the Bartolini "P" style pickup

Do you have a ground wire hooked up to the bridge?

Yes. I just figured it out. When I was tightening up 1 of the pots it swung around and touched the shielding in the cavity. I do have another problem though. The pcb is loose in the cavity as is the battery. I just took some thin foam and wrapped it around them so neither ground out. I would like to figure out a better way of isolating them..................t

you can get metal battery clips from radio shack or other electronics store. I know Fry's has them, if you have one of those near you. Is the PCB in one of those black cases? If so I would just use some double stick tape and stick it to the side of the cavity. Otherwise, I've seen them attached to the leads of one of the pots, but I think that's a custom thing. I've also seen battery's attached using velcro that is hold by a single screw to the side of the cavity. Of course the poor mans solution to all of these is just wrap both in 1/8" foam and let it float in there.

LOL. Yeh, I shielded 3 cavities and couldn't tell any benefit that resulted but they make great conductors. Haven't shielded a cavity since.

The main thing with the battery is you don't want it flopping around - esp. into the PCB. So it depends on the space you have. If it's a snug fit, like I've had, I just made a jacket out of thin foam packing wrap. The battery clips I've had exposure to were too snug a fit and there was more potential damage to the control bay from removing the battery than anything - so I got rid of the clip cause I used rechargeables and I was always changing batteries, back when I had onboards.

I've only had one occassion with a PCB board not mounted to pots and I just took a small (like 2 x 2) zip lock bag that came with pup springs, slipped it over the board and sealed the bag up to the wires. I didn't tape it down cause it wasn't going anywhere anyway, but it wouldn't hurt. If you have any interference problems you may have to shield it. I just recieved an '87 UK Status 2 band in the mail and it actually was wrapped in copper shielding. But I personally wouldn't stick anything directly to that PCB.

Just took the bass to an open jam last night and it still had the problem, not as bad though so I am getting rid of the shielding today and I 'll try playing it without it..........T

I think you may be better off. Not sure how effective the shielding paint is but it won't ground components out. An alternative to removing it is to lay a strip of electric tape below the lugs of each pot just to insure there's no contact there, since that's where it's most likely. That's what I did. But you have to keep the lugs of the pots from contacting the sides as well (or throw a strip of electric tape there). I didn't have any problem with mine but if you ever do have a problem, it makes trouble shooting more of a pain cause the problem could literally be anywhere.

It took me hours to shield those stupid things and I wasn't up for ripping it out as a result. It does look cool and professional though.

By the way, cool looking bass.

Thanks I will get to jam with it again tomorrow evening.......t