Having one of the best jobs in the world isn't enough for you, you also do it in the best way possible. Great display of technique, very useful tips, a very clean job that sets the bar high for the people who'll do this for the first time.
I typically use the shielding paint from Stew Mac, just because it’s easier really. One quick tip for whomever maybe reading this too, paint it onto the bare wood prior to painting. The paint must be a water base of some sort because it doesn’t want to stick to a nitro clear coat too 🤙
Say Aaron, have you considered using a ‘Card Scraper’ to trim your foil on the top of (outer surface) the guitar you’re installing copper foil on? In hand woodworking we often use a rectangular sheetmetal card (there are other shapes) to finely surface wood. The card edge has a razor sharp burr created by a fine file and a burnishing tool that peels up see through, paper-thin ribbons of wood. Razor blades are made for cutting; card scrapers are made for making a fine surface by peeling up thin layers of material (like copper along the top/outer surface) from the guitar. 🎸 Just an idea.
Great video on how to do this process. A couple things to add. You should connect the cavities with a ground wire to both the pickup area and the back route area. All grounds need to be connected to the shield. Check the continuity with a volt meter to make sure everything is connected and grounded. That being said, I have done no shielding and complete shielding and I prefer the sounds/tones of my non shielded guitars...not sure if it is shielding or not. Idea for a video. See if shielding changes tone.
@@WillfulThinker I would say a little more raw, there is some additional noise but I feel I get a better feedback loop for sustain on my non shielded one.
I always use Copper Foil Tape with Double-sided Conductive Adhesive (rolls). It's much easier to work with and you can get them in differnt dimensions for bigger and smaller parts. Sure it doesn't look as clean but it does the job just as good.
I mix $5 worth of graphite powder (door lock graphite powder or automotive works just as well) with a $1.50 bottle of acrylic art paint and paint it on. Plenty of graphite to make connections and I can do 2-3 guitars with one bottle.. quick, simple, easy and choose your own colors. Cheers!
I do this to all my guitars - except my hollow body! I don't think it makes one bit of difference unless you put it on top of your pickups, but it doesn't hurt! Rock on.
I remember one of my first wiring jobs was on an old strat, and it was a super strat converted to a regular one, and was wired all different and made all kinds of noises on each toggle phase, they had not grounded it because you couldn't get a wire to the bridge from inside or the back, so i just tucked it under the bridge from under the pick guard 😂, no more getting electrocuted evertime you touched the mics😂, nothing worse than the eye watering zap of lips getting fried on the mic when touching your strings, even with polarity changed, those foam spit covers were lifesaving some nights😂
It's also good practice to use shielded cable to the output jack and pickups, and anywhere the audio signal goes. You can sometimes get away with unshielded wires if they are in a shielded cavity. On a Les Paul with the ability to split the humbucker coils, it's a good idea to also shield the 3-way pickup switch cavity. The switch itself is unshielded and can pick up a surprising amount of noise and hum. When you split the coils on a humbucker, you've got a single coil.
This popped up at the time I’m shielding an LP type guitar and while I have did several builds in the past,it always helps to get another perspective,I usually use EMG’s the negate the need to shield (I do it anyway in case I choose to change pickups) this time I’m using EMG passive pickups ,so it’s safe than sorry
Is there a reason why you do not use the copper tape with conductive adhesive? Does the adhesive dry out and become nonconductive? Do you just prefer the cleaner look you get with a large piece of foil?
Hey Aaron, great video! Do you think Warmoth could make full-size PDF templates of the routing patterns available, so that we could use them to cut the copper foil to the right shapes?
The problem with folding a piece of copper to make contact with another surface of copper is the copper will go dull and corrode. I used wire and a star earth wiring.
Interesting that their tape has non-conductive adhesive. Is this a recent switch? The stuff I bought a year ago had conductive adhesive either that or it just happens to conduct in spite of the adhesive. Thanks for the video.
Do you have to create an electrical connection between the control cavity and the pickup routes? Could you just run a thin wire or thin piece of copper tape thru the pickup wire pathway in the body? Then solder each end of that thin wire/copper tape.
Couple things , You should improve ya technique , when wrapping the inside , leave the excess , fold it over the edge , that way you get a solid connection around the whole border of the cover. Not just a couple spots. Once the cover is on , you will not see any of it anyway , and the copper is not thick enough , if its flatted right , to mess up a flush look. Copper should go all the way to the edge around the whole circumference of the cavity. Also , when soldering , you heat the work area and then touch the solder a mm or two away from where the tip is touching , that way you know there is a solid bond between the solder and the copper. The way you are doing it , provides a cold joint and is not reliable. On the pickup side , trimming to the edge is acceptable. When removing the backing paper , you should only remove a small portion and make sure thats stuck in just the right place , then you can undo the paper and peel it back in small amounts to get the exact positioning right to leave less wrinkles behind , Not a huge deal here but it can keep from having wasted copper from accidental placement.
I wish I had Warmoth do the swimming pool route when I got my Strat body. I want to put a pair of Humbuckers in on a new pick guard, and now have pay someone to do it, or mojo it myself? I’ll be reapplying cooper foil soon enough!
Not really a cage. To do what you’re talking about would require you to also cover the pickups holes. What you’re really doing is adding something for the noise to bleed to ground to. The most metal you can get in a cavity to ground to the better.
Do i need a specific brand of tape i have a strat but the emg installed won't make any noise no matter what i do i ordered another one and it did the same thing
Aaron, is the copper shielding a better choice over the shielding paint? Just curious here, on a side note I usually do 3 coats of the shielding paint too. Not sure if it’s necessary but excessiveness is in my nature LOL! 😂
@@warmoththanks for replying man, I’m sure you’re busy with lots of other stuff too 🤙 Maybe 🤔 an idea for a future video / comparison? Ahah! On a side note here, here’s the current project on one of your ultra light one piece Ash bodies. I tried Mary Kay white and it was just hiding the grain way too much on this gorgeous piece of lumber, ( Thank God for Acetone LOL! ) so I’m going with a vintage amber base and then I’ll do some Iced tea and finish probably with tobacco brown on the edges 🤙 Ugh….. I just realized I can’t submit a photo on Boob Tube 😑
Many factory guitars DO come with shielded cavities, but they use shielding paint rather than foil, which is much easier/quicker to apply in a manufacturing process.
It is if eliminating rf buzz is worth it to you. It's so great to be able to take both hands off your guitar and not get any little "bzzz". Foil won't kill 60 cycle hum (single coil noise), but it will do a number on the rf buzz.
LOST! What I lost from watching that show was 6 years of my life!!! I planned my life around that show! The finale was CRAP !!! Nothing was explained! Crap!
It's not a Faraday cage. Imagine sitting in your metal car which is an example of a Faraday cage, in a thunderstorm & sticking your head out of the sunroof... Think about it.
I had the heated battle between an individual. That thought, just because you overlap that tape that it's conductive. And I tried to explain to him How or why do you think the adhesive side is conductive? And he could not fathom that.
