Experimented with Copper Foil Tape...

dr bonkers

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The selector switch in my 2012 PRS SE Singlecut with Trem finally died. No Deoxit could bring in back to life.

So while I had the guitar open to replace the faulty component with a Siwtchcraft selector switch and Bourns 500K Ohm low friction volume pot (while the soldering iron is out, why not?), I decided to foil tape the control cavity to see if it truly cut down on the RF.

Truly amazing! The guitar is now so quiet when plugged in and not playing.

Totally recommended. I think perhaps I should do my Rickenbacker 4003 next when I have time.
 
I have a PRS Mira Soapbar I need to do some switch work on, perhaps I should do the same. Where did you get the foil tape?
 
I always do this to my guitars. It's a bit of work and you end up with tiny cuts all over your hands but it's worth it.
My wife was telling me I was out of control when she saw me taping the cavity.

She asked me if I was going to do this to all my guitars and basses. At the time I was skeptical.

After hearing the taped up guitar re-assembled and plugged in, she said that totally made a difference. I think I am addicted.
 
I've had good luck with shielding paint. Give the cavity a solid couple of coats and a good ground connection and my partscaster strat's super quiet. And no bleeding or soldering required!
 
I've used both foil and the conductive paint. Foil tends to be cheaper, easier to apply, and only takes one pass to do the job. The conductive paint is usually more expensive, can be messy (remember to mask off the areas around the cavities to prevent accidents!), and requires a couple of coats to do the job. I tend to go with the foil now.
 
I prefer tape over paint. Stewmac has some great deals on the tape every so often. I have never been able to get the paint to have continuity throughout without at least two thick coats, and the mess associated. If using copper tape, make sure the adhesive is conductive or that you "connect" all the pieces with a drop of solder. The Stewmac stuff is conductive and takes about 20 minutes to do a strat or tele (I've done many).
 
Also, doing this cuts down on the EMI from my computer/monitor dramatically. I can now sit right in front of it (2 feet away) and almost no noise at all, amazing.
 
I'm another one that does this with every guitar. Once you rule out the possibility of the ground being an issue, it gets easier to troubleshoot noise.
 
I've used the stuff they sell at the hardware as Slug and Snail barrier, same thing, copper foil tape but cheaper than luthier brand..

Edit: In fact, here's a little vid i made a while back fixing up an el-cheapo no name bass, Slug and Snail barrier highlight around the 0:18 sec mark .... :sunglasses:

(All parts played with the bass pictured) (except the drums)
 
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Any change of posting a picture? Curious how you handled the ground to the copper tape.
I've had great success just soldering the ground to the back of one of the pots, typically the volume pot. If you don't want to solder more than one wire to it, use a 'star' washer (from an old pot) and attach it to the wire connected to the pot. I like these washers for the simple reason that the ground wires can be separated into the different 'slots'. Makes pickup and pot replacement much easier.

Some might consider it overkill but a light sanding of the pot washers as well a the pot housing, where the washers contact them, helps reduce the possibility of a break in the ground at any point. To test conductivity, I test from the housing or casing of all pots and switches in the cavity to the bridge, baseplate or tremolo.

I might be a bit anal but if it even registers 0.01 ohms, I'll rework the contact points to get absolute zero on my multimeter.
 
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Doest this only affect the noise that happens when you take your hands off the strings? My prs custom 22 soapbar hums as you expect but there is no extra noise when I'm not touching the strings. It's shielded with paint
 
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