Copper Shielding Tape

[a.miller]

I started building a guitar over the holidays and have learned a lot of stuff. So much, that as I do things on the guitar I'm building, I think to go look at things on my other (factory built) guitars. So, the other night I shielded the body of my Strat. I bought this shielding tape and put it all in the pickup cavities and control cavities. I used to never use the neck or bridge pickup by itself cause the hum was so bad -- the tape cured this, 100%. It even made the tone better. So, if you want a quick and cheap little project, I suggest doing this to any single-coil guitar.

[BigWheeledWagon]

I started building a guitar over the holidays and have learned a lot of stuff. So much, that as I do things on the guitar I'm building, I think to go look at things on my other (factory built) guitars. So, the other night I shielded the body of my Strat. I bought this shielding tape and put it all in the pickup cavities and control cavities. I used to never use the neck or bridge pickup by itself cause the hum was so bad -- the tape cured this, 100%. It even made the tone better. So, if you want a quick and cheap little project, I suggest doing this to any single-coil guitar.

 

I'm glad to hear that, because I ordered some copper shielding tape along with my new strat body (which won't be ready until late Feb./early March). I was wondering how much diffence it really makes, but figured I might as well since I was completely rebuilding the guitar anyway. I also just ordered an engraved neckplate for the thing. Now if I can just find a chrome tremolo spring cover for a strat (I've found chrome pup covers and knobs).

 

Are you building the guitar completely from scratch (as in, cutting and shaping the body) or are you using a pre-cut body?

[a.miller]

I ordered a pre-cut body from Warmoth, which is nice cause it was already made and I got it quick. I ordered a custom neck from Musikraft that will be here in 8 weeks () . I've been frequenting this forum at reranch.com/reranch that has been a HUGE help. I bet if you asked about your chrome spring cover they might know. Are you looking for something like an "ashtray" cover that telecasters have?

[BigWheeledWagon]

I ordered a pre-cut body from Warmoth, which is nice cause it was already made and I got it quick. I ordered a custom neck from Musikraft that will be here in 8 weeks () . I've been frequenting this forum at reranch.com/reranch that has been a HUGE help. I bet if you asked about your chrome spring cover they might know. Are you looking for something like an "ashtray" cover that telecasters have?

 

I ordered a custom body from Warmoth (10-12 weeks). I've also checked reranch -- they really are a great resource. Anyway, no ashtray type bridge (though I do enjoy the one in my tele) -- I'm just looking for a regular strat back plate that covers the spring cavity, but in chrome (hopefully with holes for the strings so I don't have to remove it everytime I restring it).

 

Let's hear about this custom neck -- what are the specs/features? Also, what kind of pre-made body did you go with? I looked through the pre-mades, but they didn't have exactly what I was looking for -- a flame maple top on swamp ash strat body with a drop-top white binding and a vintage tint clear gloss finish (I still can't get over that they can put a binding on the strat's contoured body). Oh, and be sure to post some pics when you get finished.

[a.miller]

I ordered a custom body from Warmoth (10-12 weeks). I've also checked reranch -- they really are a great resource. Anyway, no ashtray type bridge (though I do enjoy the one in my tele) -- I'm just looking for a regular strat back plate that covers the spring cavity, but in chrome (hopefully with holes for the strings so I don't have to remove it everytime I restring it).

 

Let's hear about this custom neck -- what are the specs/features? Also, what kind of pre-made body did you go with? I looked through the pre-mades, but they didn't have exactly what I was looking for -- a flame maple top on swamp ash strat body with a drop-top white binding and a vintage tint clear gloss finish (I still can't get over that they can put a binding on the strat's contoured body). Oh, and be sure to post some pics when you get finished.

The body is a solid alder telecaster body. It's gonna be finished in sonic blue with the paint reranch sells. I was originally gonna go with swamp ash, but I heard grain filling it is a lot of work. After looking at a number of pics, I really wish I would have had them do binding on the body -- such a nice look. It'll have a mint pickguard too.

 

The neck specs: 1 11/16" nut width, 12" straight radius, Quartersawn maple neck and fretboard, '59 back contour, vintage finish and short-scale -- like a Gibson neck, but to go on a telecaster. Kind of specific, but hey -- I figure it's gonna be the guitar I built and I wanted it really special.

 

I'll be sure to put some pics up when it's done. You do the same!

 

I have no guitar building skills (or any kind for that matter:)) so I started by getting a $99 Squier and taking it all apart...so we'll see. Soldering scares me.

 

EDIT: Chrome Fender Back Plate

[BigWheeledWagon]

The body is a solid alder telecaster body. It's gonna be finished in sonic blue with the paint reranch sells. I was originally gonna go with swamp ash, but I heard grain filling it is a lot of work. After looking at a number of pics, I really wish I would have had them do binding on the body -- such a nice look. It'll have a mint pickguard too.

 

The neck specs: 1 11/16" nut width, 12" straight radius, Quartersawn maple neck and fretboard, '59 back contour, vintage finish and short-scale -- like a Gibson neck, but to go on a telecaster. Kind of specific, but hey -- I figure it's gonna be the guitar I built and I wanted it really special.

 

I'll be sure to put some pics up when it's done. You do the same!

 

I have no guitar building skills (or any kind for that matter:)) so I started by getting a $99 Squier and taking it all apart...so we'll see. Soldering scares me.

 

EDIT: Chrome Fender Back Plate

 

Thanks! I went ahead and ordered it. It's like you said -- if it's going to be a guitar you build, it should be specific and special. It's little touches like this that make the difference. Hell, I'm even putting an embossed leather pickguard on my crazy Frankenstrat.

[a.miller]

Thanks! I went ahead and ordered it. It's like you said -- if it's going to be a guitar you build, it should be specific and special. It's little touches like this that make the difference. Hell, I'm even putting an embossed leather pickguard on my crazy Frankenstrat.

Killer! What color is the leather pickguard?

[BigWheeledWagon]

Killer! What color is the leather pickguard?

 

Brown -- I figured tan wouldn't stand out enough from the natural wood/vintage finish. Oh, and while you're browsing out the site, check out the leather encased tele body. I'm not sure what it would do to your tone (it can't be good -- then again, it's good enough for Waylon Jennings), but it looks pretty cool. I've seen some custom teles from a guy here in Nashville with leather binding around the entire edge, too (almost like a belt). It's a pretty distinctive look.

 

UPDATE:

 

Oh, I checked out the forums at re-ranch (I don't know how I missed those before when I was checking out tutorials, products, etc.) and saw the solder thread you posted in. I haven't soldered anything in a quite some time, so it was nice to have a refresher course. Soldering pots and stuff should be a lot easier than dealing with circuit boards (I tried to do a tube screamer mod several years ago -- it did not go well). Anyway, that's a pretty helpful board -- also some crazy stuff there. Some guy from China had taken the circuits out of several effects pedals, hollowed out a guitar, installed a ton of knobs, and combined it all into a monstrosity of a guitar. Crazy.

[a.miller]

I feel like people who can solder pedals, amps, etc. really have a one-up on the do-it-yourself stuff. I looked through the amp section at reranch and was just baffled. It would be awesome to tackle making something like that, but transistors, capacitors and circuits never really made sense to me. I'm hoping this guitar building is going to improve some of that.

 

What kind of neck are you going to use on your guitar? It's original one?

[BigWheeledWagon]

I feel like people who can solder pedals, amps, etc. really have a one-up on the do-it-yourself stuff. I looked through the amp section at reranch and was just baffled. It would be awesome to tackle making something like that, but transistors, capacitors and circuits never really made sense to me. I'm hoping this guitar building is going to improve some of that.

 

What kind of neck are you going to use on your guitar? It's original one?

 

Yeah, it's the original neck -- I really like the way it plays, it's nicely aged, and I wanted to keep a few parts of the original guitar. I'm also using the same pups (thought they're not original to the guitar; I changed them years ago).

[In a little rowboat]

sounds like a great project!

 

 

On shielding...I do one of these jobs a week now...copper is terrific, the aluminum stuff from home depot works as well and is much cheaper...make sure you ground the tape with your wiring, or youll end up with a ground loop, which defeats the purpose of shielding...most of what youll lose is externally sourced noise (lights, radio stations, wall dimmers)...noisey pickups and 60 cycle hum wont be helped...many will tell its only good for single coils, but i have found it a helpful mod on any guitar...dont forget to do the pickguard...

 

 

 

j

[a.miller]

sounds like a great project!

 

 

the aluminum stuff from home depot works as well and is much cheaper...make sure you ground the tape with your wiring

Could you elaborate on these two points? I'm electricity-soldertarded

[In a little rowboat]

Could you elaborate on these two points? I'm electricity-soldertarded

 

Yea sure... the tape i was referring to is the 2 inch aluminum foil tape used primarily for heating and cooling ducts...only a few dollars, easy to cut and use, and works well...

 

the second part gets a bit complicated, but...basically, if the metal of the tape is not properly grounded, youll get a ground loop (second grounding) when the pots, etc come into contact with the shielding material, which causes electronic noise internally...there are various alternate wiring schemes for dealing with this, but in my experience, just run a wire from your master ground (usually to the tremolo/bridge) to a flat contact on the tape.

 

A very good, but excessive site is this one...all youll ever want to know about shielding....while the info is technically correct, the wiring method is often unneeded... http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/shielding/shield3.php

 

shielding on my SG...

controls

pickups

pickgard and backs of pickups

your master ground should run to bridge, run a ground wire to every taped area

 

hope this helps

 

j

[BigWheeledWagon]

This probably belongs in the thread I started when I orginally embarked upon my guitar project, but this thread has the most recent stuff about the newest developments. Anyway, I just thought I'd share a frustrating encounter in my attempts to get custom parts.

 

So, I ordered a custom engraved chrome neckplate a few weeks ago. They sent a confirmation email; it had my correct address. They sent a notice of shipping and invoice; it had my correct address. They sent a tracking page, and when I checked it today, it indicated that the plate had been delivered . . . to another address. Strangely enough, it was the address for the last place I lived. So, I called the store, and they confirmed that I had given them my correct address. Apparently they used paypal to print out the mailing address. Paypal had both my old and new addresses listed, and although I clicked on the my new one for purposes of the order (for some reason, paypal won't let me just erase the old one from the system), the folks at this store printed out the other address (even though my actual address was included with the paypal order stuff) and shipped my order there. To their credit, they admitted the mistake was entirely theirs.

 

Of course, I asked them how they intended to rectify the mistake, and the guy responded that he would send a letter to the old address and ask them to forward me the order. Before I could even respond to this ridiculous idea, the guy had another brilliant one and asked if I knew the people who now lived in my old apartment, because maybe I could just give them a call myself and arrange to pick it up. I told him that I had no clue who might be living in our old place (and imagined how I would feel if the person we bought out house from showed up one day to see if we'd gotten any packages of his). I then rephrased the original idea to the guy: "So, you want to send a letter that says 'Dear Occupant, we mistakenly sent you a package. Could you please, out of the goodness of your heart, take this package down to the post office and forward it along to someone else?'" He indicated that this was indeed how he wanted to handle the situation. I disagreed and commented that I was building at least one custom guitar and would probably need more parts in the future, but would be hesitant to order them from someone who did business that way. Finally, he agreed to just make a new one and send it to me. Of course, this doesn't make up for the delay (it had already taken several weeks because of the engraving), but I'm still waiting on the body anyway. I now have very little confidence that the engraving on the neckplate will even have correct spelling.

[In a little rowboat]

Of course, I asked them how they intended to rectify the mistake, and the guy responded that he would send a letter to the old address and ask them to forward me the order. Before I could even respond to this ridiculous idea, the guy had another brilliant one and asked if I knew the people who now lived in my old apartment, because maybe I could just give them a call myself and arrange to pick it up.

 

I now have very little confidence that the engraving on the neckplate will even have correct spelling.

 

Either of those ridiculous ideas could get you shot where i live...

 

I dont know how much you paid to get the work done, but in my experience, best to cut your losses and try somewhere else...not worth risking a coronary trying to get satisfaction from idiots...

 

 

 

j

[BigWheeledWagon]

Either of those ridiculous ideas could get you shot where i live...

 

 

 

 

j

 

I lived in Memphis for four years, and in all fairness, it doesn't take much to get you shot there.

 

Seriously, though, I will not be dealing with these folks again once my order is completed. I would have tried to just cancel the order, but I am truly terrified to think about how much they could screw up trying to refund the money into my paypal account.

[In a little rowboat]

I lived in Memphis for four years, and in all fairness, it doesn't take much to get you shot there.

 

Seriously, though, I will not be dealing with these folks again once my order is completed. I would have tried to just cancel the order, but I am truly terrified to think about how much they could screw up trying to refund the money into my paypal account.

 

yup!!

 

FWIW when things like that have happened to me, i have had my bank do the work for me...they have a pretty active fraud dept., if you have your bank card or account on file w/ paypal, call your bank...

 

 

 

 

 

j

[a.miller]

That sucks about the guitar parts. Waiting for that stuff is worse than waiting for Christmas morning as a kid! I bet you'll get the replacement no problem. After that, I would take my business elsewhere.