Thank you so much guys for all the helpful info, I stand corrected! Electromagnetic frequencies and sound frequencies are not the same thing. My bad! I’m so glad that people smarter than me watch my videos, I love learning! At any rate, this hack really does work well, despite my ignorant understanding of the subject. Thanks again guys!
Not to make less of the video but wouldn't it be easier to use HVAC tape? Same price as the can of glue and it already comes with adhesive. Also is 3 mils thick. I've been using it forever on single coiled guitars. Just a thought.
I love your videos, first of all cause they are free and well presented and also fun. You rock, bro. You teach me, and I teach me (Pokémon!)... So, I still gave you a thumb up. But let me clarify once again that while shielding will mostly make electricity noise disappear, if you are in a place with the presence of a heavy RF noise, shielding will do nothing, only humbucking (split coil or dual-coil jobl) will. :)
Also one minor correction, Copper shielding tape does have conductive adhesive. The metal duct tape (3m) however does not. Using that, which is real cheap, you need to fold it so that metal touches metal. The copper tape can just be laid in any old way as long as there are no gaps. I always use the metal duct tape on my pickguards with the copper in the cavities and a super light gauge wire to connect to the grounding system. This has been verified with a multimeter. ;) Hope that helps a bit
It is a good idea to shield your guitar. One night years ago, I was playing an unshielded cheap guitar and my amp/ guitar/ pedal set up actually picked up a shortwave radio broadcast! I could hear a guy speaking french through the amp! When I grounded the strings with my hand, it stopped. Freaked me out at first...thought I was hearing voices! Lol😂
Dr. Phill I think it does help! Anymore I use shielded wiring in my builds where ever possible too! It's a wire with a braided series of wires around it...similat to tv cable. I just did a cigar box guitar. It has a single coil and piezo pickups. I used all shielded cables and it works well. No hum or noise!
74dart man well my pickups are 12k PAF clones with standard 4 wire with the rubber coating on them do most I can do is replace ground wires plus I have a phase switch which makes yet more noise
When you mentioned the metal cage it reminded me of an episode of Metalocalypse where the guitarist was trying to record a song but no matter what he did his guitar was buzzing uncontrollably, but only when he touched it. So he found out if he wasn't standing on the ground while recording the buzz went away, and the natural conclusion was that he had to record the solo while parachuting!
Use 2" wide aluminum HVAC tape from Lowes or any other home improvement store instead. No spray glue required and makes for a much neater and faster installation.
RF is not high frequency sound. Sound is compression waves propagated through air, water, or some other fluid. (Yes, air is a fluid in this context.) Radio frequency waves are electromagnetic waves. They do not require any medium. They propagate well in the vacuum of space. Light and radio are both different frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. Sound is a completely different phenomenon. Aluminum foil is good at blocking the electrical portion of the electromagnetic wave but isn't the best shielding material. It works better at blocking higher frequencies. Most of the electromagnetic interference that a musical instrument needs to block is the 60 Hz from the electrical system (50 Hz for people in Europe). Copper foil is better for that. Mu metal is probably the best, because it's formulated specifically for this purpose, but is a bit expensive.
Liberty4Ever boy am I glad somebody corrected this statement too. The explanation he gave about what rf is should’ve triggered some self doubt because even people who are far away from science know sound can’t travel in vacuum and space tech is very dependent on radio frequencies ergo RF isn’t sound.
Also, RF can be at frequencies between 20 Hz and 20 kHz. This said, once they arrive in your strings and/or pickups, no shielding can do anything to them. Only a humbucker-made pickup can make them "silent". Shielding is meant to aim electricity noise/dirt to the ground wire. So you could both get RF-based HUM coming to your pickup because they are electromagnetic waves, and also electricity-based HUM coming to your instrument output signal throught wires. The RF-based HUM cannot be solve with shielding at all. Only a split-coil or dual-coil humbucking pickups can.
For example, I'm lucky enough to live in a place where my electricity is very clean, and also with nearly no RF reaching my house. So I'm both happy while playing single coils that aren't splitted and humbucking pickups. But recentyly I had to live near an airport. Not only the electricity of the house was noisy as hell and I couldn't afford a power conditionner. But even playing on batteries (then, not affected by the dirtyness of the house electrical installation), the radio emitters transmitters of the airport gave me such a strong HUM that on my passive Jazz bass, it would be impossible to play on one pickup without getting a headache... back to my home, all that hell ended.
Seriously man i just nearly bought a £110 hum cancelling pedal until i watched this. Turned off my dimmer light, turned on my lamp, bye bye hum. Thanks, you got my sub
You can lower the electromagnetic noise in your home, but when you go to play somewhere else it can be horrendously noisy. It's still a good idea to shield your single coil guitar.
It doesn't matter that aluminium is not ferromagnetic. It is a conductor and will produce eddy currents and produce back EMF. A magnetic field in opposition to the applied magnetic field. The windings in the pickups are copper, which are also not ferro magnetic just like the aluminum, but yet they are still effected by the magnetic field from the magnets.
Ok this works but is a bit of effort. I did this on a MIM HSS Strat just like the video shows. However in the cavity where the guitar output jack goes I found that the foil (ground) could touch the hot (signal) end of the jack when when jack plate is inserted and screwed in. I fixed this by using some electricians tape on the foil side where the jack end could touch and also added a bit of this tape around the jack tip area. I posted this just to let others know what may be the problem when there is no sound when plugged into an amp.
I had the same issue on a boutique Strat shaped object. The tip of the output jack touched the shielding, shorting the output to ground. Same fix was applied, just put some electrical tape on the bottom of the output jack cavity.
The conductive adhesive is the good advantage. Like I discribed my way of work upper in comments, I use aluminium tape for exhaust pipes, but I need to create continuity between each part...
I know this is an older video, but I feel I must push back on your explanation for the (lack of) effect on tone. Pickups work by electromagnetic induction; the strings vibrate, producing variance in the magnetic field since the pole pieces are drawn to the string, which by induction creates an electric current in the pickups. This works both ways, though; electric currents also produce magnetic fields, even if the current is flowing through a conductor that isn't magnetic. That's how an electromagnet works, running current through many loops of copper wire, and it can turn off the magnetism because copper isn't a magnet. The changing magnetic field can (and likely does) create a current in your Faraday cage, which in turn creates an opposing magnetic field. To get an idea of how this could dampen the sound, look up a demonstration of a magnet dropping through a copper or aluminum tube. The induced currents create a magnetic field which opposes the changes in the original field, creating a frictional effect. This is basically the mechanism that the shielding uses to block radio waves, but in principle it would also apply to any applied electromagnetic wave, even from your pickups. That said, I suspect it doesn't noticeably affect your tone. The shielding is farther from your pickups than the copper wires which carries the hot signal, meaning the field that it "reacts" to is weaker in strength, thus giving a weaker response. The only way to really test this I think would be to perform side-by-side spectral analysis of the same open notes with the noise frequencies known and accounted for.
You are correct about the shielding around the magnetic pickups causing eddy currents. You are also correct that the eddy currents diminish very rapidly with distance from the pickups. This is also why covered pickups use a relatively thick but higher resistance metal, so the tone is less effected by the metal cover.
For copper tape or sheilding paint, instead of a guitar based resource, check electronics distributors. It's always cheaper than guitar based supplier.
Spray adhesive has no electrical continentality. But, there is something that might. Copper Coat gasket adhesive. I haven't tried it. But, it might be advisable.
Non ferrous metals do affect magnetic fields, drop a strong magnet down a copper or aluminium tube and the magnet will drop slowly due to the magnet inducing currents in the copper/aluminium which in turn generates an opposing magnetic field. And motors,transformers, generators etc. (even pickups) use copper windings to interact with magnetic fields I'd say it's possible that the shielding could affect the pickup, but how much some thin copper or aluminium foil could affect it by I don't know, probably not very much.
I still get noise even with a humbucker pickup, at least when high gain is used. So some kind of shielding or EMI absorbtion is probably a good idea. I wish manufacturers would do this from the factory, however.
Thank you very much, this a little refresher for me since I usually work on Acoustic Guitars. I pieced together a remake of a 63 Strat with some modern parts. Sometimes less is more ! Many Thanks !
HalfBredReviews I revised a 1998 squier bass for my high school and it was completely unshielded and it hummed pretty badly, like a regular single coil instrument does. After a good shielding job it is what we call 'fluisterstil' or roughly translated, whisper quiet. Really barely any hum, you'll have to focus on it at loud volumes to hear it.
First of all I'll keep it simple down to two sorry 1 instead of 2 because I hate typing I'm in it and of my computer's too much so you won't see periods or dots or comments even though you just might have cuz I said it . But great video very thorough and fast explaining and dumbfounded dumb down I should say but he knows these things to go into depth and talk about the first radio transmitted signal was a guy whose brother went on the other side of a hill we could get into all kinds of crazy things you don't know that story what did I make you feel dumb come on dude I'm not commenting on on the harshness that's all I got to say. Anyways the common I just read is kind of funny because if you listen to it again and listen to your question it's beyond the concept of any hearing it all but also this gets me thinking even to deeper conversation of real news and fake news what if he's been trained his experience that he's been told this but all of its Ally and that's deep right. But I do take The Good the Bad and the Ugly from every episode and I appreciate your hard work and what to do cool move to the shed that you listen to people there's something else I can't quite put my finger on 00 k. Then lighting design look up and search three point you don't want to go to crazy cuz then it makes you look like you're on the QVC network but three-point lighting and basically gives the third dimension to a 2D image and also it would highly your guitars without going overboard experiment with lighting I am a lighting professional life fantasee lighting and Belleville Michigan and I repair like all of our concert Halls auditoriums anything you could think of college wise in Michigan if one of those things goes bad and ends up on my desk I don't even go to the site they deliver it to me and I make it happen and I get it back to him now even Cornerstone Church I'm working with right now but that's a pretty cool feeling it's like you're helping somebody out that's what you're doing for me and thank you. Because it is been a disaster and a whole nother story we'll talk about one day but I have great freaking photo documentaries of it and I'mma put a slide together and have a professional narrative over it because men you could get off I hope you go on the other things man. Cheers, Mark Anthony Porter of red-eye raccoon started in 2010 and Nashville moved back home to Detroit to reform the band getting ready for knee. Lease. I got a plug to you right! Can't wait to get one of those shirts though oh hey? What about incorporating a city thing where it says Detroit in the smoke but s*** I don't want you to feel like you're copying something but that could get you thinking defensive only person to ever be from Detroit Jack White everyone else lived in the public schools guns are big part of life out there you just got to my house to avoid it. that's why I jakatia I haven't even watch one of yours but I guarantee you it's educated conscious and fairness. Again I'm driving sorry for the misspellings. By the way doing an oil base to get to that green sending the hell out of it then I'm doing in arcrylic stained to really deep in the light part of the wood until then it's going to be a water-based coat instead of the tongue sorry bud. like I said taking The Good The Bad and The Ugly. Again thank you for helping us all skip several several steps you're doing the leg work for us. Koster
HalfBredReviews,,, I just read your comment again it's so funny it's like trying to listen to that close Galaxy fart , I'm just commenting on my comment so there's not too but that was mean that was meant to be just for laughs have a great week and y'all
Hi Dan. You mentioned conductive paint as a shielding agent and commented on the fact that it is expensive.Your viewers should note that it seems to have a short shelf life.A quantity that I bought just over a year ago simply did not work when I used it last week.
There are copper sheets and tape for sale with conductive adhesive. For me that's the way to go and the cost is minimal compared to the price of the instrument. It's like some people who buy a $2,000 instrument and try to find the cheapest strings possible. The problem with shielding paint is the possibility that it can flake off and get in the pots.
Awesome. Dan would you happen to have a Rick bass kit laying around in the back of your shop, that you could sell and send to Denmark! Nobody sell those anymore
I know this video is two years old now but i have a question. What if your guitar/bass does not have a pickguard? Do you just cover the insides of the cavities and that's it?
Don't worry about using aluminum tape or foil, just use common sense. You simply make sure there is bare metal to bare metal continuity by any means: taping a little piece of metal tape or wire across joints is so simple even I can do it. Also, some folks claim more that they know by insisting all ground wires should only connect at a single point. Trust my professional electronic background since 1973: that ain't gonna matter in a guitar. (Spread across commercial/industrial buildings: it still yet might could). Finally if you think you might connect to amps, etc. from before the 70's, look into this: guitar ground ac isolation circuit. Vintage can co-sign your obituary.
Reading the comments made my initial reaction validated. A lot of mistakes in the theory behind this stuff. Spend money on copperfoil. Watch Troy Grady upgrading his guitar to hear the difference.
EM waves can oscillate at audio frequency, get picked up up by the wiring of your guitar, and get converted to audio inside an amplifier. An AM radio signal at 1 MHz can get converted to an audio signal by any diode in the signal path. Even a cold solder joint can sometimes act like a diode.
Charvel DK24 - hum when the pot is fully open or completely closed, hum disappers when touched or adjusted by a tiny fraction away from open or closed position, any idea what could cause this?
I'm about to do the same with some shielding paint. I don't need to cover quite as much area because it's a Jazz Bass with no pickguard and very small cavities - the question now is should I do like you did and avoid painting the places where the screws go?
(LOL) I so understand ... Junior! I've been at it since 1970 (hey, didn't say I was all that good!) so my perception may well be down to more like 10 ...! ...Anything from Stew-Mac is damn good quality, seriously overpriced. I didn't pay much for the copper tape I used in one build, and it wasn't difficult in the least. Seems to help, and I wouldn't dream of trying to dribble solder or weld onto it. The tin foil and 3M method looks like it's probably the best yet; thanks for this one, Dan! Your vids are always interesting, and proof positive that even a geezer like me can still learn stuff!
Electrical Power Conditioners specifically work to smooth the sinusoidal A.C. wave form and maintain a constant voltage over varying loads. They do their job upstream from the load (your guitar\bass amps). .... The Faraday cage (foil lining the guitar body and pick guard) acts on the input (antenna) side of your amp. Guitar pickups are antennas. They transmit nearby electromagnetic pulses. The metal guitar string passing over a magnet generates an electrical pulse. The coil of wires wrapped around this magnet generate a similar sympathetic pulse, which gets sent down the wire into your amplifier. Those coils of wire will generate sympathetic pulses from anything nearby that is also creating electromagnetic pulses (waves). But surrounding all the wiring with a Faraday cage prevents this. A coaxial cable is also an example of a Faraday cage in use. The conducting (positive) wire in the center is surrounded by a grounding foil or mesh. That positive center wire continues it's path all the way into the guitar, through the volume\tone pots, and through the coils going around the magnet. The connection path goes to ground immediately after that. It may help to understand if you keep in mind -e (the actual electrons) come FROM the ground side and move towards the positive side. We've always been shown the opposite for the general lay persons to understand.
Basically you're making a faraday cage around the electronics of your guitar it makes me wonder if a guitar would survive an EMP just something to think about
On my Roland Cube Street 2 of my 6 guitars produce a pronounced ground hum, which disappears when I touch the ground sleeve on the cord. This is when I'm playing through the power brick, not the batteries, and it's only those 2 guitars. Those same 2 guitars produce no hum on 3 other amps, and they both have dual humbuckers. Switching the power adapters or cables changes nothing, but there is no ground hum when I play through my Xvive wireless system. So, where do you think I should look for a solution?
What he is doing is correct. Follow it meticulously. What he is saying isn’t really correct. RF waves are NOT sound waves. Sound waves are waves through matter, like air or water or stone. They travel through air at about 750 mph. RF waves are electromagnetic waves, a spectrum of waves that includes visible light. It travels much faster, 186,000 MILES per SECOND. Electromagnetic energy travels through empty space; it doesn’t need a medium through which to travel. It is created by radios, motors of any kind, lights, all electrical devices. It is generated by the guitar itself. It is generated by the amp. Some players use the interference from the amp to enhance the sound of the guitar.
In fact it is the wiring you are shielding, not the pickups, they are still exposed. So, if you are rewiring your guitar, why not use shielded wires for everithing inside the guitar, and connect the shielding of the wires to eachother, and to ground straight away ?, much cleaner, and a bit more professional...
Hollow body guitars do that. It helps a lot, but the pickup selector switch and output jack are unshielded so those cavities need shielding. If the pickups coils are not shielded then those cavities will benefit from shielding, especially single coils and coil split humbuckers.
here is a stupid question: Why don't guitars manufacturers apply that same technique at the factory instead providing us humming guitars that we have to shield ourselves?
maybe because too much shielding is a tone killer, when you cancel out all the hum you might loose some of the brightness and the character of a single coil pickup is gone
Actually most mid range and higher end guitars do come properly shielded these days. This tutorial is mostly for guitar building, if fixing up a low end cheaper guitar
Thank you for your tips. What I don't understand is why electric instrument manufacturers don't incorporate these, seemingly, simple fixes in all their instruments before they are sent to market. According to my research, the first commercially available electric guitar was sold in the U.S. back in 1931. This means that the industry has had 88 years to develop effective means to completely cure the cursed 60-cycle hum problem. I have seen many videos describing various ways to fix this problem but, I fail to understand why I, as a purchaser, should be forced to spend many hours and/or many dollars to make my instrument playable. That or buy the $4000 custom shop guitar.
It's a cost factor. Each one may only cost pennies but it adds up over time and thousands of instruments. Even though it's only a matter of pennies the companies who don't provide it aren't willing to pay. Sucks
HVAC foil tape is sold in most hardware stores, Home Depot/Lowe's/Menards and similar tape is sold in most auto parts stores and is just as effective as copper tape.
@Bob Just shielded a Jackson PS 4 after installing SD Pegasus/Sentient combo. I did use copper shielding tape. In a previous project (Charvel) used the aluminum tape. Haven't noticed a difference between the two. Perhaps I got lucky? Maybe it's because, as a contractor, I didn't have the cheapest crap on the shelf in my kit at the time. Dunno. To my ear I hear no difference. Maybe if I had single coils I'd notice a difference. Closest I come to single coils in any of my guitars is a stacked humbucker.
@@igorkevorkian16 For the full effect I would want my Faraday Cage to have DC continuity across all points, but if you overlap the Aluminum tape edges enough, the capacitive coupling ought to give decent results at AM radio frequencies and above. I've seen at least one guitar builder claim that it works well enough without DC continuity across the layers. You can poke through the layers with an exacto knife to make the layers touch, or solder them at their edged in a few places. Mathematically, a spherical Faraday cage doesn't need to be grounded to work. The voltage at any interior point is cancelled out by spherical symmetry. For other shapes, I don't know if it still holds. I look at it as if the wave travels on the outside of the cage down to the skin depth until it gets to the other side, where it leaps back into space and continues on.
So here's a little background on the topic: PIckups pick up changes in the electromagnetic field around them using induction. Because the movement of the strings changes the electromagnetic field, the movement is picked up. The keywords here being "change" and "movement". If pickups just detected the strength of the electromagnetic field surrounding them, you'd always get the sound of the field, not its change. That is also the reason why shielding doesn't affect tone, even if you did it with a magnetizable (not magnetic) material like steel. If you chose a material that is magnetic itself, i.e. non-magnets made out of magnetizable material stick to it, it might be a different story, I'm not sure. Regarding the hum: When current flows through a wire, it generates and electromagnetic field. As the current in the household is alternating, the electromagnetic field emitted from it reverses its direction 50 times a second or 60 times a second, depending on where you live. If the electromagnetic field is close enough to your guitar, it affects the electromagnetic field detected by your pickups. These changes get transformed into sound, and if your power grid has 50 hz, the sound will have a frequency of 50 hz and if you have 60 hz, the sound's frequency will have 60 hz. And this is the hum.
I realigned the antimatter injectors and balanced the flow regulators on my five string bass and it plays much better. I cleaned the plasma conduits and the pre-warp buffeting I was experiencing on the B string has completely disappeared.
Great video, really useful and some good tips. Just a little extra tip for people.... The inside of a guitar is usually quite dusty. Whether that’s small wood clippings from where is was cut, micro-fibers if it’s a cast body or just general dust and crap from been sat around your home for years. It’s a good idea to use just some general everyday tape to ensure you get all this dust and stuff up before you start shielding. An extra step is to use some form of compressed air to blow out any bits that aren’t visible to the naked eye or in difficult to reach places. 👍🏻
In order to get connectivity across layers of HVAC tape, you need to fold over the tape so there's not any insulating adhesive between layers. It's a pain in the butt. Just buy the copper tape with conductive adhesive..
Loved the video, very informative! And honestly, I don't give a dang what RF is, exactly. All I know is that I don't want it coming through my amp. One thing I'd like to share here in the comments was the first time I modded a bass. I carefully shielded all of the cavities and bridge but somehow when I did not touch the strings/bridge it would start humming. Internet suggested a crappy bridge ground but that was not the case. What WAS the case is not giving my cavities a COMMON ground connection. Aka, the cavities were shielded but not connected. Sincr I didn't have a Pickguard on my bass I solved this by running a wiring through my bass and soldering it to both cavities. This solved all my hum problems. Something worth sharing with you guys
Nathan Shervheim , I highly recommend shielding everything and running a wire to each cavity and soldering it to the shielding to create a common ground. In other words, Make sure everything you shielded is connected to the same ground! Otherwise your guitar will start to hum when you are not touching the strings/bridge/knobs
Amen. For a fake 335, I made an access panel in the back, shielded a closed plastic bag with all over with this tape (with small reversed strips taped over joints for continuity), made the needed holes and inserted the pots/switch/wires,and re-installed it all as one piece. Of course, I also made sure all that and the whammy and bridge were also solid to the jack ground.This educed the "incandescent light" hum right over my sound rig (with 2 P90's) almost completely.
@@xerxi5459 well, you're very angry for no reason. I really have no idea why I commented that, as it really makes no sense. Maybe there was someone I whooshed that was so traumatized by embarrassment that they deleted their comment. Maybe that person is you, how am I supposed to know?
Hey thanks so much for this tutorial; I just finished doing this to my Jazzmaster. After I installed '65 re-issue pickups, it buzzed like crazy until I touched the strings or metal. I'd play it with a wire from one of the tuners tucked into my sock to bleed off the buzz. But that was getting inconvenient. This Jazzmaster had conductive paint already, and foil under the pickguard. I may have broken the continuity when I opened it up the first time, or maybe the new pickups were just susceptible to interference. Either way, I decided to shield it and see what happens. Well the results were fantastic. It wasn't easy, but I made sure to preserve the continuity as much as possible. I used heavy duty foil for most of it, with contact cement instead of spray glue. This way I was able to leave areas overlapping with no glue, so I didn't have to fold over edges. I also used aluminum foil tape from 3M to patch the overlapping spots and do the sides. I had some problems getting it all back together but finally got it done, and the buzz is completely gone. I can hear the 60 cycle hum at each pickup and none in the center position, as it should be. It's quiet as it can be and tone and response is better. THANKS!
Yooooo!! This is easily the best upgrade I’ve done to my sub-$200 Tagima Strat. Just did the work tonight and it is whisper quiet. I actually lowered the threshold on my Boss NS-2 and can actually enjoy playing gain and clean tones. Thanks so much, the most expensive part other than my time was the spray adhesive and I had to buy a multi meter (was gonna get one soon anyway). Thanks a million.
Wow! Im from Brazil and I didn't knew there were Tagimas in the US. Are they common, usual? Are there any Brazilian made ones or only those made in Asia? I once talked to mr. Seizi Tagima, he is a cool guy.
