JMJ Owners - Have you needed to shield your JMJ?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I have three JMJs but I have not shieded any of them with copper tape yet.

 

Has anyone done this on their JMJ? If so have you noticed a noise improvement? I Noticed a definite improvement when I did my Classic Vibe Mustang.

 

I have a gig tomorrow evening and I'm not sure whether I should be spending time in the morning practicing the songs or dismantling the JMJ I'm planning to play to apply some slug tape.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Pickguard
spelling!

[Lozz196]

I’ve also got three of them and shielded them all, including under the scratchplate, it has made a difference so I’d recommend doing it.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

What on earth do you need three of them for? Are you nuts? Oh wait — as you were!

 

Cheers Lozz, I'll get up early tomorrow to do it to one of the blue ones — The one with the freshest chromes. You'd think Fender would pay more attention to this kind of thing on a £1200+ bass.

[Lozz196]

Agree. From what I’ve read the intentions were to keep it as true to the original as possible but sometimes I think it’s better to deviate a bit.

[ezbass]

Need to? Probably not for live work. Did I? Yes (inveterate tinkerer syndrome/too much time on my hands). Was there a noticeable difference? Yes, again. Definitely less buzz. If being used in a noisy environment, when recording, this might possibly be the difference between using the JMJ or something else.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I've shielded one of the blue ones and whereas yesterday I noticed it was picking up a bit of hum which went up and down in volume as I moved the bass, now it is dead quiet. I was trying to rush the job though and managed to scatter all twelve pickguard and control plate screws across the floor and under the sofa. I managed to find ten so this bass now has two slightly mismatched screws. Oh well.

 

I'll have to do the same (apart from the losing two screws bit) to the other blue JMJ and the black one or they'll never get taken out

[ots]

I had a blue one and never considered shielding even though I've done it on a few others in the past.

[Owen]

8 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I was trying to rush the job though and managed to scatter all twelve pickguard and control plate screws across the floor and under the sofa. 

We have all been there. The struggle is real. 

[Adee]

I recently shielded my JMJ and it made a massive difference, guess it’s not often you don’t have both hands on the strings, but on the odd occasion I did it was noisy as heck but now it’s silent !

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I did the gig last night with the newly shielded JMJ & it behaved immaculately. I still have plenty of the anti-slug tape left on the roll so I will do the shielding on other two JMJs over the next week. I already did the shielding on my competition Orange Classic Vibe mustang, but I don't think I ever did it on the vintage white CIJ — my first mustang, so I'll probably do that one as well.

[martthebass]

I only use mine live, can’t say I’ve experienced it being noisy compared to some Jazzes I’ve used in the past so it’s still unshielded. If I was to use it for recording I’d probably shield it though.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I've just completed shielding (and testing) my black JMJ, so I just have one more blue JMJ and possibly the white CIJ mustang to do.

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I like to think if Gustav Klimpt was a bass player he would probably have enjoyed shielding his basses.

[ezbass]

13 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I like to think if Gustav Klimpt was a bass player he would probably have enjoyed shielding his basses.

But he would’ve used gold. All class that Gustav.

[ots]

Did you do the back of the pick guard too?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I thought about it but came to the conclusion that I don't think it's necessary as the only wires under the pickguard are where I've already shielded.

[AlexDelores]

Apologies if this is a stupid question… I’m looking at doing this on my Vintera Mustang, Is it just as simple as putting copper tape inside the cavities, or does it require soldering anything.

 

Looking at some YouTube videos, it appears to require soldering? 
 

Again, sorry if I’m missing something obvious.

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

I never solder anything when I shield a bass and I've never had less than perfect results.

 

I ensure there is continuity of the tape, ie a strip of tape betwen the pickup cavity and the control cavity, the bits of tape overlap (the adhesive on most copper tape is conductive) and extend a tag to one of the control plate screw holes so it connects to the control plate — you can see these have been done in the pic I posted above.

 

One further tip, don't be tempted to get the wide tape thinking it'll mean less bits are needed. I've found that the 1" (25mm) wide tape works best, anything wider gets unmanagable and tries to stick to itself before you want it to.

Edited May 9, 2024 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[lidl e]

Just now, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I never solder anything when I shield a bass and I've never had less than perfect results.

 

I ensure there is continuity of the tape, ie a strip of tape betwen the pickup cavity and the control cavity, the bits of tape overlap (the adhesive on most copper tape is conductive) and extend a tag to one of the control plate screw holes so it connects to the control plate

I think some people solder the seams but i think most copper tape has conductive backing now so you dont really need to do that

 

 

Also on some pickups you would solder the ground to the shielding i think???

[AlexDelores]

11 minutes ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

I never solder anything when I shield a bass and I've never had less than perfect results.

 

I ensure there is continuity of the tape, ie a strip of tape betwen the pickup cavity and the control cavity, the bits of tape overlap (the adhesive on most copper tape is conductive) and extend a tag to one of the control plate screw holes so it connects to the control plate

 

9 minutes ago, lidl e said:

I think some people solder the seams but i think most copper tape has conductive backing now so you dont really need to do that

 

 

Also on some pickups you would solder the ground to the shielding i think???

Great stuff, thanks guys. 
 

Will give this a go when the next run of shows is done 🙏

[police squad]

I was going to, bought the copper stuff.

but didn't.

[RichT]

Silly question, never having owned a Mustang - I've never had to shield any of my basses with hum cancelling pickups. I was under the impression that the purpose of the split Mustang pickup was to cancel hum, same as on a P bass, is this not the case?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Before shielding there was noise that came & went as I moved the bass about pointing the headstock in different directions, not much, but it was there. After shielding, the noise was no longer present.

[Guest]

On 17/05/2024 at 01:56, RichT said:

 I've never had to shield any of my basses with hum cancelling pickups.

 

If you're feeling left out, pay a couple of grand for a brand new LB-100

[javi_bassist]

On 04/11/2023 at 09:15, Lozz196 said:

Agree. From what I’ve read the intentions were to keep it as true to the original as possible but sometimes I think it’s better to deviate a bit.

 

It's maybe an off-topic, but I agree 100% with a lot of Fender reissues. I have a Vintera Mustang (not a JMJ, but I had to shield it) and I couldn't access the truss rod because in that era you had to take off the neck to adjust it. The same happen to my Classic 60s jazz. I mean, this a feature that wasn't ok back then and we could live with these reissues being improved. Both basses were taken to a luthier who made a hole to access the truss rod easily.

Edited May 18, 2024 by javi_bassist