Thunderhorse71 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 I was busy pimping out one of my favorite V's which is the worn cherry one and I was wondering about shielding on these? I was simply replacing the pick guard for a black one and noticed that all there is just the little piece of foil on the back of the pickguard and wondered if anyone ever went whole hog and shielded the whole cavity and pickguard back, and if so....was it even necessary. It's pretty sensitive to noise through the amp but just turning the gain down quiets it a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimi Mac Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 What year is it and what style/model humbuckers? It could be possible that the bridge pickup is unpotted and is potentially microphonic... This can be corrected with wax-potting it. But, Seth Lover, the designer of the original PAF was known to purposely leave bridge pickups unpotted to give it more bite and high end. Unpotted pickups can and will often be microphonic and melt-down with squeal and feedback at high gain settings, especially on a tube amp. It's often a tightrope walk and you can manage it with some serious effort, but unpotted pickups can and will also loosen-up over time from vibration from use and the looser an unpotted pickup the more vibration that rattles around in there to be even more microphonically reactive... It depends on if you're willing to sacrifice a bit of presence and high end output to quiet it down. You can have a luthier re-pot it or partially pot it if it is indeed unpotted... If that's not it, of course there are other things it could be, and I've never really had anyone speak much about sheilding and I suspect such shielding might not make much of a difference if the issue is a microphonic or unpotted pickup... Not sure how much help this is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderhorse71 Posted April 25, 2014 Author Share Posted April 25, 2014 No that addresses the issue well Mac. I think you're right that it's more of a crapshoot overall and would require a lot of trial hit and miss. Maybe when I'm retired (LOL!!) I'll have the time to run these experiments. It's the standard 490/498 combo unpotted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.