Shielding wiring runs to Les paul type switches

[Mr. Foxen]

I have an instrument to wire up for a chap, he has given me copper tape for the cavities, but I realise all the wires going to and from the switch on the top horn will be unshielded. Is there a way round this aside from sourcing 4 (or 3 as shield is ground) conductor shielded cable thin enough to go through?

[Tech]

couldn't you just bundle all the cables going through in copper tape, making a thin and flexible conduit, rather than shielding the cavity itself? i guess it depends how tight your hole is (lol).

[AlanP2008]

A bit kludgy perhaps, but practical...

Do you have some microphone cable with a braided screen - the old-fashioned type that often has cotton or paper padding along with the wires (not this modern stuff with conductive plastic, or fail and a drain wire...)

... if so, you can usually strip the insulation off of, and the cores out of a couple of foot of it, concertina it up, and thread that over the wiring as a screen (don't forget to ground it).

Alternatively, you might be able to seek & find some such screening braid as a wireman's product...

Or wrap it in a strip, or strips of aluminium foil (if you do this, you could include a drain wire in the bundle, and ground that).

You have otions...

Alan

[Mr. Foxen]

Might give foil wrapped freshness a try, might be a struggle getting the wires through as they are. Tight hole.

[Ancient Mariner]

You could use skinny mic shielded cable - this kind of cable is common in Les Paul types. Also some 'cheap' headphones come with a twin+screen cable, so if you've some old walkman type 'phones laying around you can cannibalise them. Failing that, twist the 2 single strands tightly together for greater resistance to EM interference.

[7string]

+1 to wrapping the the runs of wire in copper tape.

Works a treat and (because I don't see what harm it can do) do this on other instruments as well. For example the wire from the neck pickup of a Tele to the control cavity.

[Mr. Foxen]

Figured it in the end, instead of running the (screened) pickup wires to the cavity and connecting everything there, ran them to the switch, and used a screened cable to return it. Tight squeeze. Probably the fiddliest wire up yet, humbucker, single coil and piezo on separate output, with their own volumes, to a stereo jack.