Shielding A Semi-acoustic

[avengers63]

I'm starting to wire up the Dragon, but I have a major shielding question. Here's what the inside of the body looks like without the back on...

As you can see, there is no self-contained wiring cavity, just like a semi-acoustic. The question then is to what extent to I lay the shielding foil? Even were I to have covered the entire inside with foil, there would still be room for outside interference due to the f-holes, so it's really just a matter of how far inside the cavity opening do I go.

[psw]

I'd consider just wiring everthing with shielded cable and leave it at that...that can be plenty quiet enough and how it is traditionally done...just watch the soldering so you don't melt things...

pete

[j. pierce]

Depending on your cavity cover size and such, you could also construct a "box" out of thin gauge metal, properly grounded (with the "lid" being the shielded cavity cover) attached to the inside of the chambering.

But I second Pete - carefully done shielded wire should be plenty fine. It's the approach I've used on most guitars I've built, and I've not had much of a problem with it. To make life easier, I usually wire a pigtail onto the shielding braid, and wrap that connection in heatshrink, so I don't have to worry about the braid shorting anything out, and it makes things a little easier to get the grounds wired than dealing with trying to get the conductor going one way and the sheild going another.

[KeithHowell]

The main problem is mains 50 or 60 hertz hum which has a huge wavelength, far greater than any gap you could have on a guitar. It is only when you are getting radiation in the Giga Hertz range (microwaves) will the wavelength be down to centimetres and will get through the "gaps".

But yes a good shielded wiring job is better anyway.

Keith