Shielding on Jaguar and Jazzmaster...how much?

[ShortyMedlock]

I'm at the point of being ready to wire up my Jazzmaster project.

I have painted on shielding paint in all the cavities. I just bought a set of used Squire J. Mascis pickups that fit my budget.

I hope they sound ok....

I have seen copper plates that fit under the pickups and a fitted copper shield for the control cavity.

I know a good grounding setup is needed but how much? Will using copper tape be enough?

[glennleaguesny]

I've used Kraftex Copper Tape from Amazon to line all of the cavities and back of the pickguard. It seems to do the trick to shield everything. Just be sure you're checking with a multimeter for continuity. Overlap the copper tape slightly and make sure you tape up the sides of the cavity and leave some copper tape here on there on the top of the route so that it contacts the copper on the pickguard

[bodhi]

Your conductive paint should in theory already be enough, assuming it makes contact with a ground point. The foil on the inside of pickguards should take care of that side of things, but as mentioned above you need to check for continuity.

Depending on what shielding paint you used, according to some forums there might be a bit of resistance in the paint itself. Copper or aluminum tape should have essentially none, but it's a bit more fiddly to apply properly.

[timtam]

Conductive paint has a specified resistance, eg 50 ohms per 10 square cm. I know of no evidence that that resistance makes it any less effective for shielding against typical EMI frequencies than copper foil, which typically has zero resistance over the same distance (just because paint has some resistance doesn't obviously make it less effective against EMI). So until some bright comms engineer does that complex testing to compare paint to foil across the EMI frequency spectrum, we assume that paint is "good enough" (although how different products and things like thickness/number of coats vary the result is also somewhat obscure).

But because of that resistance, painted cavities are far enough apart typically to require separate ground wires screwed into their wood/paint (as you will see on many current paint-shielded Fenders and Squiers). On guitars with many cavities like jags and JMs, that makes the wiring process a bit more tedious (although a foil tab between cavity paint and pickguard shielding saves a physical ground wire). With copper foil, one ground connection is enough to ground all the cavity foil that is continuous (eg using foil bridges across discontinuous cavities, or foil tab contacts with pickguard shielding). Foil ideally has conductive adhesive (not all foil does), otherwise overlapping pieces have to be electrically joined in some other way, eg solder.

Vintage reissues typically have brass plates in each cavity, both for shielding and distributing ground throughout the guitar (to switches, pots, and pickups). Whether you regard that as preferable or a wiring PITA is a matter of taste.

[ShortyMedlock]

Thanks...

I may add some copper and use that as a ground source.

New to these offsets...only messed with Strats, Teles and St. Blues stuff before...still learning and this forum has been a Godsend.

[GilmourD]

Just on the off chance you haven't already seen this.

https://youtu.be/-mLBo4y9t8Y

[ShortyMedlock]

Just on the off chance you haven't already seen this.

https://youtu.be/-mLBo4y9t8Y

I have seen other videos of his regarding shielding. He is a knowledgeable guy on offsets... sometimes, for me anyway, just a bit annoying. But I'm a grumpy old b*stard.

[ShortyMedlock]

Sidenote...

Bought a pair of Squire J Mascis pickups...supposed to be new take outs. The older style not the newer ones.

Not sure how they will sound but I will find out.
At $32.00 I thought I would experiment

[GilmourD]

Just on the off chance you haven't already seen this.

https://youtu.be/-mLBo4y9t8Y

I have seen other videos of his regarding shielding. He is a knowledgeable guy on offsets... sometimes, for me anyway, just a bit annoying. But I'm a grumpy old b*stard.

The wife thinks he and I are very similar. Large guys with beards, goofy humor, weird voices, an obsession with guitars, and a deep love for Star Trek. He's just better looking and has red hair. LOL

[ShortyMedlock]

So I decided I am so far down the rabbit hole in this Jazzmaster I might as well go all the way.

I ran out of white and black wire while assembling the pickguard. While I'm draining the bank account getting more cloth wire I will just go ahead and order Fender style copper plates for under the pickups and the copper shield for the control cavity.

It's only money...

[ShortyMedlock]

Got 'em...

Now it seems I'm not happy with my paint job. Despite 8 coats of color and six coats of clear I easily sanded thru both the clear and color while wet sanding the finish with 2000 grit.

After some thinking I have decided to respray the color and clear with a slightly different shade of lavender...