Thinline Control Shielding

[nutty]

Hi all - does anyone know if there is a way to shield the control components on a thinline when the controls are mounted over a chamber?

[Parma_TeleMon]

Yup, did it on mine, but it weren't easy.

Bought some 40 ga. copper foil at a local craft store (Michaels maybe), created a template by using a pencil to shade over the cavity opening and cut out the bottom. Cut a strip deep enough to reach the bottom of the cavity and still have about 1/4" overlap. Soldered the pieces together, cut slots in the part that overlaps so it could fold down flat and make contact with the pickguard (also shielded). Poked a hole and fed the appropriate wires through and it worked wonderfully. One cool advantage to doing it this way is it gives you a large surface to connect all your grounds to, which helps prevent that big glob on the back of the volume pot.

[Frontier9]

I did the same thing but used the thin adhesive foil and applied it to some cardboard. Then I cut the parts out and used hot glue to assemble it. I left some foil sticking above the top of the "box", cut tabs into it and used that to stick it on the face of the guitar. Worked great.

[blackbelt308]

I went through the same tedious "Faraday cage" building exercise as the two posters above, but subsequently discovered that I was able to get rid of most if not all of the noise simply by lining the "floor" of the control area with copper foil (and dumping it to ground, obviously) and twisting the pickup lead wires. Have done this now for several thinlines. Happiness!

Ciao,
Rick

[Parma_TeleMon]

Oh, sure - find an easier way to do it and rub it in!!

DANG - wish I'd thoughta that!

[Kirk A]

Shielding is essentially why I am rebuilding my thinline. The initial lack of shielding resulted in quite a hum in my basement shop illuminated with florescent lights. Along with its de-construction, the body is also being refinished, so it will be a short time before I have it completed and ready for testing.

Like others, I used the copper foil and lined "five" interior sides of the cavity, however, my forward reach was limited. A solution that has been proposed to complete the cage is to stuff the forward cavity full of two or three "Chore Boy" brand copper pot scrubbers. Granted, these will be be grounded via solder, but they should be grounded by contact with one another and with the grounded foil liner. Time will tell when I get it together and can test again.

Be mindful of ground loops when connecting all of the pickup shielding and bridge ground to your cavity shielding and earth ground.

[nutty]

thanks guys - looks like I have some experimenting to do.