Shielding cavities before finishing?

[Tommy Tourbus]

would it work to paint the cavities of a raw wood body with shielding paint before the guitar is painted? So that the shielding paint is under the final color. Would it's shielding effect be effective?

[bluesrules]

As long as you have a wire hooked to a screw or something before you apply the paint it should be fine. Then solder the wire to the electrical ground on the controls after.

[testing1two]

Fender uses this exact practice. They put a screw into the body to in order to break through the lacquer and make contact with the shielding paint.

[Tommy Tourbus]

wha...?? a screw?? are there instructions w/pics for this anywhere?

[Jagsound]

Any shielding has to be grounded or it don't work - that means there has to be an electrical connection between the shield and, say the back of a pot in the guitar. Were you talking about just painting the inside of the cavities with shielding paint or the whole guitar?

Seems like you just meant the cavities, and it should work fine as long as you have the layer of shielding paint connected to ground, hence the reason for driving a screw into it, then you can solder a wire from the back of the screw to the closest ground point available.

[bluesrules]

Originally Posted by Jagsound

then you can solder a wire from the back of the screw to the closest ground point available.

I just want to add that "star grounding" is the best way to avoid unessecary ground loops.

Star grounding is taking all the ground wires and soldering them to one point, like the back of the volume knob.

To OP: I would put the screw with wire in the body before you start the shielding paint, that way it get's the best connection to ground. Also put shielding paint on the screw as you paint the area around it just to make sure.

[Tommy Tourbus]

Originally Posted by bluesrules

I just want to add that "star grounding" is the best way to avoid unessecary ground loops.

Star grounding is taking all the ground wires and soldering them to one point, like the back of the volume knob.

To OP: I would put the screw with wire in the body before you start the shielding paint, that way it get's the best connection to ground. Also put shielding paint on the screw as you paint the area around it just to make sure.

I'm going to be doing a tele body routed just like that one. will i have to ground each cavity with the screw/wire?

[Jagsound]

Originally Posted by bluesrules

I just want to add that "star grounding" is the best way to avoid unessecary ground loops.

Star grounding is taking all the ground wires and soldering them to one point, like the back of the volume knob.

Very good advice - if you have the opportunity to star ground it then it is definitely worth doing.