Anodized 4003 Guards?

[DriftSpace]

There's this fellow (Wayne Richman) who runs a website called Tone-Guard.com; he makes custom anodized aluminum (and brass!) pick-guards for all sorts of stringed instruments. Unfortunately he has no Rickenbacker guards listed, but from my interactions with him I feel like it would be pretty easy to get him to make one; just send him an old guard to copy, and viola. (Craftsmanship seems to be pretty excellent from what I've seen first-hand; I had a stock Fender guard replaced, and his metal guard was of higher-quality than the stock Fender metal guard.)

Anyhow, I've been toying with the idea of getting an anodized guard for my newly acquired 4003, but after reading some of the threads here about shielding -- especially Mr. Hall saying he's not sold on the process -- I'm not sure if this would be anything but a cosmetic change, and thus am not sure if it's worthwhile. I recall a thread saying that additional grounding needs to happen if the "shielding" is going to touch any of the pots, and with a metal guard this is certainly inevitable.

What would I need to do differently as far as wiring if I were to purchase and install a metal pick-guard? Would it be as simple as making sure there is a ground running to the guard as well as the bridge, connecting a ground to the bridge ground, etc.?

[cassius987]

The anodized guard would be the same as if you shielded the bottom of a plastic guard with copper foil.

Shielding an instrument can help out and is not at all difficult. While grounding to a single point is sometimes encouraged I've never encountered a ground loop in a guitar circuit ever (I've shielded a nearly a dozen instruments for myself and others) so I put in several redundant grounds including the mechanical ones at the potentiometer bushings. You can check for continuity with a multimeter--for instance from the bridge to a pot shaft or a pickup surround, it should read 0 ohms if they are on a continuous ground.

The anodized guard would be best complemented with a few thin coats of carbon paint (3-4, and I stress thin so that the paint dries between coats) in the cavities of the guitar. I genuinely find this combination takes a lot of the noise out of a problematic guitar, independent of humbucking or RWRP. To connect the guard to the paint with a reliable mechanical connection, place strips of copper foil over the screw holes and the paint.

[DriftSpace]

Thanks so much; if I read that correctly: it sounds like I just install it and forget about it as soon as the cavities are shielded. I was under the impression from a post by Mr. Hall that shielding touching the pots (i.e. a full-metal guard) would create a ground loop, but I guess I can test that easily with a multimeter before buying the thing. Maybe I read his post wrong...

[cassius987]

No, I believe John Hall has said that. My experience is just different is all. He has done a lot of work for a major guitar company well before becoming CEO so he must have his reasons for being concerned about ground loops in a guitar; we are lucky John Hall is willing to share his thoughts with us. In my experience ground loops haven't been a problem in guitar circuits and it's better for me to just ground everything in multiple spots to guarantee good continuity. If the anodized guard doesn't work out for you because it touches the pots I'm sure someone else will want it.

[DriftSpace]

Isn't there a ground attached to the neck pickup of a 4003? When I bought the 1990 I took the guard off and there were some tiny bolts and nuts stuck to the neck pickup magnet, and a black wire which had obviously been attached to the pickup mounting ring; it had obviously come loose when one of those tiny bolts came off, as I could see a discolored spot on the mounting ring which matched the profile of the wire eyelet. I'm fairly certain this was a ground wire (why else would it be bolted to the mounting ring?) and I reattached it as indicated by the discoloration on the mounting ring.

(I'm still missing one tiny nut and it's bolt from one of the mounting ring corners, but this doesn't seem urgent.)

Anyhow, I would assume that since this mounting ring is grounded via that wire, and since the whole pickup is attached to the pick-guard, that being attached to a metal pick-guard (as opposed to plastic) would not interfere with the grounding of the instrument even if it is touching the pots; the pots would just have another path to ground through the guard.

I don't mean to waste anyone's time or anything; I'm not an electrician by any means nor am I incredibly familiar with the intricacies of Rickenbacker 4003 wiring; I just don't want to drop around $100 on a guard that may or may not work.

Though it is true that I probably could unload it without too much headache.

Thanks again, Joshua.

[cassius987]

Yes, the neck pickup mounting ring is, like the pots, tailpiece, and bridge pickup surround, grounded (even the tuners are grounded by the strings--I have checked), and it would also be continuous with the pickguard. I have lined pickguards with foil multiple times with no ill effects because of this.

The nice thing about a Ric is, even if you don't have a great shielding job, you can keep your thumb on one of a dozen or so places on the bass and any noise besides single coil hum should stop. (That's where RWRP and humbuckers come in.)

[DriftSpace]

Thanks again Joshua.
As soon as Richman gets back to me I'll order one.