Jazzmaster Shielding and Grounding

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unenlightened
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Jazzmaster Shielding and Grounding

Post by unenlightened » Thu Feb 10, 2011 1:44 pm

Hello All:

BRAND new to Jazzmasters. longtime curious, but always aligned w/ Stratocasters & Epiphones. the time has come...

so i am putting together a Jazzmaster from parts acquired here and there, and want to know about shielding. Generally, what happens if I don't shield any of the cavities? if i don't shield the pickguard? what should i use to shield - cavity shields, pickup shields, etc can all be easily got, but so can shielding tape - what's best at doing what it's supposed to do (i presume eliminate 60 cycle interference?)

Thanks everyone, I appreciate your help and advice.

ryan.
Last edited by unenlightened on Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:32 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by ohm-men » Thu Feb 10, 2011 10:15 pm

Jazzmasters tend to be noisy on the bridge or neck pu, so shielding takes care of this.
It dampens the 60 cycle hum a lot. esp when only playing neck or bridge pick up. Due o their wide flat wound coils, the jazzmaster Pu's pick up a lot of interference. hence the shielding.
I you only shield the pg, it won't help that much.
Best is to shield all caveties with self adhesive copper foil and also make sure it hangs over the caveties so it makes contact with the pg shield as well.
You can solder all you grounds to the foil as well, making wiring a bit more neat.
This eliminates most if not all 60 cycle hum when done correctly.

Some sources also state that shielding paint will help. But from my expirience, the copper tape works much, much better. Aluminum tape is also just a halfway solution imho.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Feb 10, 2011 11:43 pm

I used the paint. It was easy, and the guitar is quiet as can be now. A lot of that might be the fact that I also had new pickups and electronics done at the same time.

The paint was easy to do, but you'll need to ground it. All I did was put a screw in attached to some wiring, and run that to a pot... I forget which one, I think the main volume. I painted over it with the conductive paint. From there it went to ground. I also did the copper shielding for the pickguard from Rothstein guitars. That wasn't grounded other than what happens naturally, if that makes sense.

I'll be doing it with my future Jazzmasters, that's for sure, unless they have some historic value.
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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by unenlightened » Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:04 am

Thanks guys! Does anyone have an opinion on paint vs shielding accessories such as these - http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/elec ... shield.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

thanks again - can't wait to get er put together!

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by unenlightened » Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:17 am

unenlightened wrote:Thanks guys! Does anyone have an opinion on paint vs shielding accessories such as these - http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/elec ... shield.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

thanks again - can't wait to get er put together!
Any further pointers? really appreciate the help!

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by Britfingers » Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:34 am

those are not really accessories, all the vintage and avri have these brass tubs.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by unenlightened » Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:38 am

Britfingers wrote:those are not really accessories, all the vintage and avri have these brass tubs.
very well... so do they do a superior job to paint/foil tape for shielding and reducing hum/noise? i am not trying to be "vintage correct" or anything, i simply want a guitar that sounds great and records well...

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by theworkoffire » Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:56 am

I can't speak for paint - never used it - but I've used both brass tubs and copper paint in Jazzmasters, and tape on every other guitar I've made. Properly done, tape will give absolutely perfect results. If anything, the tubs are less effective, since they leave gaps at the sides by the pickups and in the rhythm cavity. They're also more prone to rattling, and aren't easy to fit.

Just make sure you use tape with conductive adhesive.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by Britfingers » Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:01 am

I think you posted an ebay link somehwere didnt you Ben? With the stuff you use.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by Larry Mal » Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:10 am

How are the shielding tubs grounded? That's my question about them... I honestly probably would have used them had I known about them when I rebuilt my guitar, but I am not sure how to ground them.

What I did with the paint was, I drilled a screw into the body, and covered that with the paint, and soldered that to one of the pots- the volume, as I recall. Whatever the other main ground was soldered to. From there, the interference should be attracted to the shielding, and find the path of least resistance by running harmlessly to the ground. If there was no connection to the ground, then nothing would be accomplished, really. How do you do that otherwise?

Honestly, "shielding" is sort of a misnomer, you aren't keeping anything out, you are making electrical interference go where it won't be found by the pickups and then amplified.
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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by theworkoffire » Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:16 am

Britfingers wrote:I think you posted an ebay link somehwere didnt you Ben? With the stuff you use.
Yep - here: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... ay#p638631

The shielding tubs are grounded via wires to each other and to either the guard shield, the volume pot casing or the jack sleeve. Vintage, and I think AVRI JMs and Jags have the pickup grounds soldered directly to the tubs and grounded to the jack elsewhere.

The parts layout diagram on the Fender website shows it really well.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by unenlightened » Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:01 pm

Great! thank you all so much for the opinions. I believe I'll go w/ the conductive tape for starts. Really, hum has never been too big of a bee in my bonnet - if a guitar sounds right tonally and there's a bit of hum, i'm a-ok with that - hence/since i've always been a single-coil/p-90 guy anyways. so we'll see how the tape goes. thanks again for your input. oh motorik: when you say "wiped the cavities out with meth" what does this mean to the unenlightened? thanks!

i will say, i'm a touch intimidated w/ putting my offset together, wiring/soldering and all being my greatest fear. BUT i just found this forum last week and am getting a little more familiar w/ some of the issues i can expect, so kudos to y'all as a community for a wonderful resource.

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding

Post by theworkoffire » Mon Feb 14, 2011 2:01 pm

unenlightened wrote: oh motorik: when you say "wiped the cavities out with meth" what does this mean to the unenlightened? thanks!
methylated spirits - naphtha, lighter fuel or any solvent that can clear out any dust without melting your paint job will work just as well.

Good luck! :)

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding and Grounding

Post by unenlightened » Wed Mar 02, 2011 11:38 am

I've shielded all cavities and the pickguard w/ conductive Copper Foil Tape. What's the best way to ground everything? Some say a screw into the wall will do it, others, solder to the back of a pot (makes me nervous) still others say simply solder to copper foil... there is a hole drilled from the tailpiece route to the control route - assuming this is for grounding the strings via the tailpiece - how should i go about this? I understand they used to just run the ground wire and staple it here? is that a viable long term way to do it?

Basically, I'm an almost absolute novice w/ soldering/wiring/grounding/electronics. i do have a wiring diagram that I am pretty sure i understand, but some of these "simpler" issues i could appreciate a very "dumbed down" explanation of! So thank you in advance.

can't wait to get the partsmaster up and running....

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Re: Jazzmaster Shielding and Grounding

Post by theworkoffire » Wed Mar 02, 2011 1:57 pm

There are some pretty clear photos of my last JM build here, showing exactlly how it was shielded and grounded: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... 45#p632520

That might help.

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