Jazzmaster carbon shielding

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Vallely
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Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Vallely » Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:59 am

I’ve got a problem with my Fender Thurston Moore jazzmaster after carbon (graphite) shielding. Story starts when I took my guitar to local tech to do something with a static noise. He decided to make carbon shielding to kill it all. To be honest, 60’ circle hum never bothers me at all, but static started to be a huge problem. Anyway, result- no noise and hum at all. But, it feels like with hum and noise I’ve lost some low end, I believe. Maybe, less harmonics content. I don’t know. But something definitely different with my guitar after shielding. I mean, it sounds ok, but before shielding it sounded more meaty and full. In comparison with my other jm, bridge pickup sound just like neck one on my 62 avri jazzmaster.
Any thoughts?
Maybe someone experienced how to remove carbon shielding without hurting nitro?

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by HarlowTheFish » Tue Jul 06, 2021 10:52 am

Unless your tech went in and shielded the inside of the pickup covers (which literally nobody except Dirk Wacker at Premier Guitar does, and even he's a bit iffy on whether it's worth it) there's basically nothing that shielding the body cavities and pickguard would do to your tone unless it's a really poorly-done and poorly-connected job.

What can happen is that, when you have noise in your signal, you basically always have a 60hz (and harmonics thereof) tone going while you're playing. It's not a huge thing and you often can't hear it while playing, but it changes the way amps and pedals down the chain react to the input signal. I've definitely had guitars where the response from the amp changed a bit when I added shielding, but it was always clearer (because there's less interference) and, obviously, quieter, and never anything drastic. The biggest change was my old G&L, and all it took to get it back to how it sounded before was maybe a tiny touch on the bass knob of my amp.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Vallely » Tue Jul 06, 2021 11:19 am

Thanks for reply! No, he definitely didn’t do anything inside pickups covers and even under the pickups. I usually play on Princeton amp, so I got used to the sound and the difference much noticeable on clean, when I engage drive pedals there’s no dramatic change to my ears. It’s really hard to explain the difference, feels like mojo gone with all the hum, I believe. And I start feeling myself like paranoid.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Jul 06, 2021 12:51 pm

I've shielded dozens of guitars at this point, I have never noticed any loss of anything especially "mojo", other than a loss of noise.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Vallely » Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:02 pm

Mojo doesn’t mean anything in technical terms, I would say low mids and low end loose.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by tequila_in_teacups » Tue Jul 06, 2021 2:50 pm

Check the pickup heights? Maybe your tech didn’t put them back exactly as they were when reassembling after shielding.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Jul 06, 2021 3:43 pm

Vallely wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 1:02 pm
Mojo doesn’t mean anything in technical terms, I would say low mids and low end loose.
I'm skeptical- the internet lore is always that adding shielding will remove some high end from your guitar's output. I don't believe that it does to any noticeable degree.

I have never heard of anyone even claiming that shielding would remove low end.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by HarlowTheFish » Tue Jul 06, 2021 4:24 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 3:43 pm
I'm skeptical- the internet lore is always that adding shielding will remove some high end from your guitar's output. I don't believe that it does to any noticeable degree.

I have never heard of anyone even claiming that shielding would remove low end.
You know how sometimes when you play a really iffy interval low down it sounds kinda gross but also big and fat? Speaking from experience, if your noise problems are bad enough, they can cause a similar effect through an amp, so IMO it's probably not so much that the tone changed, but that there's a bunch less interference cluttering up the signal.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Larry Mal » Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:01 pm

HarlowTheFish wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 4:24 pm


You know how sometimes when you play a really iffy interval low down it sounds kinda gross but also big and fat? Speaking from experience, if your noise problems are bad enough, they can cause a similar effect through an amp, so IMO it's probably not so much that the tone changed, but that there's a bunch less interference cluttering up the signal.
Yeah, that could easily be it. I mean, the noise (EFI and RFI) certainly would have an effect of "thickening" the tone of the guitar, since in effect there are other frequencies crowding into the actual note frequencies that the guitar is producing.

I could see that- the guitar sounds more thin because previously it was outputting various notes + crap and now it's just outputting the notes.
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by Vallely » Wed Jul 07, 2021 6:02 am

Thanks for all your replies, guys! So what I’ve found is that my tech soldered additional ground wire to my volume pot, so I’ll cut it and see. Yesterday I tried to mess with a pickup heights and it helped a bit.
And as HarlowTheFish and Larry Mal mentioned I think I hear now how my guitar sounds without additional noise. It’s weird, because last 10 years I’ve only played on jazzmaster style guitars and it seems I’ve got used to all that hum and noise, so my brain defines it as a part of the tone!

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Re: Jazzmaster carbon shielding

Post by jorri » Tue Jul 13, 2021 3:23 pm

Larry Mal wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 7:01 pm
HarlowTheFish wrote:
Tue Jul 06, 2021 4:24 pm


You know how sometimes when you play a really iffy interval low down it sounds kinda gross but also big and fat? Speaking from experience, if your noise problems are bad enough, they can cause a similar effect through an amp, so IMO it's probably not so much that the tone changed, but that there's a bunch less interference cluttering up the signal.
Yeah, that could easily be it. I mean, the noise (EFI and RFI) certainly would have an effect of "thickening" the tone of the guitar, since in effect there are other frequencies crowding into the actual note frequencies that the guitar is producing.

I could see that- the guitar sounds more thin because previously it was outputting various notes + crap and now it's just outputting the notes.
Yeh and noise can mask some unpleasantness to certain treble sounds, such as uneven frequencies and attack. Wasnt there a composer who wrote at the piano with a detuned radio because he thought it sounded better? Well it is a similar difference to, for example, playing with cymbals of a mix, or even reverb. But is it really desirable, not exactly. Maybe it even gives an 'impression' of being a treble exciter because the frequencies are just there. Well it most likely hides parts of the sound that arent as great.

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