Jazz Shielding Pictorial (Big Images Warning)

[DiabolusInMusic]

Thanks but I don't want to take the time to do full shielding job right now on my J. My pg does not have any shielding on the underside. Should I even bother with that?

All basses should have shielding - simple as that. In the past, the noise was considered perfectly acceptable and since the guitar industry is so soaked in nostalgia, some folks think it is still ok. I have met several techs (particularly of the old guard) who insisted the noise was 100% normal operation and nothing could be done.

If your pickguard doesn't cover any cavities, you don't need to shield it. If the guard runs over any channeling, you need to shield it. Ensure the guard shielding extends over the screw holes on both the guard and the body.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

I bought something similar that you brush on, but it's very delicate after drying, like it's just a layer of carbon with no real adhesive. Definitely not a solid layer like paint. Maybe I have the bad stuff Def easier to apply than copper, and not need to solder all the pieces together to make contact.

That is probably the junk Stew Mac sells - it costs more than MG Chemicals, performs considerably worse, and has poor durability.

MG Chemicals Supershield is what you want. I can do a complete job in 30~ minutes and most of that is waiting for the paint to dry. Also, you don't need to connect your copper tape if you are using adhesive conductive tape (2-sided conductive tape).

 

[BlueTalon]

Thanks but I don't want to take the time to do full shielding job right now on my J. My pg does not have any shielding on the underside. Should I even bother with that?

There's not much of a point to shielding the back side of a pickguard if it's not part of a complete shielding job. If it was me, I wouldn't mess with it until I decided to do the full job.

 

[J-Bass RMR]

a stainless-steel burnishing tool with a ball at the end will make smoothing out the copper tape after application much easier.

Or a popsicle stick, or a spoon handle, or a fingernail...

A Q-Tip works great.

 

[BlueTalon]

A Q-Tip works great.

For burnishing? If you can use them and they don't fall apart on you, more power to you! I can't seem to use Q-tips for more than a few minutes without them starting to fall apart, even when I'm just cleaning with them.

When I'm pressing down on copper tape to get the adhesive to fully set, I usually just use the back of my fingernail. It works well everywhere except in corners.

 

[Rocker80]

Thanks for all the great info in this thread.

My Jazz V deluxe had some shielding issues and very low output, I wasn't super excited about the N3 pickups either, so I got help from my trusted cat to evaluate what tools to use.

After shielding the cavities I soldered a wire through the tunnel to the bridge cavity and installed Fralin single coils with a passive control plate.

It sounds better than ever!

Thanks again to the people contributing to this thread!

 

[Five String]

Thanks for all the great info in this thread.

My Jazz V deluxe had some shielding issues and very low output, I wasn't super excited about the N3 pickups either, so I got help from my trusted cat to evaluate what tools to use.

View attachment 4476355

After shielding the cavities I soldered a wire through the tunnel to the bridge cavity and installed Fralin single coils with a passive control plate.

View attachment 4476354

It sounds better than ever!

Thanks again to the people contributing to this thread!

The salutary effect of a trusted cat cannot be overestimated.

 

[deepestend]

Thanks for this thread. Had an old bass where the conductive paint wasn't really doing it anymore. I had some old hvac aluminum tape lying around (that I'd used to size up some 3/8" hipshot tuners to 1/2" holes) and used that. Worked much better than I thought it would! I've only used copper tape and paint before, but this is what I had on hand at home.

 

[factory presets]

• A

Good thread. Just thought I'd add my own subjective experience. Which might or might not be helpful to someone. I don't know if a sticky is a zombie thread or not.

Just installed an East premp in .my bass that came with instructions that couldn't stress enough the importance of earthing the pots to copper shielding. So I bought a roll of copper tape with conductive adhesive ($6 for 25 metres) and shielded a couple of old P bass knock-offs for practice. Ran the multimeter over them and had no need to solder any joints.

When I did the main bass, I found the pickups were connected by balanced cable. 2 wires inside braided shielding. Very thin mic cable, if you like. If I find myself doing that again I'd definitely look into getting a metre of that for shielding tunnels. I just grounded the braids to the tape in the control cavity because they'd also run straps from the conductive paint in the pickup slots to the control cavity. Otherwise ground the braids at both ends.

Multimeter couldn't get a beep out of that paint anywhere in 3 cavities. Fair doo's it's an old bass and paint technology might've moved on. But I've done 3 basses with my $6 of tape and still got half a roll left. Copper tape won't be beaten on price. I assume connectivity testing of paint would give a valid indication of its effectiveness.

My reason for soldering the edges of copper foil together is because copper surfaces can corrode over time, which will interfere with a simple physical connection. Now, that may be crap, but after watching friends' beautiful copper roofs turn black over time, I'm concerned about that.

Sounds like you are talking about oxidisation. I don't know how much of that you're gonna get with adhesive taking up all the space between the adjoining copper.

 

[Geri O]

• A

Good thread. Just thought I'd add my own subjective experience. Which might or might not be helpful to someone. I don't know if a sticky is a zombie thread or not.

Just installed an East premp in .my bass that came with instructions that couldn't stress enough the importance of earthing the pots to copper shielding. So I bought a roll of copper tape with conductive adhesive ($6 for 25 metres) and shielded a couple of old P bass knock-offs for practice. Ran the multimeter over them and had no need to solder any joints.

When I did the main bass, I found the pickups were connected by balanced cable. 2 wires inside braided shielding. Very thin mic cable, if you like. If I find myself doing that again I'd definitely look into getting a metre of that for shielding tunnels. I just grounded the braids to the tape in the control cavity because they'd also run straps from the conductive paint in the pickup slots to the control cavity. Otherwise ground the braids at both ends.

Multimeter couldn't get a beep out of that paint anywhere in 3 cavities. Fair doo's it's an old bass and paint technology might've moved on. But I've done 3 basses with my $6 of tape and still got half a roll left. Copper tape won't be beaten on price. I assume connectivity testing of paint would give a valid indication of its effectiveness.


Sounds like you are talking about oxidisation. I don't know how much of that you're gonna get with adhesive taking up all the space between the adjoining copper.

Just a preventative cautionary measure. Probably overkill.

 

[BlueTalon]

I solder the tape joints, even on tape with conductive adhesive. Two reasons for doing that. One is that I simply enjoy doing it. The other has to do with something I've heard people talk about -- the adhesive "drying out."

For the record, I don't think that's even a thing. I think in any case where adhesive fails, it's because the surface it's adhered to isn't properly prepped. Nevertheless, my theory is that if the adhesive ever does fail, the solder will continue to hold everything in place.

But mostly, I just enjoy doing it.

 

[336v]

If this helps anyone either designing a guitar or electric upright bass electronics from scratch or repairing/modifying existing preamp, here is the schematic and the PCB of Stagg EUB guts a few people have been searching for. I've traced and reconstructed this design last year as a fun project, but decided to create a simple webpage describing it after seeing some debates over values of pots, types of ICs and FETs used in the preamp, and such details. Direct link to the electronics page. Hope some of you will find this info useful.

 

[lejack]

Hi Folks,

To summarize:
I have a Deluxe US JB 2005 (since 5 days), and guess... i have a noise (a bit louder on the neck pup) stopping if i touch a ground part like bridge, ground jack... i opened it to check the ground wires (loop or not), shielding or not (actually not at all, even painting, nothing!!) i have tested continuity of ground with meter, seems ok, i have just to analyze the drawing to check the loop.

I received the cooper and i plan to try the remediation next week.

BUT... as the noise is a bit boring, i try to use a wireless transmitter like my Getaria.. the result is the noise disappeared. I know the Getaria is not very good at high frequency (my PoV is that tool is very bad; dont buy it..but that's another topic)

Do you have any idea??

thx

 

[Winslow]

There have been a lot of questions about shielding and star grounding, so maybe this will help someone.

It certainly helped me. I've been thinking about doing this to my Jazz for a while, and would occasionally look at this thread and think, "One of these days..."

Well, today was the day!

Thanks very much for the information and inspiration!

 

[BlueTalon]

It certainly helped me. I've been thinking about doing this to my Jazz for a while, and would occasionally look at this thread and think, "One of these days..."

Well, today was the day!

Good looking shielding job! Is the bridge ground connected? And is the bridge pickup cavity connected to the main control cavity?

 

[Winslow]

Good looking shielding job! Is the bridge ground connected? And is the bridge pickup cavity connected to the main control cavity?

Thanks much, and yes. The cavities are connected through the hole for the pickup wires, and the bridge ground will be connected when I put everything back together.

 

[icefly]

It certainly helped me. I've been thinking about doing this to my Jazz for a while, and would occasionally look at this thread and think, "One of these days..."

Well, today was the day!

View attachment 5016293

Thanks very much for the information and inspiration!

Excellent; superbly looking

 

[BlueTalon]

Thanks much, and yes. The cavities are connected through the hole for the pickup wires, and the bridge ground will be connected when I put everything back together.

The only thing I would do different is to have the copper tape spill over around the entire circumference of the control cavity, to make contact with the shielding on the back of the pickguard all the way around, to eliminate the possibility of any gaps. (It wouldn't need to be much, 1/8" - 1/4" would be fine.) But that's me. I'm the guy who shields the wire channel between the bridge pickup route and the control cavity, so I default to a little overkill.

 

[Winslow]

Excellent; superbly looking

Thank you! I was glad it turned out as well as it did.

The only thing I would do different is to have the copper tape spill over around the entire circumference of the control cavity, to make contact with the shielding on the back of the pickguard all the way around, to eliminate the possibility of any gaps. (It wouldn't need to be much, 1/8" - 1/4" would be fine.) But that's me. I'm the guy who shields the wire channel between the bridge pickup route and the control cavity, so I default to a little overkill.

Ha! That did occur to me, and is still in consideration, as is a bit of "extra" shielding between the cavities. You'll note that I extended three tabs of the tape to all of the screw points, rather than just one, so I'm no stranger to the "belt and suspenders" approach.

 

[Winslow]

...I default to a little overkill.

"...belt and suspenders" approach.

~ Later that morning...~

Technically necessary? Nah. Looks cool? You betcha.

I bought tape that's supposed to have conductive adhesive, and have been wondering how well it would do. After tearing apart my shop for a couple of hours looking for my tester (that's what I get for "tidying up!"), I checked things over, and got consistent results from one end to the other. One piece of tape read the same as those several steps away, or in separate cavities.

Seems pretty solid and ready to go!