Shielding a Rickenbacker - how opaque is the pickguard?

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

My new (secondhand) 2024 4003 sounds amazing, but the single coil hum is noticable on recordings, so I intend to shield it with copper tape soon. I'll probably switch to the black pickguard at the same time, but I'm also likely to switch back to the original white one at some point. I'm wondering about how opaque the acrylic pickguard is.

 

I saw a youtube video where someone used copper tape on the back of their white ric pickguard and in the 'after' shots, it might have been a trick of the light but the pickguard appeared to have a slight copper tinge - ie the copper tape was showing through. Am I mistaken or is this something I will need to workaround to prevent the copper showing through?

 

I doubt this should be a problem with the black guard as it is probably more opaque than the white one — if indded the white one does have any level of transparency.

Edited December 24, 2024 by Jean-Luc Pickguard

[Count Bassy]

Spray the back of the white pickguard black before screening?