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Electrical Ground Vs Shielding Ground


John Abbett

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Hi.

I have a basic two pickup two volume and two tone circuit. The circuit is electrically correct and tests fine.

I used shielded wire to go from my POTs to the three way switch. So I have a separate shielded wire to the left right, and common. I connected all the shields together at the switch and ran a jumper around and included the chassis ground on the switch (The back side that is not in the electrical circut).

The pots are part of the electrical ground, they are connected together and run out to the jack electrical ground.

I was thinking I should run the shield over to the ground on the jack, and connect them together. And only connect the shield to the pots.

So, I have shields which are all connected togeter at the switch to make a common connection, and at one other point, is connected to my electrical ground at the jack.

Does that sound right?

I assume that I need to include the shields in a circuit to make them effective, not just have them covering the wire and floating.

Should I not be thinking in terms of electrical ground and shields? In my case the shields don't have any signal.

-John

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If you are using two core shielded cable with the cores taking the signal, it is often best, easier and neater I've discovered, to only connect one end of the shield to the ground...this avoids ground loops a lot of the time.

pete

+1

You need/should only connect the shield to ground at one end. Trim the other end off neat so it can't accidentally make contact with anything. If you want, a short piece of heat shrink tubing works well to insulate it, and looks very pro.

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Right.

What I did was connect the three shields together at the switch, and run a jumper over to the swich body. At that point they are not in any circuit. The common hot off the switch runs over to the tip side of the jack, it's shield I connected to the ground side of the jack. That makes all the shields connected togeter, not part of the electrical ground until the jack, which at that point is headed off to the amp. I figure that way it's not participating in anything that's going to create noise.

I snipped off the ends that don't connect to anything. I like the heat shrink tubing idea - next time.

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