Shielding An Anodized Pickguard?

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RoséBear
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Shielding An Anodized Pickguard?

Post by RoséBear » Thu Jun 03, 2021 3:58 am

I have read all you gotta do with these guys is connect them to ground. I have also read they aren’t actually great conductors so you have to put foil on them too. Anyone have any experience with this?

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Bradley-Jazz
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Re: Shielding An Anodized Pickguard?

Post by Bradley-Jazz » Thu Jun 03, 2021 5:19 am

Aluminium is a good conductor, the anodised surface is not always as good. All you need is contact of the aluminium itself to a pot (which should be grounded), and you should be good. You may find that the anodising is scraped back around the pot holes to make sure of good contact.
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Larry Mal
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Re: Shielding An Anodized Pickguard?

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Jun 03, 2021 6:34 am

Usually on the bottom of the pick guards you will find rings of bare aluminum around where the pots would push through. That is there to connect to ground.

If you don't have that for whatever reason, then yes, I would sand away some of the anodized material from the bottom until you have bare metal to connect to ground.

There is no need to add any other shielding to the anodized pick guard, probably no downside to it assuming that the shielding doesn't corrode the aluminum. I will recommend you don't bother, though- the aluminum pick guard is plenty of shielding.

If, for whatever reason, you don't have the bare metal under the pickguard, I'll recommend that you be certain that get that bare metal and connect to the pickguard to the ground and don't simply add other shielding, basically, if your shielding isn't connected to ground then you have added an antenna and made things worse. Be sure it all flows to ground.
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