Shielding paint on a Tele build - needed or not?

TimmyO

I read contradictory opinions - what are folks' experiences? 

stickyfiddle

Never had it on any of mine and had no trouble

Chalky

stickyfiddle said:

Never had it on any of mine and had no trouble

This.

Headphones

The stuff Fender put on quickly ceases to conduct - and no one seems to notice!

Chalky

And of course you won't find such shielding on a Gibson ES335 or 175 or Gretsch or Epi Casino, or (insert long list here).

Jimbro66

Chalky said:

And of course you won't find such shielding on a Gibson ES335 or 175 or Gretsch or Epi Casino, or (insert long list here).

In that type of guitar the signal route is often through shielded cable, unlike traditional Tele wiring etc. I have found that shielding a Tele control cavity and even the pickup cavity, either with conductive paint or conductive tape, can help a little in hum/noise reduction but you are still stuck with the non-humbucking single-coil pickup. With shielded cavities you have to be particularly careful about nothing in the signal path touching that shielding.

Some years back I used to do rewiring, pickup changes, etc as a sideline and remember a guy bringing along a guitar where he'd spent money on having the cavities treated with shielding paint (by someone else) and complaining that the paint had no effect. The paint wasn't grounded so of course it did nothing, but that was easy to rectify.

I think you either choose to live with the hum and control it like most Tele players do or use a stacked humbucker, where shielded cavities could have more effect. I love the sound of single coils but always have with me a guitar with traditional or stacked humbuckers for venues that are found to be electrically 'noisy'.

koneguitarist

Never found it an issue, had more problems with shielding causing shorts! 

axisus

Personally I'd do it anyway.

impmann

Leo didn't use it.

Therefore, needed it is not.

Danny1969

Mmm I've just had a jazz bass in as the owner said  its noisy as hell. Which it was . A bit of shielding helped matters , I see no harm, only improvement in doing it 

shuikit

impmann said:

Leo didn't use it.

Therefore, needed it is not.

At one point, Leo didn't think a truss rod was needed

impmann

shuikit said:

impmann said:

Leo didn't use it.

Therefore, needed it is not.

At one point, Leo didn't think a truss rod was needed

TBH, it wasn't needed at that point... those necks, if strung with the same gauge strings as they were designed for are fine.