masterpuppets Posted April 11, 2006 Report Share Posted April 11, 2006 Ok...I used aluminum foil with spray adhesive,and covered the electronics,pickup,and bridge cavities in my guitar.It has 2 humbuckers.I ran a wire to each of the pickup cavities,and the bridge one,and all grounds,including these are soldered to one lug,which was screwed flush to the foil in the electronics cavity.The guitar is very very quiet,and has no buzz whether my hands are on the strings or not. My question is: since I had no string ground wire actually touching the bridge,but only touching the shielding which makes connection to it,is this a string ground circuit? If so,I can't tell because touching the strings or not,I can't hear a difference in noise.....there is none.If this IS a string ground I would like to possibly use the safest method to protect against shock,ala Guitarnuts.com.Any help is greatly appreciated,thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sulzer Posted April 11, 2006 Report Share Posted April 11, 2006 My question is: since I had no string ground wire actually touching the bridge,but only touching the shielding which makes connection to it,is this a string ground circuit? If you have grounded shielding touching the bridge, it is grounded, and the strings are grounded through the bridge if it is metal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterpuppets Posted April 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 Yeah,that is what I figured.Thanks for letting me know.The shielding certainly does make a difference,compared to my other guitar without it.I bet with single coils it really helps.I have humbuckers in all of mine.Anyone tried the method in Guitarnuts.com for shock protection? It's basically a fuse,which absorbs the shock,from what I have read there.Looks like it could be a good idea,to keep from getting zapped.I may try it.....it's a cheap mod,so why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Sulzer Posted April 13, 2006 Report Share Posted April 13, 2006 The Guitarnuts protection circuit is mentioned in a discussion down the page a bit. Shielding a guitar with single coils helps, usually a lot, but it cannot get rid hum from magnetic fields; that requires a bucker. Also buckers, even without the cover, have a metal base plate that is not such a bad shield. So a guitar with humbuckers is way better of an unshielded strat Yeah,that is what I figured.Thanks for letting me know.The shielding certainly does make a difference,compared to my other guitar without it.I bet with single coils it really helps.I have humbuckers in all of mine.Anyone tried the method in Guitarnuts.com for shock protection? It's basically a fuse,which absorbs the shock,from what I have read there.Looks like it could be a good idea,to keep from getting zapped.I may try it.....it's a cheap mod,so why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Way Posted April 17, 2006 Report Share Posted April 17, 2006 Aluminum foil. Wow, this is interesting. How does aluminum compare to copper foil? I'm looking for shielding myself and am currious about mil thickness and implimentation suggestions. Sorry MasterPuppets, I have not tried that shock prevention, but sounds like a good idea... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Way Posted April 17, 2006 Report Share Posted April 17, 2006 MasterPuppets I think it bares notice that as far as I can tell, the same sort of “lethal threat” exists in any situation where you are around two very different ground/earth and voltage values. I’m not convinced that residential electric is any better than business. However, unlike an electronic guitar, in most situations electronic appliances have been constructed so that people are not exposed to the ground. I already carry a power tester, so I need to get at least one portable GFCI. You mentioned the Guitarnuts solution. I think you are referring to the use of a GFCI which is located on the left sidebar after the standard navigation links and after the outlet tester blurb. It is more of an issue of “breaking” or “shutting off” the circuit, than it is “absorption”. Mike Sulzer You said The Guitarnuts protection circuit is mentioned in a discussion down the page a bit. Please explain, do you mean the sidebar info on the GFCI at gutiarnuts, or, something elsewhere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Sorbera Posted April 17, 2006 Report Share Posted April 17, 2006 He means there is already a thread on this forum discussing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ansil Posted April 18, 2006 Report Share Posted April 18, 2006 Aluminum foil. Wow, this is interesting. How does aluminum compare to copper foil? I'm looking for shielding myself and am currious about mil thickness and implimentation suggestions. Sorry MasterPuppets, I have not tried that shock prevention, but sounds like a good idea... aluminum foil is great when i worked in the repair shop we had a coulpe of rolls of copper tape we did some side by side tests and found the best use for the copper tape was that you could solder to it. Like when you wrap it around a single coil pickup and solder a ground wire to it. other than that aluminum foil with adhesive [this is actually pretty cool because you can use one piece instead of multiple strips] or regular foil tape at home depot. it all does the job equally well. picked up a monster sized roll at the local hardwarestore [hole in the wall hsop that has tractor parts and stuff] for 6usd. lost it before i ran out. lol. something funny you can try really worked well even though it was mostly for fun. took an old beat up kramer body and found an epoxy that would conduct and used a whole bunch of glitter flakes [thats what the package said it was basically like little metal confetti sized pieces of mylar type material] dumped it all over the body while it was still drying. so i had a multi colored metal shielding on othe outside of the guitar. [later covered up with non conductive epoxy]. tie that in to a ground point anywhere and it made for a quiet guitar. but then again the whole guitar was shielded so i dont' know how much that hleped but it was cool none the less. edd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterpuppets Posted April 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 22, 2006 (edited) The cool thing about aluminum foil is that it costs about $6 to shield a LOT of guitars.$5 for the spray adhesive,and $1.00 for the foil.I used regular household stuff.You cannot solder to it.Of course,this is not an issue.The spray adhesive is non-conductive,so it interrupts the circuit when you overlap pieces that are glued down.All you have to do is put electrical tape on the corners which overlap,and it is still a good circuit.At least it worked for me.It is a bit ugly,but so what? It works. Edited April 22, 2006 by masterpuppets Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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