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Any point in shielding humbucker equipped basses?
- Thread starter jakelly
- Start date
- Aug 5, 2005
- 7,243
- 92
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses
Of course. Your non-pickup electronics are equally as susceptible to noise if not kept in a Faraday cage.
It helped a lot on my Epi. I would get some buzzing when I played it under florescent lights. It's dead quiet now.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I'm actually having my läkland skyline 55-01 with audere 3zb pre and nordstrand fat stacks shielded as we speak. I should have it back in my filthy greedy hands by thursday - I will let you guys know how it sounds. My local luthier told me that it would reduce the noise as low as only 5% of what is now. funny part is - I actually thought it was pretty quiet.
BTW he stated that using copper foil would do something with the resistance or something - he swore by graphit paint. he's been building basses since like... moses split the waters?
anyways here's his site - do your self a favour and take a look in the gallery - loads of nice basses in there
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BTW he stated that using copper foil would do something with the resistance or something - he swore by graphit paint. he's been building basses since like... moses split the waters?
anyways here's his site - do your self a favour and take a look in the gallery - loads of nice basses in there
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That's ********. It's the other way around.
Conductive paint can be quite resistive compared with copper tape. Copper tape should be the preferred choice because it has better continuity.
Your luthier probably prefers the paint because it is quicker and easier to apply.
That could depend on the conductive paint. There is a copper-based paint that supposedly works much better than the graphite (brand name of CuPro-Cote) according to Paul Balmer in his book, "The Fender Bass Handbook", p. 65. As to how it compares to the foil, he doesn't say.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
i've used nickel print (paint) for shielding with perfect results. for me, its advantage is that it doesn't add any measurable thickness to the cavities (or weight to the bass) and it can't ever peel, and short out the electronics, which have seen happen too many times.
- Feb 16, 2008
- 21,240
- 23,636
- Disclosures
- John K Custom Basses
yep, but i just paint it around the mounting holes so the control plate or shielded pickguard makes contact with it.if you do need to wire it, you just make an eyelet in the wire's end and screw it down to the shield paint, then put a dab of the shield paint on it.
update: I just got my bass back today, and just came back from rehersing. man - it's dead silent. I plugged the bass in turned on the amp - went for a cigarette and came back to pick up the bass. I was surprised to see the volume was up - I hadn't noticed. no matter what you say line6man, my bass hasn't changed tonal character - it's just become dead silent - even with treble on full - amazing
I never said shielding would change the tone of the bass?
If you shield your pickups, you can lose some treble, but shielding the cavities does not change the tone.
Shielding pickups with graphite paint instead of copper tape is preferable because there are no eddy-current effects with the paint, which is the phenomenon that causes hi-frequency loss. You can make contact to the paint with a bit of conductive-adhesive backed foil tape.
I never said shielding would change the tone of the bass?
If you shield your pickups, you can lose some treble, but shielding the cavities does not change the tone.
alright - then I misunderstood - Sorry - english isn't my native language as you've probably guessed
alright - then I misunderstood - Sorry - english isn't my native language as you've probably guessed
Hell, you could say that about a lot of Americans and Brits, if the internet is any indication.
