I decided to go with the Conductive Shielding Paint sold by Stewart-McDonald as it seems easy than applying copper tape. My questions concerns the need for a grounding screw and wire. Is this necessary and if so, how do do I do (install)? What do I connect it to? I have never done this before but I am willing to experiment on an inexpensive SX bass. Thank you and Happy holidays.
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Going to be copper shielding my SX bass, question...
- Thread starter Lownote Floyd
- Start date
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
I think the tape is easier to apply. The tape works better as well.
The reason for the screw is so that you paint the the shielding paint over it to make a connection.
The reason for the screw is so that you paint the the shielding paint over it to make a connection.
Thanks but let me understand....if I use the tape, I don't need a shielding wire, if I use the paint I do? Forgive my ignorance, electrical work is not my strong suit but I want to learn and am willing to experiment on a $130 Chinese bass.
You should use shielded wire on all hot leads.
(that's wires that are not ground) That should
be done with or without shielding the body
cavity.
Any cavity shielding should be connected to
ground.
The shielding paint can be connected with a
simple wire with a eyelet on one end. Screw
the eyelet to the paint. Solder the other end
to ground.
Tabdog
I'll grant that aluminum is cheaper and easier to find... but you can't really solder to aluminum.
You can find suitable copper foil at nearly any arts&crafts store, and it's not that expensive.I picked up a white Peavey Fury II off eBay a few years ago; it was a bit noisy and had some grounding issues... so, I tore it apart, cleaned it up, and lined the control cavity and pickup cavity with copper foil and soldered the ground wires to it, as well as the wire that runs over to the control cavity from the bridge. I found some copper foil art kit on sale at the local craft store, so the total "parts cost" ran less than $3.00 (and, I have more than enough foil left over to easily do three or four more guitars!).
Just a heads up, y'all may want to look into Cupro-Cote paint, Here :
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According to Paul Balmer, author of the Fender Bass Handbook, this copper based vinyl paint is almost as good a shield as copper tape, and as easy to apply as the black graphite paint. I personally haven't tried it so I can't vouch for the validity of Paul's claims, but I don't see any reason not to believe him, and I am certainly going to try it with my next (read first, LOL) shielding job.
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According to Paul Balmer, author of the Fender Bass Handbook, this copper based vinyl paint is almost as good a shield as copper tape, and as easy to apply as the black graphite paint. I personally haven't tried it so I can't vouch for the validity of Paul's claims, but I don't see any reason not to believe him, and I am certainly going to try it with my next (read first, LOL) shielding job.
I ordered both the paint and the tape. 'Still unsure (I must be dense as a rock) what to do with the grounding wire, what it attaches to, etc. It's just one wire that I need to attach right? From where to where? Is solder a must? I don't have a soldering iron.
Take a trip to Radio Shack. Soldering irons are cheap. Just take a look at any of the YouTube videos how to use one so you don't make lousy joints.
Essentially, you want every single cavity's shielding tape/paint to be connected to your ground. So if you have multiple cavities, you need to link the shielding to each other, and eventually to the ground. There are a variety of ways to achieve that, soldering/screwing a wire from one cavity to the next is one way for paint.
You are right.
You can just use a screw to connect
the foil. I have done it and used a
grease like stuff. I don't remember
the name of it, but it was designed
for aluminum connections to stop
oxidation and failure of the connection.
For aluminum foil, I used the really thick
stuff.
Copper is better.
But, if done correctly, it will make it
silent unless there is a problem with the
pickups or possibly the house wiring.
I've got most of my stuff to where it can
be cranked up and you can only hear the
amp noise. As if nothing was plugged in.
Tabdog
What is there to be unsure of?
People usually pick based on price, or how long it takes to do the job. Since you could afford both without issue, you don't need to worry about it. How much time do you want to spend doing this?
The ground wire goes from the back of a volume pot to anywhere on the shielding.
Don't forget the ground wires between cavities.
The deal is this. To shield a bass you need to put all the electronic parts in a conductive box. You want this "box" to be as tight as possible. The conductive material MUST be grounded to work as a shield. The proper grounding location is usually the terminal that goes to the outside (barrel) of the jack. So at minimum you need to run at least one wire from the jack ground to the shield. More grounding wires won't hurt. As others have noted all separate pieces (cavities) each need to be grounded. Any non-grounded shield will not work as a shield!
Usually you can choose one of three different things as conductive shield. Copper foil, aluminum foil, and conductive paint. Copper foil works well because it's very conductive and easy to solder ground wires to it. Aluminum foil is also a decent conductor and cheap and easy to find, but hard to connect a ground wire to. And aluminum has the problem that if you use a steel screw and washer to connect to it, if there is any humidity you can get electrolysis (corrosion) at the joint. And lastly there is conductive paint which is easy to apply but harder to ground. The usual method is to put a wood screw with a lockwasher of the type with "teeth" through the paint and into wood so the washer "bites" into the paint. The ground wire goes to a solder lug on the same screw.
My personal experience is that I try not to use aluminum because of the corrosion thing. I have used it on the back of pickguards, however without any problems. My favorite is copper foil because it ALWAYS works! It's easy to solder to and make good ground connections or solder separate pieces together. And while paint is easy to use, I've had some mysterious problems in that usually it works great, but every now and then it somehow doesn't work and lets hum through. I don't know why. maybe because it's harder to ground. I've seen this happen even on Fender factory conductive paint.
While running a ground wire to the shield is always best, let me say that on a Jazz bass the jack body is connected to the metal control plate. So you can make a pretty good connection to the shield by running the copper foil or paint up over the lip of the cavity and around the mounting screws (But not sticking out from under the plate!) Then when you screw down the plate it pulls the metal plate against the shield foil or paint and makes a decent connection. The same thing can work for the foil on the back of the pickguard if you run some foil over and around one of the pickguard screw holes where the foil will press against it when you screw the pickguard down.
This is kind of long, but I've been talking about different ways of doing things and basically that's all there is to it.
- Aug 21, 2008
- 10,386
- 252
- 68
- Disclosures
- Owner, SGD Music Products
The ground wire attaches to ground. In a bass, this will be to the back of the volume pot, or to the ground lug on the output jack. The volume pot is easier to solder to, and they are both going to the same place.
Foil works better than the carbon based paint. There is nickel based paint (MG Chemicals Super Shield) that is very good though. The foil is also usually cheaper. Heavy aluminum foil works fine. You can make the ground connection by either putting it under the volume pot, or by sticking some adhesive backed copper foil, and soldering to that.
Keep in mind that the shielding wont stop your pickups from humming (magnetic field noise). But it will reduce some high frequency buzz you might get (electrical field noise).
