Monday, February 5, 2007

Shielding Test

Here is the first update of the Squier project. So far I've removed the pickguard, cut the wires between the input jack and bridge ground, and removed the pots, pickups, and switch from the pickguard itself. Here's the stock pickguard pre-surgery. Note the sorry excuse for shielding around the pots and switch. Also, note the poor ground and soldering on the tone pot in the second picture down. All these things need to be remedied.
This is the shielded pickguard before the componants go back on. Shielded pickguard with componants back on. This is the shielded body cavity. Tonight, I'll solder the input jack back on and move the bridge ground wire to a more logical location. "Shielding" a stratocaster (or any guitar with single-coil pickups) makes the pickups quieter, eliminating the annoying HUMMMMMMM coming out of the amp when you're not touching anything, and makes the tone clearer and a bit louder when playing. Sadly for Roscommon, this means that you can turn your amp up louder without worrying about humming and tone loss. Essentially, you can crank your guitar and amp and finally hear the dynamics in your guitar, your amp, and your playing without having to worry about wheather you're standing too close to your Computer Monitor/TV/Amp/Anything with a magnetic field that pulls on your pickups.

7 comments:

homebase said...

Oh, my, aren't you afraid you might blow the whole thing up if it gets too loud? Are you selling this or what? do rich musicians have someone do this or just buy those $$$martins or fenders?

Caboose said...

...BOOM!!!!!

Stoppable said...

great work -- the pick guard is dramatically different! (well different looking anyway, I have to assume that translates into different dymanics)

Stoppable said...

hey!
what happened to the clock?

Caboose said...

Hey Stoppable, what's the molecule in your profile pic?

Caboose said...

The clock changed to a more readable clock. Did you like the old one?

Stoppable said...

i loved the old clock, it took a bit of getting used to, but i did think it did a better job of telling the "hour portions" than a standard clock. i.e. - if it's 20min to 3, that's a 1/3 of the hour etc.

the molecule (good eye there, it is a molecule and not an atom) is my favorite substance on the planet.