Grounding the copper shield yes or no?

[okcrum]

it is more complicated, and no big deal to leave out , but it is a shield on the small wire running through the channel, making everything shielded completely. No shield can be entirely complete, cause you can't cover the tops of the pickups anyhow.

Why not simply use a piece of shielded cable?

 

[SteveCS]

Because people love vintage correctness more than they love progress.

Sad but true...

 

[Growlmonkee]

The reason I don't use shielded cable is that I like Teflon insulated wire, it has a small diameter, it's strong, doesn't burn from a hot iron, and it's stiffer than pvc, holding to where you place it a bit batter, and since I already have the copper tape, I guess it's just habit to use that, I never thought of shielded wires, it's a great idea, though it only takes me a couple of minutes to do a neat job of making it, with the tape.

 

[okcrum]

The reason I don't use shielded cable is that I like Teflon insulated wire, it has a small diameter, it's strong, doesn't burn from a hot iron, and it's stiffer than pvc, holding to where you place it a bit batter, and since I already have the copper tape, I guess it's just habit to use that, I never thought of shielded wires, it's a great idea, though it only takes me a couple of minutes to do a neat job of making it, with the tape.

Invalid Link Removed is Teflon shielded cable, silver-plated. That might be good enough - 2.5 mm OD.

 

[Growlmonkee]

Nice stuff Okrum, it's steel core though, I bet they have it in tinned copper, I think that one is for rugged use, I use copper tinned od is .064 in., that one is .105 in, I've gotten good at wrapping it, the runs are short, but I don't know about soldering that, a lot of Teflon wire is for really high voltage, it's way better insulation than pvc, and much stronger, the steel core, and extra insulation tells me that wire is meant for high voltage rugged conditions, I've never seen that one though. the size is probably the same, + the shield

 

[okcrum]

Nice stuff Okrum, it's steel core though, I bet they have it in tinned copper, I think that one is for rugged use, I use copper tinned od is .064 in., that one is .105 in, I've gotten good at wrapping it, the runs are short, but I don't know about soldering that, a lot of Teflon wire is for really high voltage, it's way better insulation than pvc, and much stronger, the steel core, and extra insulation tells me that wire is meant for high voltage rugged conditions, I've never seen that one though.

Cool, yeah, I have copper core (regular) 188 here - it's commonly used in RF gear for board interconnects until you switch to rigid coax at higher frequencies. I think the steel stuff might actually cost more since it's rated for direct burial.

For the price/ft. you pay for good instrument cable, you can find some mighty exotic cable configurations (multiple twisted+shielded+foil pairs, multi-triax, etc.) that would be (visually) icing on the cake for some of the nice wiring jobs I've seen here.

 

[Growlmonkee]

this si what I've been using, ..it works, but I'm gonna look into shielded now.

hard to see, but it's a full wrap

 

[Will_White]

this si what I've been using, ..it works, but I'm gonna look into shielded now.View attachment 772695 hard to see, but it's a full wrap

If you put heat shrink over that you'd have a shielded wire.

 

[Growlmonkee]

yes, Will, the advantage to this is that I can stick those 2 tabs down, one in the Pickup cavity, one in the control cavity, solder them for good measure, and the cavities are all grounded, the wired is shielded in the tunnels, that's why I mentioned it to the OP, it is more involved than running a wire, but serves purpose well, and if time is taken it comes out very neat looking too. I usually wrap both P/U wires together with the tape, and use the Teflon wire for P/U leads, (it's small diameter compared to pvc .)

 

[angrychair]

 

[bassbenj]

As said above - metal by itself is not a shield. It's job is to collect the outside signals and conduct them to ground so it all has to be grounded.

When I shield a cavity, I overlap the foil as a tab under one of the pickguard screws to be sure it makes good contact. It is better if it touches only at one point.

I have never had good luck making a foil tube to shield to cable holes, but have considered changing the pickup wires to a small shielded cable.

I was going to mention the overlap thing. Notice the screw hole near the edge of super_freak's bass where the copper comes right up to the screw. This way if the pickguard has metal on the back that screw mashes the two shields together for a contact. I usually even make the foil come up over the lip and have a tab that actually surrounds a screw hole. You just have to make sure it doesn't stick out from under the pickguard.

Some pickguards have aluminum foil on the back rather than copper. That does work, but I worry about two different metals causing some kind of problem so I usually put copper foil on the pickguard too.

I've done the copper foil tubes to the pickups thing and it's a major pain in the butt. I roll tubes, shove them in the holes and then take scissors and split the ends sticking through into tabs that I solder. I like the wrap the wires with tape idea much better. I don't like the use of shielded cable even though it works well because the thin stuff has a very thin center conductor which has a bad tendency to break off in the bass from vibrations etc.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

I was going to mention the overlap thing. Notice the screw hole near the edge of super_freak's bass where the copper comes right up to the screw. This way if the pickguard has metal on the back that screw mashes the two shields together for a contact. I usually even make the foil come up over the lip and have a tab that actually surrounds a screw hole. You just have to make sure it doesn't stick out from under the pickguard.

Some pickguards have aluminum foil on the back rather than copper. That does work, but I worry about two different metals causing some kind of problem so I usually put copper foil on the pickguard too.

I've done the copper foil tubes to the pickups thing and it's a major pain in the butt. I roll tubes, shove them in the holes and then take scissors and split the ends sticking through into tabs that I solder. I like the wrap the wires with tape idea much better. I don't like the use of shielded cable even though it works well because the thin stuff has a very thin center conductor which has a bad tendency to break off in the bass from vibrations etc.

No issues using aluminum and copper together. Mind you, I live in a dry climate so that could be different with a lot of moisture in the air.

Use some paint and pipe cleaners if you want to shield the wire routes simply. I personally do not do the wire routes, however, as I do not find they make a difference. You have a greater surface area of exposed pole pieces than you do of wire route channels anyway.