Shielding tape advice needed

[Geek99]

53 minutes ago, pfretrock said:

The electrical version for electro magnetic shielding has conductive adhesive. I would not think the gardening people have the tape made for them, they just source the mass produced electrical variety.

Sure but I was explaining this as the OP seemed unsure of what meterman intended. Personally I’ve never had a conductivity issue but maybe I’ve been lucky 

 

[KingBollock]

25 minutes ago, Geek99 said:

Sure but I was explaining this as the OP seemed unsure of what meterman intended. Personally I’ve never had a conductivity issue but maybe I’ve been lucky 

 

I use tape that has conductive adhesive. I tend to lay the tape down all in the same direction, slightly overlapping. But still, sometimes, while checking several places with a multimeter, there’ll be the occasional dead spot. I don’t know why. Running a strip, with folded under edges, across it all just makes sure that it’s all connected.

 

It’s mostly a precaution. It takes 3 or 4 inches of tape and a couple of minutes to do.

[pfretrock]

On 06/02/2023 at 15:08, rmorris said:

 

You do need to check. There is copper tape available where it is adhesive but where the adhesive is not specified to be conductive. I know this from an EMC lab that I've used and friends with the owner/consultant. Some clients turn up thinking they have their kit properly shielded with copper tape. Only to find out they have the non conductive adhesive type.

Thanks for the tip. Chinese copy? Just got a couple of chips from China to make a ring modulator. Farnell prices had gone up to £30, so I got some from China for £3. First one went up in smoke!

[rmorris]

15 hours ago, pfretrock said:

Thanks for the tip. Chinese copy? Just got a couple of chips from China to make a ring modulator. Farnell prices had gone up to £30, so I got some from China for £3. First one went up in smoke!

 

No. Simply the client didn't know their technical stuff and didn't realise that they needed to use tape with a conductive adhesive if they weren't soldering the joints / seams.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by rmorris

[Mottlefeeder]

Copper is a good enough conductor of heat that you can solder a bridge across a join withiut damaging the wood/plastic underneath.

David

[miles'tone]

Got it. Copper tape is best because it gets rid of the slugs that attract the sharks.

 

Phew...bass playing ain't for sissys eh? 😅

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, miles'tone said:

Got it. Copper tape is best because it gets rid of the slugs that attract the sharks.

 

Phew...bass playing ain't for sissys eh? 😅

 

 

[Munurmunuh]

The great thing about having an expensive fresh strings habit is that it makes getting a tech to do an immaculate job of sorting out a weirdly-unshielded new bass seem very cheap. For the cost of the custom set of Daddario steels that'll last me to the end of April, maximum, my new LB-100 has gone from noisy af -> 🐀 quiet. 

[neepheid]

39 minutes ago, Ricky Rioli said:

The great thing about having an expensive fresh strings habit is that it makes getting a tech to do an immaculate job of sorting out a weirdly-unshielded new bass seem very cheap. For the cost of the custom set of Daddario steels that'll last me to the end of April, maximum, my new LB-100 has gone from noisy af -> 🐀 quiet. 

 

For reasons I have yet to wrap my head around, G&L USA don't shield their basses.  My CLF L-1000 was exactly the same.  Baffling, even if prices hadn't gone up by 38% in 18 months.

[Ed_S]

4 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

For reasons I have yet to wrap my head around, G&L USA don't shield their basses.  My CLF L-1000 was exactly the same.  Baffling, even if prices hadn't gone up by 38% in 18 months.

 

Music Man say they do ("Graphite acrylic resin coated body cavity and alumin[i]um lined pickguard") but the preamp on mine still manages to pick up Radio 1. Literally.

[Tokalo]

Is it possible that a pickup has unshielded wires running to the pots (two thin wires, rather than one thicker one with inner core/outer wrap)?

If so, could you simply shield these cables by wrapping the tape around them, without needing to line all the cavities?

[yorks5stringer]

My experience when changing pickups has been the wires were just copper coated with plastic and  no third layer which would have had to be metal based.

Edited February 9, 2023 by yorks5stringer

[Tokalo]

I’m working on an old Bass Collection jazz bass (2013) with noisy electrics.

I put in a new loom last week (series/parallel type) but the noise was still there, so I’ve got a shielding problem. I’m guessing it’s caused by the unshielded wires - hence my question above.

 

I appear to have just solved the noise issue by wrapping copper foil around the wires all the way from the pickup to about an inch short of the pots. I also had to link the wrapped wires to the control plate, but it seems the noise has gone.

 

For me, this is easier than coating the entire cavities with foil because the spaces are quite small.

[KingBollock]

For the run where the pick-up wires go through the body (assuming it’s a rear style control plated cavity), I like to use the metal shielding from Gibson style wire. I just strip the inner wire out and use the metal sheath.

[Munurmunuh]

10 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

For reasons I have yet to wrap my head around, G&L USA don't shield their basses.  My CLF L-1000 was exactly the same.  Baffling, even if prices hadn't gone up by 38% in 18 months.

 

In the 10 months it took them to build my LB-100, the price of that exact set of options went up 55%. I have been wondering if the extra grand finally buys some shielding....

[Bassfinger]

Don't forget the rear of the pickguard.

[rmorris]

2 hours ago, Bassfinger said:

Don't forget the rear of the pickguard.

 

Yes. There's some element of shielding there. But it's mainly an issue of avoiding static noise when it gets "shiny" or you touch the screws. My basses tend not to have them but I often get this problem with Fender style guitars. High gain makes it a big problem. Have it in a nice Harley Benton atm. Need to shield and "ground" it.