Requesting a quick second opinion on a shielding job I just did - anything I missed?

[PNC7]

Howdy! After noticing a bit of buzz on my G&L Tribute Fallout which went away when I was touching metal, I figured that some shielding was in order. I did my research around these parts and made sure to do the following with copper foil:

• Shielded the control cavity, pickup cavity, the back of the pickguard which covers the control cavity, screwholes which connect the cavity to pickguard, and pickup cover screwholes
• Soldered wires from the pickup cavity and control cavity shields to the back of the pot where the bridge is grounded
• Used multimeter to confirm continuity in all cavities, then when assembled, confirmed continuity everywhere from the bridge to the pickup screws, to the controls

At this point there is no more noise that goes away from touching metal, so I am thinking I was successful. I still do get some buzzing around certain outlets and lights in my place when the single coil is switched on, which touching metal does NOT help, so assuming that's just EM interference I have to live with. The only thing I have seen in some guides that I didn't do here was cover the inside of the pickup cover, because I couldn't figure out how to remove this one easily, but that has sounded like an optional step.

So overall, just requesting any thoughts from you pros on whether you'd do anything differently or I have done all I can here. Thank you!

 

[Turnaround]

Can't tell from the pics, but did you run a ground wire from the jack ground lug to the copper in the control cavity, and from the pickup cavity to the control cavity?

 

[PNC7]

I have one wire (ends circled in red) running from the pickup cavity to the back of the pot where the bridge is grounded. And a second wire (ends circled blue) running from the control cavity to the same pot.

I assumed this was fine because I've got continuity everywhere, but do I need another wire specifically connected to the jack?

 

[FatOwlBass]

Looks like you should be OK. the Ground from the shield to the back of the pot is there, looks like the bridge is grounded as well.

 

[andare]

It's ok. Shielding does not remove single coil hum.

 

[TheArchitect]

All that copper on the pickup ring may be an issue

 

[PNC7]

All that copper on the pickup ring may be an issue

Would it just potentially cause a short?

 

[TheArchitect]

Would it just potentially cause a short?

That's possible, but they could cause tone changed from interrupting the eddy currunts in the magnetic field also

 

[BassDaddySky]

I'd ditch the tape in the pickup cover, they are non magnetic for a reason.
And I never hear about anybody grounding the neck plate, might be too far from the pickups to be an issue but it's a big chunk of steel.
Strap hardware is probably a non issue as well
But since you have an issue, maybe running temporary jumper wires would be a good way to rule them out.

 

[Wfrance3]

running temporary jumper wires

If you are doing your own mods and soldering connections, having jumper wires is key. I have a few made up. It's really convenient having a few jumpers ready to go. Another thing that you may have already is a meter with continuity tone. When I shield a cavity, as a last step, I always get out my meter and set it to tone for the last step of the shielding project. Just take the two electrodes and test random spots all over the control cavity to be sure you have tone everywhere. If you find a spot that you confirm is not making connection, just put a relatively thin strip of copper shielding between the two points. After you check like 5 or 10 places in the cavity and get tone everywhere, your good to go.

I've only done shielding a total of 4 times, but it has always come out well. I also overlap a couple of the pick guard screw locations with shielding tape. The two pick guard and two control cavity cover basses one active, one passive, I've done all had aluminum shielding on the guard/cover. It made sense for me to connect the aluminum shielding on the pg/cover to the cavity shielding and it did make for a silent bass.

One thing I had to do on my 5 string passive soapbar bass: It was chronically noisy even with control cavity shielding. The way I finally cured it was to shield the pickup cavity. Then solder a little wire from the ground wire on each of the pickups to pickup cavity the shielding. Then I soldered another wire onto the pickup cavity shielding and landed the other end to the ground ganglia on the back of the pot wehere all the ground wires were landed. It was a bring a gun to a knife fight move, but it woked!!

 

[sunbeast]

Everything looks good, but the foil on the back of the pickup is unnecessary and could have some tonal effects since it surrounds the magnet. The foil in the pickup cavity shouldn't cause any such issues.

As mentioned, shielding has little to no effect on single-coil noise which is mostly lower frequency with larger wavelengths that cut right through thin shielding material. High frequency buzz/hiss is the truly annoying stuff and what shielding helps mitigate

 

[TheArchitect]

As mentioned, shielding has little to no effect on single-coil noise which is mostly lower frequency with larger wavelengths that cut right through thin shielding material. High frequency buzz/hiss is the truly annoying stuff and what shielding helps mitigate

Hmm.. not sure that is entirely accurate... I agree shielding does not stop everything, but it does stop a lot of things. The why is what I am struggling with.

 

[sunbeast]

Hmm.. not sure that is entirely accurate... I agree shielding does not stop everything, but it does stop a lot of things. The why is what I am struggling with.

I should have specified "single coil hum", which is what is left in the OP's Fallout bass and what shielding can't remedy.
Guitar shielding (copper tape or carbon paint) can't cut low-frequency transformer hum (60hz, 120hz, etc) because it is more magnetic than electric in nature and goes right through thin conductive shielding material- transformer shielding is much thicker ferrous metal material usually wrapped completely around the source that would be impractical to put in a guitar (and you wouldn't want it anywhere near the pickups since it is ferrous!). If shielding could kill all that noise then humbucking pickups wouldn't need to exist. Humbucking pickups are great at cancelling that low-frequency hum by phase-cancelling it (the two coils generally see low frequency waves in the same phase if they are on the same plane and so electrically connecting them out of phase effectively cancels it out), while high frequency noise is more directional (so the coils are likely to see it in different phases at different times). Shielding is great at filtering out high-frequency (in the kHz range) electrostatic/RF noise that even many humbuckers are still susceptible to as the smaller wavelengths can't penetrate through the shielding material.

 

[andare]

I should have specified "single coil hum", which is what is left in the OP's Fallout bass and what shielding can't remedy.
Guitar shielding (copper tape or carbon paint) can't cut low-frequency transformer hum (60hz, 120hz, etc) because it is more magnetic than electric in nature and goes right through thin conductive shielding material- transformer shielding is much thicker ferrous metal material usually wrapped completely around the source that would be impractical to put in a guitar (and you wouldn't want it anywhere near the pickups since it is ferrous!). If shielding could kill all that noise then humbucking pickups wouldn't need to exist. Humbucking pickups are great at cancelling that low-frequency hum by phase-cancelling it (the two coils generally see low frequency waves in the same phase if they are on the same plane and so electrically connecting them out of phase effectively cancels it out), while high frequency noise is more directional (so the coils are likely to see it in different phases at different times). Shielding is great at filtering out high-frequency (in the kHz range) electrostatic/RF noise that even many humbuckers are still susceptible to as the smaller wavelengths can't penetrate through the shielding material.

Yes. A shielded guitar with humbucking pickups (ex. a P bass or a Jazz bass with both pickups at the same volume) should be totally silent with all knobs at 10 and without touching anything.