This is WHY you should SHIELD your guitar - PAINT or FOIL? 

Finally, someone has done a decent before and after audio test and not only with copper tape but conductive paint as well. Well done!

I've never seen such a meticulous foil job. Very impressed and will be trying to copy your technique! Loved the electrical test. I've never really trusted paint and now I feel justified! hahaha thanks Michael another great video.

Thank you! I'm quite amazed by the fact that resistance in the shielding doesn't seem to make a difference!

Hi Michael, great video and very informative but be careful when using an LED for a continuity check. An LED will illuminate with almost any amount of potential difference, my point is that while the LED might indicate some level of continuity, it might not necessarily be enough to satisfy the needs. Copper foil tape is the way to go but with as wider strips as you can find.

Really impressive and informative video. Your music is fantastic. The first ambient piece is absolutely beautiful. Thank you!

Any doubts? Watch this YT vid: Guitar shielding hack: How to KILL THE HUM for FREE!!!. I have always used aluminum foil (the electrical difference to copper has no practical significance for this use) and any old glue. For a semi-hollow, I put a plastic bag around the pots and switch with HVAC duct adhesive-backed aluminum around that and a ground wire. I used the demonically messy liquid once on a buzzy open quad rail 22k p/u and needed three coats, but this was really the only simple solution for this. Always use a continuity checker for every component to avoid later frustration.

That guitar playing and tone is top notch. Hats off sir. Just wondering what you were using!

I use paint in the cavity and foil on the underside of the cavity lid...

I was wondering what pickups you had installed in the guitar? Very nice tone.

Further to my previous comment. My Fender Player Strat has a half conductive painted cavity, which seems pointless, I tried sticking copper to it, but it literally wouldn't stick. I will need to PVA or lacquer the factory painted cavity first. Has anyone else had this issue?

Wait, was the A/B the paint vs the shield with paint? Tape should have been first, Then remove it to contrast the paint vs tape alone

Enjoyed your video and enjoyed your music. Do I detect a bit of Motown in it?

why is it fender guitars or other guitar companies don't shield the guitar just like what you did on this video presented, or not even using copper shielding tape?

Great channel! Thx!

why do you shield the pickup cavities? It is designed to....you know...... pick up things :D

One note from a shielding newbie, DON'T try and smooth out the copper shielding edges with your thumb, it'll cut you faster and slicker than sh$t.

and you wouldn't paint under the pick guard

Is that a Teisco/Kawai guitar?

Is the paint necessary?

No shielding: 0:32 Paint: 5:00 Copper tape: 9:18

Usually I apply 2 to 3 coats of conductive paint. I measure the resistance until I get something below 250 ohms. If not, I apply another layer. You can make your own paint using shellac ( you' ll find it in craft stores) mixed with graphite powder. It's cheap, dries in 4 hours and works great. When using copper foil be aware that not all types of foil have conductive adhesive in the back side. Most of adhesives found in copper foils are in fact insulating. So you have to solder each layer to make the connections. Just a small solder spot connecting the layers.

In order for the shielding to work optimally you also need to connect it to the main ground in the guitar.

why not remove the strings first...make your life easier.

You need to put a wire from your 1/4 inch jack to the foil if you haven't. I saw it in a different video but haven't tried it. Me I'm going to use the paint. Thank you for the video!

The paint does work, but you need to do 2 or 3 coats. I prefer the tape, but it can be a pain to work with.

I saw that some noise is remaining after finish that shelding. If I wanna get 0 percentage of noise what should to do? Is there any way to get 0 percentag off noice without having a humbucker pickup?

I shield paint the entire cavity, then cover it all and the pickguard with copper foil shielding tape.... Because I can and them products are pretty inexpensive. Copper looks trick, bespoke and works great. Paint is easily crammed into confined spaces that the tape (and my fat fingers) cannot reach.

How the proper shielding process would be if I have a Les Paul; which has the pots, bridge PU, neck PU and switch in separated cavities?? Please help

So the real deal would be full metal cases put on those cavities, metal pickguard, to achive full continuity, zero resistance. Well, let`s go the praticall way :)

How about: This is why guitar manufacturers should shield every guitar they make instead of making us disassemble the electronics to do it ourselves. What a pain in the ass.

Pisse fede videoer Michael :) Er selv igang med at bygge min anden guitar :) Er gået videre fra kit til at lave alt (bortset fra halsen) selv :) Fortsæt det gode arbejde :)

I'm new to all of this and trying to learn...what is the meter you are using? What kind is it? Is this the same meter that tests the "K" power of pickups?

Beautiful playing man, that reverb is to die for

The problem with shielding paint is that it can turn into dust (especially the ones in spray can) and ruin electronics components like pots. So , it's better to put an overspray (clear lacquer) when using it. But, even if it's more complicated to make, copper foil shielding is better.

I'be tried both...for me, foil sounds suck. I made different on my sound, I prefer paint.

When people wax their pickups, is that also for shielding?

the best solution is to use copper foil and then secure the contact between foil pieces by soldering on few places... the resistans will be so low

Best continuity explanation I’ve seen so far. Thanks!

I found tape does not adhere to conductive paint very well

i prefer paint but i seal it with an extra layer of finish. the shielding works equally well with both materials. the reason i don't use copper foil is it is too conductive. things like eddy currents and capacitances come into play, and funny things can happen to higher frequencies. i also avoid shielding pickup cavities if the pickups have a shielding of their own. i also have seen a guitar in which the foil got delaminated and shorted out the neck pickup. the owner said he didn't heat it. paint seems more reliable.

The shielding even in the best mixes degrade within a year. Foil, whether copper or aluminum, work equally as well, from my own experience.

I bought some shielding paint from amazon that was dry in an hour

And also copper or aluminium foil is bettwr than thw other?

Superb demo.. I did my last strat in copper and it was great, but I never did an A/B comparison, so was wondering if it was worth the time again, which I can clearly see it is. Many thanks !.

Every time i put copper tape in a guitar I slice a finger open- no matter how careful I am- but it works

Work with p90 pickup?

Three coats at least. One coat not enough.

Getting a new lamp might be easier.... But seriously, I shielded my bass and my stratocaster with foil about 10 years ago. My downstairs neighbor had a lamp or something that would cause a ridiculous buzz/humming sound that was driving me crazy. After adding copper foil tape the neighbor's light was no longer an issue. I have since moved and after replacing my pots and pickups in my bass a few weeks ago and then running into a head scratching grounding issue. I removed all of the shielding tape, (not a fast and easy task, but it DID fix my grounding issue) And instead of adding some new fresh shielding, I decided to go without shielding and see if it was even needed anymore in my new place. Hard to say the removal of tape made how much of an impact for sure because of the new pots and pickups, but there was not any increased buzzing or humm. And it did sound much better than expected the new pickups. My advice to anyone thinking about shielding their guitar or bass. Only do it if you absolutely have to. If you hear some faint humm or buzz occasionally, your best move might be to just accept you have chosen to play a noisy instrument, hendrix seemed to do just fine without shielding, maybe you can too? But if you regularly experience a completely disruptive interference and you are powerless to remove whatever is causing the interference and it is completely driving you insane... Then YOU might need to shield your guitar. But I have seen so many people shield their guitar when they really do not need to. Whatever makes you happy. Just know it might not be worth the time or effort uinless you are having some serious issues with interference. But if you still aren't happy after shielding it then maybe you should try jazz flute instead? Best of luck, hope my 2cents helps someone

A monolithic conductive field isn't necessary, however overkill wouldn't be a bad thing and you've illustrated that !👍😏

Thanks for taking the time to put that video together ,being a filmmaker I know how much more time and work it added to the finished film that's the only video now I need to watch to move forward with my noise issues with my custom tele. Rob from Australia

You have to overlap the copper tape

Man the paint never seems to work

Ok I may have to try this with my les paul, cos although nothing in my recording room has changed with new equipment or moving things around, my guitar gets a lot of hum if im not touching the strings, so it might be me that has changed

I always use shielding paint. But it needs to be stirred thoroughly before applying, it also needs 2 to 3 coats. After that it’s as good as tape - or better actually if the tape glue is not conductive. I also fit ground straps to each cavity and connect them to the components. Perfect shielding every time and no need for the tape.

The guitar tones are luscious in this video. Maybe you can shed some light on the signal chain on that track. I'm getting hum on a new Tele. The hum goes away when I touch the bridge which to me , says it's not grounded properly.

Very helpful video, but it seems odd to me to work on a guitar without removing, or at least loosening, the strings.

I would like to share if that's ok? found a video on RU-vid on making your own conductive paint. one ounce acrylic black paint to about 3 teaspoons graphite. it's very good and alot cheaper than buying. Someone suggested wood glue diluted instead of paint also.

Great video as always! Did you connect the shielding to the electronics of the guitar or is it a standalone part of the guitar?

Shielding? Yes! Shielded my Les Paul and its quite AF. And ofc Shield with Foil. Foil can be removed. Paint doesnt. And dear god. If you decide to Paint. Please use maskingtape ontop of the guitar. You need to paint right to the edge to establish the Faraday cage with the cover and that way you dont ruin your guitar with paint. Ohh and in addition you should connect the shielding to your ground of the guitar to get maximum effect.

Thanks for the video, the electric noise really drove me insane, when I tried to record :D I guess, I'll buy some copper foil for both my bass and my guitar.

The paint is very expensive

Just gotta say I Love Your Builds. ❤ I thought for sure you were going to fill that hole on the left side cut-out. I to use old wood for some projects.

My Fender AM Performer strat is painted and has aluminium foil all over pickguard from factory. Measured paint resistance - about 0.250 Ohm. Shielding works great, even with single coils. In 2 and 4 positions it's quiet as humbucker.

Most of the noise that was gone when you tested the paint, was intercepted by the pickguard. You should try to turn the guitar upside down, so the lamp was behind it. Foil just works better. I play in different positions in my room, with lamps, chargers, phones etc. In most cases, when you have shielded pickguard and you hold the guitar touching the strings, the noise is acceptable. Electronics is then covered from the front by the pickguard, and by your body from the back. That is why sometimes the noise gets bigger when you don't touch the strings or any other grounded piece of hardware - because the body is not in the circuit. The noise gets to hot parts of the circuit from behind. What tend to do is to solder pieces of the foil together, despite the fact the adhesive is conductive. Some people said that with the time it can degrade, and pieces of foil gets loose, which can lead to short-circuit. Also couple of times I made foil shielding leaving some lip of the foil all around the cavities, so the shields from pickguard and cavities were touching each other everywhere, leaving no gaps. There was completely no gain in the noise level, but the pickguard stopped to fit correctly and it was a nightmare to remove the foil. Just saying, because some people advice to do it that way, which is unnecessary. The biggest controversy around shielding guitar with singlecoils is that it affects the tone. The fact that there is less noise is obvious, but there is a ton of theories around the tone. I don't claim anything here, just mentioning the discussion. Even with noiseless singlecoils people claim that the tone is dead ;) It's like there was some sound in the noise :)

Great job, as usual...can you tell me the brand of the pickups mounted on your Guitar( and the brand of the guitar ,also) ,please?

Plus It was necessary to replace the wire from the pickup switch with a shielded wire. Thanks!

You didn't detail it in the video but I think I briefly saw that the back of the pickguard was taped. I've done a few of these and on Fender-style overlay pickguards I think it helps, so glad you did that. Not important for the back of the control plate as nothing about pots is very sensitive to radio/emi. I've done that though and guess it can't hurt but make sure no bare wires are shorting or grounding to your shielding. But shielding the pickup cavities as much as possible has helped every time for me. On one Squier Mustang it practically silenced the hum. I appreciate the nice neat systematic tape job you did here!

Michael have loved watching through your series on the novo esque build. Picked up some tips for my own jazzmaster build im doing just now

9:00

This is VERY helpful. Thank you!

Foil💯🎸👍

I think it takes more time to shield with foil than waiting for the paint to dry. Also, when I use paint I get 0.01 resistance. Maybe the moisture got into your paint and/or it wasn't dry.

hi I want to put a mini battery amp in a.guitar but it doesn't work even in a seperate box you get a horrible noise I wonder if I paint inside the guitar and the amp box it would mean I can finally have a battery amp in my guitar without the pickup and amp having an argument lol

You can also twist the wires on the pickups' twist the wires close together the full length of the pickup wires itself.

I wasn't sure if I liked the presentation until I heard the cheering when you got full connectivity. Well done, great demo.

Great video! Thank you so much for making it! You earned a subscription from me.

Hi I just re-visited this video after having painted my cavities with Crimson Shielding paint. I did 3 full coats on dried out surfaces. I got huge continuity! So I paid attention in your video that you only had one sparce and thin coat on only part of the cavities. I think had you done 2 or 3 coats you would've had good results. I am yet to assemble and try the sound. Will report back then.

Wow what a fantastic test! Did you wired shielding to the output jack or pots?

Can anyone answer this? Does the copper tape need to have a ground wire soldered to it and connected to the ground of the jack? Thanks

Great video. Before & after was useful, as was the comparison between paint & copper tape.

This video will be very helpful for my next guitar project.

Very informative, what's the title of the background music from the start up to @3:20?

Thank you so much for this helpful video. Well done 👍😊

thanks. helpful

Cool video. Good to see that beautiful guitar again! Make that control knob plate out of aluminum next!

I love your editing! Very nice nature images 👏🏻

When shielding with Aluminum foil does the shiney side face up or down?

Thank you wow this is so helpfuo

nice job I've been done foil job on my guitar that really works fine but l wonder how is the paint works thanks again

Nice video. And I like the music too

Shielded wire does the most.

My luthier told me to avoid the paint. With time it became dust and can make a mess. Copper tape for the win!

Thank you! I love the video!

Thank you. Amazing playing also

I think the reason the paint seemed to work well is because the pickguard was facing the lamp, so it was doing the majority of the shielding for you. It's also important to avoid ground loops in the shielding, so there should be continuous connectivity between all parts of the shielding (conductive adhesive is a must!). Again, beautiful work!

Is it better to put some lacquer under shielding paint or just apply it directly on wood?

Stellar video! I really appreciate this, because I am in the process of building a resonator guitar and a fretless bass. Keep up the GREAT work! 😀👍

Very helpful video. I think multiple coats of paint are typically recommended, as is a sealing layer as mentioned in the comments below.

Nice! Any effect on tone?

This channel need more attention