Why do we need shielding in guitars ?

Why do we need shielding in guitars ?
Not all guitars were born equal .
Some are wired with quality components and adequate electrical shielding. The shielding may take the form of conductive graphite loaded paint, copper tape or coaxial type cable wiring.
When Leo Fender and Mr Gibson first made electric guitars the domestic mains be it 50 or 60 cycles still caused hum. With basic shielding it was tolerable. The humbucker pickup invented by Seth Lover was a major step forward. The quality Gibson's used coaxial braid covered cable and mounted the controls in enclosed tin cans.
Unfortunately some modern budget and not so budget guitars have no shielding at all... Some quality guitars have cavity shielding however its not grounded. This makes matters worse.
In today's modern digital world we are surrounded by electrical smog .The once clean mains power is now corrupted with nasty harmonics generated by, phone chargers, computers, solar panels, car chargers and led lights to name a few. This generates Radio signals which permeate your guitar and cause all sorts of noises.
Decent shielding is now more important than ever before.

[@MichaelLagerstedt]

Great instructional video. Thanks for sharing that

[@ronswary]

I’m building a kit guitar and wondering is it ok to shield with copper tape to a unfinished body I want to play it before I end up painting the thing later down the road .??
Also is it ok to use tape then graphite paint over the tape? Or should it be paint then tape ? Or does it really matter lol

[@stevewardguitars1661]

Hi Ron, self adhesive copper tape will be fine over unfinished wood. You will not need graphite paint. The copper tape is far superior. The tape wont stick to graphite paint. Not only is graphite a conductor albit with a high resistance, its also a very good lubricant and anti-friction coating. I use 2" wide slug tape from amazon which goes under the trade name of Zalava . It comes in 25meter rolls. Its self adhesive and easy to cut and manage. Overlay the edges to form a conductive path. Please remember to add a grounding wire from the tape to the back of one of the potentiometers or form a central earth point in the control cavity. I screw a small solder eyelet/ tag and take the bond wire from that. You can solder directly to the tape, but the tape is thin and the wire might rip off when you remove the scratch-plate/ control plate.
Good luck.

[@ronswary]

@@stevewardguitars1661 thanks got it all done last night . Never done that little more tedious than I thought it be with it being so delicate. But I think it came out pretty good . I’m building an Dean ML with set neck and locking nut and Floyd rose . I’ve got all cavities shielded and covers . I know Humbuckers don’t “need” shielding but why not is my mind set . I plan to do a video of guitar when I get it setup this week . An unfinished “finished” guitar demo lol