Why shield a pickguard

The immediate difference was astounding. I figured to improve tone which is highly subjective per person of course , I would remove the aluminum shielding around the pickup and install a whole sheet to cover the whole area of the tele pickguard.

The 60 cycle hum was still there, and the tone was dulled. The trebles and bass were rolled off. I would add that the previous openness to the tone had disappeared. I had caged the tone. I had created a cage, but not for the hum, for the TONE! Keep laying down strips until you have covered the whole pickguard. Use your scissors to cut the tape to the desired length.

Each strip of tape needs to be as flat as possible with no tears or gaps. Once the whole pickguard is covered, use a box cutter or suitable blade to carefully trace through the pickup, controls and screw holes. To test conductivity — use your multimeter on the continuity test setting…. Or you can cheat like we have done here! To save on tape you can use these excellent aluminium shielding plates designed for Strat pickguards.

They are very effective and were used on vintage Strats back in the 50s and 60s. Use the same principle when shielding the inside of the body — carefully lay cut to size strips which overlap each other. Use cut strips of copper tape lengthways running up the sides and use the full width 50mm to do the floor of the cavity. Most importantly — make sure the tape runs up the sides and on to the top of the body as shown in the photo below.

The idea being, when the pickguard is screwed back into place, the copper or aluminium plate on the underside of the pickguard comes into contact with the copper within the body, thereby creating the Faraday cage.

Repeat this process until the whole cavity is covered. Pay attention to ensure each strip overlaps the previous one, as well as making sure the tape goes over the edge. After laying down the first two to three strips, take your multimeter and test for conductivity.

If you are using copper tape purchased from our website, the adhesive on the back is fully conductive. However some tapes do not come with conductive adhesive - in this case, you would need to use solder across the seam of each strip to join them together. Search forums. Log in. Change style. Contact us. Close Menu. Click Here. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.

Thread starter ugacrow Start date Jan 4, Messages What exactly does this do? Cut down on hum? Also, what types of metal can you use? Copper sheeting? Would just plain ol' aluminum foil work?

Messages 17, It's a mojo insulator. It locks in all the magic and aluminum foil has no voodoo at all. Stay away from it, it has no juju. Do any of you shielding nay-sayers ever gig in clubs with old wiring? Posts: 55, If you've ever experienced the pickgard static problem you wouldn't say that much is being made about nothing.

It gets dry up here in the winter and if you forget to bring to bring one of those dryer sheets to a gig it can a real pain in the ass. If your music has any quieter passages when that static jumps out the Bassman scaring the people in the front rows you know what I mean. I would always give the soundman a dirty look when that happened like what did you just do?

They would shrug. Yes don't let your shielding touch the metal pickup cover. However running the foil around under the rest of the pickgard will give it multiple points where the screws go through the foil to bleed off static.

It was a great fix for me. You must log in or sign up to reply here. Show Ignored Content. Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now.