How Many Coats Of Sheilding Paint Guitar

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Stewmac Shielding Pigment Issue

• Thread starter loganme
• Starting time date Jan 22, 2020

• #ane

Hi all,

I live in an area with a combination of EMI/RF interference and old electrical work and as such decided to shield my Tele. Rather than merely practice copper tape, I decided to try out Stewmac'southward Conductive Shielding pigment.

Afterward stirring it for 15-xx minutes or so and making sure all the conductive cloth was mixed in to the paint, I set off. After three coats over three nights, I used my cheapo multimeter to do a continuity exam on the painted areas. I'1000 getting an average reading of .015 on the painted areas. On the area I did apply copper tape on (because the pickup route had been sealed and the pigment wouldn't take) I'm getting the more customary 001 reading, which basically means . My meter doesn't beep, information technology'south cheap.

And then, it'south plainly non every bit conductive as the tape. Is that normal? Did I get some bunk paint?

• #ii

Aye, that is normal. Not to worry, though. My guitars with graphite paint are at least every bit tranquillity as the one I take with copper tape, even more and so. It doesn't have to exist zero ohms to work. Mine mensurate equally much as 150 ohms at the furthest points from the volume pot. Just do yourself a favor before yous put everything back together: apply a clear coat over the graphite paint. Otherwise, over time, the dried pigment comes off as a very fine powder, and it can foul the switches and pots. This happened to me more than in one case earlier I figured out what was causing my trouble.

• #3

I don't intendance for how the tape changes the sound of a guitar (seems to dampen the resonance), and not satisfied with the SM paint, I tried the MG Chemicals nickel blanket. Yous can spray or brush on, and it is superior to the SM stuff

• #4

Yes, that is normal. Not to worry, though. My guitars with graphite paint are at least every bit serenity every bit the one I take with copper tape, even more so. Information technology doesn't have to be zero ohms to work. Mine measure as much as 150 ohms at the furthest points from the volume pot. Just do yourself a favor before you put everything back together: apply a clear coat over the graphite paint. Otherwise, over time, the stale paint comes off as a very fine pulverization, and it can foul the switches and pots. This happened to me more in one case earlier I figured out what was causing my problem.

Really good advice. Any clear glaze in particular you'd recommend for the job?

• #5

I don't treat how the tape changes the audio of a guitar (seems to dampen the resonance), and not satisfied with the SM pigment, I tried the MG Chemicals nickel coating. You can spray or castor on, and it is superior to the SM stuff

Skilful to know for side by side time!

• #6

Really good advice. Any articulate glaze in particular y'all'd recommend for the job?

I have sprayed poly, shellac, and lacquer over it without issue. You can also use flat black paint is y'all don't like the glossy look.

• #7

The fact that copper tape resistance measures naught ohms between any two points, and shielding pigment typically doesn't, does non necessarily tell you much about rejection of common noise wavelengths. For pigment's resistance to ground, Fender/Squier ofttimes run separate footing wires to each painted cavity, then the centre of the cavity will accept the everyman resistance to basis. Who knows if they take good testing to bear witness that is meliorate than not doing it. Unfortunately nosotros don't have like shooting fish in a barrel objective tests for shielding performance / dissonance rejection. So the best exam of whether any shielding arroyo for cavities and pickguard is reducing your particular noise problems is to use your ears - brand a recording nether the same conditions, before and later on shielding.

• #8

So the best test of whether any shielding approach for cavities and pickguard is reducing your particular noise problems is to use your ears - make a recording under the same weather condition, before and subsequently shielding.

Too helps to look at the receipt for the shielding supplies while listening to the recording

• #9

Ilitch Noie Reduction Pickguard. Ive never found paint, tape, or foil to work.

• #10

I tried the MG Chemicals nickel blanket. You can spray or brush on, and information technology is superior to the SM stuff

I've switched to the MG Nickel hither at the shop. Faster than brushing on the ol' Stew Mac mess-maker, and the spray can won't leave you dried out later the terminal time you used it.

• #11

The carbon paint on my M&L measured 500 Ohms, but the shielding worked fine.

• #12

Thank yous all for the seriously helpful answers and communication!

I'yard waiting on a new pair of pickups to go far before I wire it back up. I'll let you know how well the shielding works in the end.

• #thirteen

+1 for the MG stuff. MUCH better than stewmac imho.

• #14

MG Chemicals Super Shield (Nickel)

• #xvi

I've constitute that shielding paint is near useless, and foil is only slightly better. Non that they shouldn't be used - they exercise work to some small-scale degree - just the return on time/investment is minimal at best. Best method is to use shielded cablevision as much as possible, although unless you have the patience of a saint, information technology's no fun to wire that way. But, it's much more effective in the range of interference we're concerned with.

• #17

I shield my single scroll cavities with aluminum tape (I don't shield my humbucker cavities). It'south cheap and information technology works every bit a adept shielding agent should. Nosotros're constructing a crude Faraday Cage after all. Here is the skinny on shielding from the belatedly, nifty Bill Lawrence:

"Now permit�s talk about aluminum. While aluminum has some of the best acoustical properties information technology has, past far, the worst properties to use for the bridge plate. Information technology�s like salt in a soup -- small quantities can perform miracles just likewise much will ruin your dinner. Aluminum has an extremely high eddy current potential and when placed under a pickup ( grounded or not grounded) can make a hum bucker hum similar a single coil, or make a single coil as placidity every bit a hum bucker. This all depends on the thickness of the plate. At virtually �� thickness your single gyre will exist as placidity as a hum bucker, but you lot likewise lose about threescore% output and virtually the same corporeality of highs. Leo used a .015 aluminum plate under the pick baby-sit of his 54 Strat to reduce some of the hum and the buzz and have a fiddling bit of the edge from the pickup, resulting in a very musical, sweet tone.

Aluminum has some foreign properties, and information technology�due south the only commercially bachelor metallic I know of that tin can eliminate the buzz caused past light dimmers. An inch thick copper or brass shield cannot reduce the buzz caused by lite dimmers but .003 thick aluminum foil can! This is known some thirty years and the reason why Belden introduced double shielded cable ( Copper braid plus aluminum foil). There is 1 problem for guitar cords -- the double shielding makes the cable as well stiff . Information technology helps quite a bit when you shield your guitar with copper and aluminum foil.

Attempt this test-- wire a single coil to a jack and plug it into your amp. Put the pickup on a table next to your amp. Have an aluminum pan from your kitchen and put it slowly on summit of your single scroll and lookout the hum disappear!"

The full read can be found here: http://world wide web.billlawrence.com/Pages/ForTeleLovers.htm

• #18

Ilitch Noie Reduction Pickguard. Ive never found pigment, tape, or foil to work.

that's two different jobs!

the ilitch ringlet or any other hum-canceling curl fixes the primary 60Hz hum. no amount of shielding will help with that unless it'southward also blocking the sound of the strings too.

shielding fixes that

extra buzz y'all hear when you lot let go of the strings.

anyhow, large +1 to the MG nickel supershield stuff, far and away meliorate than the messy and dull-drying stewmac paint.

i've only used the spray not the castor-on supershield, but the spray works amazingly well; 15 minutes of taping and masking the body for spraying, xxx seconds of spraying, five minutes for it to dry and you've got a solid glaze that reads down into low double digit Ohms across the entire crenel. if yous want to bother with a second coat (i don't run across the need) you can become down to copper foil resistances.

it also works perfectly on the backs of plastic plates and pickguards.

Final edited: January 24, 2020

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