Shielding pickups vs shielding cavities

[Thunderthumbs]

I posed this question in the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=40480"]Marcus Miller jazz mod[/url] thread but thought it'd make more sense posing it as a question on its own.

In that thread, it says (from Talkbass) to shield the pickups.

Would there be any reason to (or not to for that matter) shield the pickup cavities instead of or as well as the pickups themselves?

Edited April 18, 2009 by Thunderthumbs

[Protium]

Just shield the cavities, they'll never need replacing

[escholl]

unless you really want to be super super anal about it, there's not really a need to shield the pickups themselves. IME shielding the cavities will do a very good job of cutting down the noise, shielding both will do the best job. however, if i was to only do one, it would be the cavities, not the pups themselves.

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='466368' date='Apr 18 2009, 08:35 PM']I posed this question in the [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=40480"]Marcus Miller jazz mod[/url] thread but thought it'd make more sense posing it as a question on its own.

In that thread, it says (from Talkbass) to shield the pickups.

Would there be any reason to (or not to for that matter) shield the pickup cavities instead of or as well as the pickups themselves?[/quote]

You are better off shielding the cavities than the pickups themselves. A great deal of noise will be deadened by doing this. I would suggest conductive shielding paint. Apply a good few coats inside the cavity for a clean, great looking job.

You can shield the pickups to battle noise even more... but you will alter the tonal characteristics of the pickup itself. At the end of the day, it's a jazz with single coils. It's going to be quite noisy.

Edited May 6, 2009 by EBS_freak

[dub]

It is always worth shielding all the cavities, but with single coil pickups hum can still be a problem after shielding.

If you use both pickups, both at full volume all the time and are getting a lot of hum. It might be worth swapping them for a pair of pickups where one has reverse polarity magnets with a coil wound in reverse to its partner.

This would cancel the hum.

If you fade from one single pickup to the other during your set for different tones then a hum canceling pickup like nordstrand nj4sv humbucking split coil jazz-type could be a useful solution.

Edited May 6, 2009 by dub

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='dub' post='480948' date='May 6 2009, 01:20 PM']If you fade from one single pickup to the other during your set for different tones then a hum canceling pickup like nordstrand nj4sv humbucking split coil jazz-type could be a useful solution.[/quote]

I had Nordstrand split coils in my jazz... one of the most noisy single coils I've ever used.

[dub]

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='480962' date='May 6 2009, 01:29 PM']I had Nordstrand split coils in my jazz... one of the most noisy single coils I've ever used.[/quote]
That's strange. Were all the cavities shielded?

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