Pickup shielding problem

[Chief Janez]

Hey!

I'm building a jazz bass and i'm about to do the shielding and put the pickups in and I encountered a problem..



I got these foams with the shielding alredy on, so the quesiton is;

- should i remove it and shield it with copper tape,
- put the thing on the copper tape
- not tape the cavity and use the existing shielding or
- do something other

thanks in advance

[rogerb]

I put in copper shielding in then these too, including the control plate one! No ill effects as far as I can tell, quieter then my MIA.

I just did it because I needed the bridge grounded anyway using 'the strip' and soldering to that pickup plate, seemed easier then to the copper shielding. That probably isn't true, but at the time seemed easier. A bit of overkill both I suppose, but doesn't hurt.

I am guessing but the copper shielding is probably doing the actual shielding.

So just shield with the copper tape and then 'put the thing on the copper tape' if you want. I hit the sharp corners with some sandpaper, so I didn't poke through my copper tape shield too.

[wvbass]

I'm lazy. I shield the control cavity and see how well that does noise-wise. If it is still too noisy, I then shield the pickup cavities. Keeping the plate in the cavity doesn't hurt anything. Be sure to connect the shielding in all the cavities to the back of the pots.

[bradjonesbass]

Originally Posted by wvbass

I'm lazy. I shield the control cavity and see how well that does noise-wise. If it is still too noisy, I then shield the pickup cavities. Keeping the plate in the cavity doesn't hurt anything. Be sure to connect the shielding in all the cavities to the back of the pots.

Not necessarily true about connecting the shielding to the pots. The installation instructions with my Audere specifically warned to not do that. They use sealed pots, and the excess heat will damage them.

[Chief Janez]

ok thanks for the help, but should i ground both the copper shielding and the one with the foam, or just the one with the foam

[Andyman001]

all shielding should be grounded. the pressure from the foam should "connect" the copper and brass, but a spot of solder wouldn't hurt.

[rogerb]

I looked back at the photos I did at the time. I didn't solder to the brass to the copper. All the copper in the cavities are connected though, then I just soldered up the plates like it doesn't have any copper shielding. So just pressure making the connection between copper and brass, there is also connection in the control cavity with the copper touching the control plate.

I suppose that might oxidize all over at some point, maybe a blob of solder isn't a bad idea. A professional job would add the solder, I'm no professional. I can add that though pretty easily.