shielding tape

BAW · #1 12-16-2008, 08:04 PM

i have a guitar that is i think needs to be shielded. ive also noticed my jaguar getting a little buzzy recently. while rearranging the workshop in my basement i found this tape.

it seems to be just aluminum foil with sticky adhesive on one side. it says nashua tape on the inside and has a web address. i went to the website and verified that it is foil tape.

will this work for shielding my guitars and basses?

and do i just line every top, bottom, and side of each cavity?

Mr.Bassie720 · #2 12-19-2008, 03:41 PM

I think that stuff you have there might be a bit too thick. It would be hard to work with . I would recommend copper tape.

knuckle_head · #3 12-19-2008, 03:58 PM

It'll work.

A caveat - copper shielding tape supposedly has conductive adhesive. You should make certain that if you need to overlap pieces of the aluminum tape that you get a good soldered connection where they meet. I do this with copper just 'cuz...

You surround every cavity - top, bottom, and sides - and make certain that all sides have a viable connection to ground.

If you want to go the extra mile you can chase your tape job with a coat or two of shielding paint.

Sometimes what can cause buzzing is too much wire used in your harness. Check that too. Point to point with little or no slack.

bassplayer502 · #4 12-21-2008, 08:32 AM

Not all copper tape will have conductive adhesive. Make sure it states conductive before you buy. Stewmac has good tape thats easy to work with.

IMO - Get the copper tape with conductive adhesive. Also, get a multimeter and check your work before you put all back together.

BAW · #5 12-31-2008, 12:39 AM

incase anyone was wondering this stuff worked fine, i think.

in the process of shielding a bass and guitar with this i was also forced to disconnect and than reconnect the ground on each of them. wich ever it was there is no more annoying hum. i like to think it was a little bit of both.

as far as hard to work with, at first it was a tad painstaking but i started using the rounded corner of an allen key to get the tape into all the crease and used scissor to cut pieces to size. i got the hang of it after a while.