Shielding a jazz bass - help

[offhegoes]

So I've got a noisy Squier VM Jazz - it's actually okay live but for recording at home it's a nightmare. My recording space is also an office space so I'm sure that doesn't help, but my telecaster guitar with single coils is fine noise-wise so the bass certainly takes a lion's share of the blame. I'm considering replacing the stock pups with SD Apollo humbuckers at some point but first I'd like to see what I can do in terms of shielding.

So anyway I've read a few good articles and videos on shielding and have a plan in place that I'd like feedback on before I begin and two major questions!

I'm planning on using conductive paint on all cavities, running wires between each and using strips of copper shielding to connect them, including to the bridge. I'll also put copper shielding on the back of the pickup covers (do I connect these bits to the conductive paint with wire?) and I've seen advice to run all ground wires to a ground nut (?) screwed into the body in the control cavity.

So my two main questions are:

Where am I actually grounding to? Is the ground nut just providing a convenient place to connect all these wires rather than the back of the pots, with grounding ultimately going via the jack? In which case I just put it wherever I like?

Where are the spots where I'm going to have to be careful to avoid ground and hot meeting? As far as I understand it as long as the pickup itself doesn't touch ground apart from through the ground wire and as long as the relevant parts of the pots don't connect to ground I should be fine?

As you can probably tell, I don't have great understanding of the electrical aspects of a bass! But I'm comfortable soldering at least!

Thanks in advance

[gary mac]

If you are buying shielding tape for the back of the covers etc. I think I would be inclined to just use tape for the whole job. For around a fiver you can buy enough to do the whole lot. Get the proper stuff with conductive adhesive and the job is a breeze, well it's a bit fiddly but a worthwhile upgrade.

Check it over for continuity with a multimeter once you've done and enjoy a much quieter instrument

Make sure that the output socket doesn't make contact with the foil, I was caught out by that the first time I did a shielding job.

[BassBunny]

I'm with Gary if you are buying some copper tape but I don't see why you need to shield the back of the pickup covers.
Conductive paint if by far the easiest route, but as Gary has mentioned, if you are buying some tape, do the whole job with it.
The point about about the grounding nut is to have a convenient way of joining all the earth wires together, but you also need a wire from the nut/screw to the earth on the jack.
As an example, depending on how the control cavity is routed, you may have to shield each pickup route and the main control area separately. You then need a wire from each of these discreet areas to earth. Wiring them back to a cavity nut/screw is a convenient and neat way of doing it. Then only 1 wire to the jack.

[EBS_freak]

Tape is better than conductive paint unless you paint that stuff really thick... and the paint is a lot more expensive.

[prowla]

I'm playing around with a Precision - it's a Squier body & neck at the moment, with miscellaneous other parts including a Badass II bridge, a Shadow pickup (the Squier ones were too quiet) and my pots & socket wiring, but the plan is to replace the body (maybe with a Warmoth?) and the neck at some point. When I've done, I guess I'll reassemble the Squier and either start again or sell it on.

I've got conductive tape for the cavity (and underside of pickguard) and I'll probably put a layer of insulating tape or plastic film on top of that near the socket.

I've also using little gold connectors to join the pickups and the bridge earth, so I can easily swap things around.

I have thought of trying a Rickenbacker pickup in the neck position, since I've got a spare one...

Edited December 3, 2016 by prowla