Has anyone ever shielded the inside of their Rickenbackers control cavity to cut down on ambient hum? Was it successful? Can you see the shielding tape through the pickguards?
Any thoughts or comments appreciated
Shielding a Rick
Moderators: rickenbrother, ajish4
Re: Shielding a Rick
Nick, try searching the Forum using the keyword "copper" or "shielding" ... here's one that came up when I tried it:
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=381055&p=426112&hi ... er#p426112
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=381055&p=426112&hi ... er#p426112
There are probably other such references to be found.johnallg wrote:Denatured alcohol is different than isopropyl. Denatured is available at any hardware store, like Ace or such.
My shielded Ricks are a lot quieter than the unshielded ones, only noticeable around EMF fields, like the trannies in my amps, or the TV in the kitchen, the digital display on the microwave, or the big TV about 6 feet through a wall away from where I stand in the practice room. If that tv is on, with high gain pups, I get "the buzz", which ain't the good type.With shielding, only fields that are directly in front of the pickups gives buzzing.
It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing. - Seneca
Re: Shielding a Rick
Hi Nicolas,
Wow, there HAS been a number of posts on this topic.
John Hall has said on the company forum.....sorry I don't have the link, I saved this to my notepad.....
"RIC CEO Posted: 11/14/2005 9:24:00 AM
Cavity shielding done poorly is much worse than no shielding. It's a bit of a black art and one that needs much trial and error. However, the most important rule is to avoid ground loops at all cost, i.e. each point should only tie into one point of ground connection.
As an example, in the case of our guitars, there's a daisy chain ground from one pot to the next; mount these pots with a piece of foil on the pickguard at ground and you'll be hearing Radio Moscow. Either remove the daisy chain or cut donuts around the mounting flange so the pot shell doesn't touch it.
If you do cover the cavity with foil, make sure there's only one ground contact, preferably near the output jack ground/mounting flange. (In fact this is the best point for ALL grounds to terminate."
THAT being said, I had my luthier COPPER SHIELD two of my RIC's and one of my "back up" basses.
Keep in mind, that I play in a few different churches. The WORST of the bunch has VERY OLD wax dipped cotton wrap wiring, about 40 Radio Shack dimmer switches installed and VERY OLD fluorescent lighting. The ballasts are SO bad, the buzz they put out competes with our PA system!
When I moved my 2006 4003 Monty around like an old rabbit ear antenna, the noise went from BAD to WORSE. The shielding job made a HUGE difference. Without the shielding, I had to use a Sansamp DI and cut out almost ALL the mids & highs.
I can't remember the rule of thumb here, but something to the tune of shielding will not cure SINGLE COIL NOISE, but it can help with external noise sources.
All I can say is in my situation, the shielding did a great job on filtering out the external noise. I also have a RIC that someone had shielded before I bought it. Someome butchered it up good, that bass has Alembic pickups (normally dead quiet ANYWHERE I play) and I get some hum when I turn it up. One of these days, I'll have it fixed as well.
This may also help....
http://www.rickresource.com/phpBB3/view ... raday+cage
This is what my luthier called it....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
I hope this helps!
Wow, there HAS been a number of posts on this topic.
John Hall has said on the company forum.....sorry I don't have the link, I saved this to my notepad.....
"RIC CEO Posted: 11/14/2005 9:24:00 AM
Cavity shielding done poorly is much worse than no shielding. It's a bit of a black art and one that needs much trial and error. However, the most important rule is to avoid ground loops at all cost, i.e. each point should only tie into one point of ground connection.
As an example, in the case of our guitars, there's a daisy chain ground from one pot to the next; mount these pots with a piece of foil on the pickguard at ground and you'll be hearing Radio Moscow. Either remove the daisy chain or cut donuts around the mounting flange so the pot shell doesn't touch it.
If you do cover the cavity with foil, make sure there's only one ground contact, preferably near the output jack ground/mounting flange. (In fact this is the best point for ALL grounds to terminate."
THAT being said, I had my luthier COPPER SHIELD two of my RIC's and one of my "back up" basses.
Keep in mind, that I play in a few different churches. The WORST of the bunch has VERY OLD wax dipped cotton wrap wiring, about 40 Radio Shack dimmer switches installed and VERY OLD fluorescent lighting. The ballasts are SO bad, the buzz they put out competes with our PA system!
When I moved my 2006 4003 Monty around like an old rabbit ear antenna, the noise went from BAD to WORSE. The shielding job made a HUGE difference. Without the shielding, I had to use a Sansamp DI and cut out almost ALL the mids & highs.
I can't remember the rule of thumb here, but something to the tune of shielding will not cure SINGLE COIL NOISE, but it can help with external noise sources.
All I can say is in my situation, the shielding did a great job on filtering out the external noise. I also have a RIC that someone had shielded before I bought it. Someome butchered it up good, that bass has Alembic pickups (normally dead quiet ANYWHERE I play) and I get some hum when I turn it up. One of these days, I'll have it fixed as well.
This may also help....
http://www.rickresource.com/phpBB3/view ... raday+cage
This is what my luthier called it....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faraday_cage
I hope this helps!