G&L shielding grumble

[neepheid]

I'm a bit grumbly, just finished sorting out my G&Ls.  I did the Tribute LB-100 last month.  The factory "shielding" was comical - it had some shielding paint daubed/smeared in there but it was bloody pointless, looks more like the bottom of a dried out puddle:

 

 

Bloody awful job.  It's now copper foiled and shield connected to ground - now whisper quiet in the RF room, I mean rehearsal room.  What bothers me more is my G&L CLF L-1000.  It was also hating the rehearsal room so I opened it up tonight and found... nothing but body colour.  Not even a scrap of a suggestion of shielding.  On a circa £1500 bass.  Am I right to be a bit miffed at having to shield a bass myself at this price point?  Or is it my fault for rehearsing in a room lit with ancient strip lights?

 

Anyhoo, they're both done now so unless I've managed to screw up the soldering, I shouldn't have to go in there again.  Was too annoyed to photograph the L-1000 before i started and I was too keen to reassemble and test to photograph my handiwork post copper foil application, sorry!

[Owen]

There is no denying it, a £1.5K bass with no shielding is sub-optimal.

[BlueMoon]

Try looking inside a Rickenbacker if you want to get angry at the shielding.

[Twincam]

I feel that poor shelding on basses above the more value end of the market is a poor show. 

 

So basses 600 and up there's no excuse really.

And certainly above the 1k mark as the marketed as professional, "working" instruments. 

[John Cribbin]

Did you pay extra for relic shielding?

[Guest]

Looking at how much G&L charge to paint the front of a headstock black, I hate to think what factory shielding would add to the price 

[neepheid]

21 hours ago, John Cribbin said:

Did you pay extra for relic shielding?

 

I actually got a very keen price on the Tribute LB-100 so at least I feel like I got the incompetent shielding paint application thrown in for free

 

[neepheid]

9 hours ago, Ricky Rioli said:

Looking at how much G&L charge to paint the front of a headstock black, I hate to think what factory shielding would add to the price 

 

How much do they charge?

[neepheid]

See, G&L?  If an amateur duffer like me can do it, surely you can too!

 

 

 

I haven't done around the pickup yet - couldn't be bothered with the ballache of taking off the strings and removing the pickup so I'll try it this week in the offending room and see how it goes.

[LukeFRC]

On 13/02/2022 at 20:33, neepheid said:

What bothers me more is my G&L CLF L-1000.  It was also hating the rehearsal room so I opened it up tonight and found... nothing but body colour.  Not even a scrap of a suggestion of shielding.  On a circa £1500 bass.  Am I right to be a bit miffed at having to shield a bass myself at this price point?  Or is it my fault for rehearsing in a room lit with ancient strip lights?

My 1982 L1000 didn't have shielding... it's not something Leo seemed to do much of. 

[neepheid]

3 hours ago, LukeFRC said:

My 1982 L1000 didn't have shielding... it's not something Leo seemed to do much of.

 

Well, that's +1 for authenticity for the CLF L-1000 then, yay!

 

[Guest]

On 14/02/2022 at 10:30, Ricky Rioli said:

Looking at how much G&L charge to paint the front of a headstock black, I hate to think what factory shielding would add to the price 

 

On 14/02/2022 at 19:59, neepheid said:

 

How much do they charge?

 

The MSRP for —

— a non-standard neck profile: $72

— upgrade white pg to tort: $72

— upgrade alder body to empress: $143

— upgrade neck to quartersawn: $143

— tinting the satin neck: $143

— painting front of headstock black: $215

 

Actual prices are lower: once you've removed a typical discount from the $215, then added on UK customs charges, about £140