Humbucker cavities - any point shielding them?

Megii

I'm just starting to fit a new set of (non-covered) buckers to my Shine SIL-510. Just wondering if it really matters much from a noise point of view if the pickup cavities (similar to those on a Les Paul Standard I guess) are shielded in any way? After all, the pickups already have earthed baseplates, which must have some shielding effect, and also shielded coax connecting wires.

I have to confess I did already shield the cavities when I fitted the previous set of pups - copper foil covered with tape to prevent electrical contact with the bucker baseplates, and joined to the main control cavity shielding with short runs of wire. But it looks messy and a bit of a faff really, so it would seem to me a cleaner, neater job if I could just rip out the shielding in the humbucker cavities.

Cheers for reading, and thanks for any advice guys.

OilCityPickups

Not really in my opinion

Megii

TheGuitarWeasel said:

Not really in my opinion

That's an expert opinion, so good enough for me - cheers @TheGuitarWeasel ;

ICBM

+1. Not necessary. There's particularly no point in running wires back to the control cavity. If you really want to shield them, just do the sides and connect them to the pickup - no need to isolate them from the baseplates at all. You still won't have any shielding on the tops of the coils anyway, which is where it matters more.

Megii

ICBM said:

+1. Not necessary. There's particularly no point in running wires back to the control cavity. If you really want to shield them, just do the sides and connect them to the pickup - no need to isolate them from the baseplates at all. You still won't have any shielding on the tops of the coils anyway, which is where it matters more.

A second expert opinion, cheers, appreciated @ICBM. Take your point re connecting the shielding back the control cavity also, and will bear that in mind for future reference. But I'm doing work on the guitar as we speak, and the pickup cavity shielding is already a thing of the past, having been ripped out half an hour ago. Just getting the pickups in their surrounds and fitted, ready to be wired in later.