Today we're doing a video on how to shield a Stratocaster
I'm going to be using copper shielding tape which we
sell on the website sorry for the
shameless promotion here: 10-foot
lengths it's 50mm wide so
3m long or so and it's more than
enough to do 2+ guitars.
The first thing to note is you don't have to
use copper tape. I'm only using it
because it's what I've got to hand - you can use aluminium
foil it works just as well
and it's cheaper and you can also use
the shielding paint which you can get
from various sources but the paint is
actually very expensive and it does require quite a few layers to generate
for conductivity. So a little bit about
the theory behind it. All electronic
devices and components are vulnerable to
EMI (electromagnetic interference)
so sometimes when you're
playing live in front of big stage
lights and got big speakers and
amplifiers on the stage it will all
start humming and giving unwanted
feedback coming from your guitar and that's
because components inside are picking up
feedback and it's obviously being
amplified. Some people like it, most people don't. If you're a
bedroom player like myself about 15
years ago if you had your mobile phone
anywhere near your amplifier you would
hear it ticking every time a phone call
or message came in. Technology has
advanced since then it doesn't quite
happen with a smartphone
obviously for me and this this house
that I'm currently living in doesn't
matter what guitar I use I have to shield my guitars because if I
walk start to walk towards my amplifier
especially when it's on high gain
the feedback just goes ballistic. Anyway the theory behind it is you
need to make a Faraday cage to shield the components from external
unwanted electro magnetic interference.
So do that by using
aluminium or copper.
I'm using copper. I'm going to layer all of the
control cavities all the way around including the pick up cavities and jack cavity.
I'm going to layer all of those with copper
tape. I'm cheating a bit
the idea is that your pick guard also has
the copper on or a shield of some sort
so I'm using one of these it's one of
those vintage style strat shielding
plates. It is a very very thin sheet of
aluminium very very handy so apologies,
I am cheating major style.
these are not too expensive approx £10.00 off eBay so the idea being when all of your
components are inside and protected
underneath from the copper tape, when you
put your pick guard in place that's also
got shielding on the underside the
shielding from the pick guard comes into
contact with the shielding in the
cavities and that creates a 
fully conductive Faraday cage
surrounding the components inside and
that cage is what protects it from the
unwanted interference.
You don't HAVE to shield your guitar. If it ain't broke, don't try and fix it.
but for a lot of
people it unfortunately needs to be done
so I'm using 50 mm wide tape, a
pair scissors obviously and I've got a
multimeter here to check for continuity
which we'll do throughout just to make
sure everything's working as expected. So
if you cut your tape into strips
and you want to lay on the surface
of the body there like I have you're
talking 2mm that I've gone
over and just make sure you really push
the copper tape up against the the body
surface. This overhang here is
very important you're going to do that
all the way around.
so I'm going to get another strip
exactly the same bit of tiny
over hang on. The other
thing I should have said is if you're using
copper tape or aluminium tape you need
to make sure that the adhesive on the
underside of the tape is conductive
obviously that's important for your
constant continuity so once you've laid
down your first 2 or 3 strips take your
multimeter, set it to the continuity
setting which is this one here where my
thumb is and check for continuity between
the two strips that you've just put down. *beep*
That beep tells me there is full
continuity between the two.
If you're using tape that you bought from
www.sixstringsupplies.co.uk you won't have to do
the continuity test our tape is fully
conductive. If you buy tape elsewhere and
it's you know it's I'm not saying don't
use everyone else's go whatever you
fancy, sometimes the adhesive isn't
conductive so once you put down two
strips check for continuity if you don't
have it you'd have to put a
blob of solder just across the seam here
to ensure continuity
between the two strips. So I'm going
to go around now doing all of
these cavities and cut the tape in strips
of different shapes and sizes
ensuring I've got the overhang all the
way around including
the pickup cavities. I'm not going to make
you watch the whole thing because it's
it is very boring so I'll do a little
time lapse of that and
when it's all done we'll do a quick
continuity test just to make sure
everything's there
*music*
okay so I finished putting all the copper
tape completely covering all the
cavities -  the jack cavity the
main controls including the  pickup cavities
It is completely sealed there are no gaps
or holes anywhere apart for
obviously the holes so I've just covered
the holes and pierced through to reconnect
the jack cavity to the main controls and
this hole is where we have the
ground wire come from the bridge. However
it doesn't matter if it's a Strat or a Les
Paul or whatever the guitar is if you've
got two cavities like this that are not
connected, you obviously need connect them to ensure
continuity (conductivity) throughout the
guitar. To do that I'm going to use a
little jumper wire, tinned copper. I'm
just going to very simply feed it through
the hole
just like that and I'm going to solder it in
place.
okay so here's the wire I'm just going to
solder that down
that's nicely soldered and then I'm just
going to cover that blob of solder up with
some copper tape and I'm going to do
exactly the same from the other side.
so here's the ground wires coming from
the jack cavity it's going to solder
that in place.
This is the main advantage of using
copper - it's a lot easier to
solder if you're using aluminium it is solderable but it does take a bit more
heat
Exactly the same again just use a little
square of copper tape just hold it in
place and cover it.
Okay so that's how you connect the cavities
together now we're just gonna
check for continuity throughout I'm also
gonna start thinking about our Faraday
cage. Take your multimeter, set it to
the continuity setting and
just test between points throughout the
for continuity.  *beep* So there I can see that
it's fully connected from the cavity
which means the jumper wire has worked
beautifully. So to complete your
Faraday cage itself
this is the underside of my pick guard
the aluminium shielding plate that I showed at the beginning is very thin and
it's gonna sit underneath the pick guard
so when that comes into contact when
it's all screwed down and everything's
loaded in it and you it comes into
contact with the tape below
that's what's effectively it's the cover
of the Faraday cage so I'm just going to
connect test them both and that's all
beautifully connected and that as well
so that's how you create the Faraday
cage however your Faraday cage is
completely useless unless it's grounded
so we're just going to show you how to
ground it to your main circuit.
I'm putting the ground wire here which
is coming from the tremolo claw on the
back so basically even though I haven't
got the bridge in place when this is
grounded here and it's connected to the
springs the bridge/tremolo system
and therefore the strings which we as
the player touch that's part of the ground
circuit so this you will see on a a lot guitar wiring diagrams referred to as "ground from bridge"
There's a little hook on the claw just there but
this is what we're gonna ground to the electronics of
the main circuit normally on the volume
pots just because it's nearer and once
that's done we're gonna have to ground
the shielding (the Faraday cage) to the
main circuit to complete the Faraday
cage.
If it's not grounded it is
essentially useless and just a pretty
bit of copper that looks nice but it
doesn't do anything.
Solder the main ground from the bridge
okay and then like I say we need to
create another ground
we need to ground the shielding to the
main controls so I'm going to run
another ground wire from the the side of
the shielding  to the top of
the volume pot just so where I put that
one.
cut the wire bit short because it's too
long.
I'm essentially doing exactly the same thing so
I'm gonna solder this to the side of the
I'm just gonna tape it to keep it in place
because it's at a funny angle.
I don't want to leave the tape on too long because it might attack the Nitro finish.
I'm just going to solder this in
place this second ground wire...
...and then same again I'm
just going cover it up with a sliver
of copper tape because I don't want too
much just a small square to cover
the joint.
This isn't actually
necessary to add a second jumper wire
there is a risk (extremely small risk) of
a ground loop because essentially
once you've connected this ground wire
here to the volume pot everything
becomes grounded including the shielding
plate and when that comes back into
contact with the copper when it's
screwed down it grounds it anyway. But
just in case you're not shielding the
pickguard properly or for whatever
reason you might as well put in a second
ground wire I'm just going to pop that
onto the pots just like the other one
I'm just going to tin this quickly
I'm going to solder this wire next to the
other one.
That's all done I'm just checking that the shielding is all
grounded...*beep... beautiful so everything now is
completely connected obviously when that
has all been screwed back down you have a
perfect Faraday cage. Thanks very much for watching.
That is how you shield a Strat. If you have a bit of noise or feedback, particularly with single coils
are particularly vulnerable. Any
questions or comments please leave a
message or comment or whatever get in
touch I will see you next time
