Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hey guys,

So I was able to successfully install a Waldo TPC-1 (Unity Gain) on my Ibanez AR305 with some adjustments and wanted to ask a question or two. In the first pic you can see these older Ibanez appear to have a sort of metal shell for shielding the electronics cavity (lying south outside the cavity in the picture below). I used this to my advantage attaching both a battery clip and the buffer itself to it using velcro in hopes of minimal disturbance to the stock electronics. Although there appears to be plenty of space for the new components, there does seem to be some compression of the connecting wires - but so far I am assuming that as long as there isn't a lot of repetitive opening and closing other than changing the battery, it shouldn't damage the wiring.



In this second pic, you can see there is also shield for the hole where the jack goes. Unfortunately, the stereo jack I ordered from Stewmack was just slightly too big to fit through the hole - additionally the three connector nodes/points on the stereo jack all touched the inside of the shield 'as is' without attempting to bend them. I installed it without the shield assuming I could always go back and enlarge the hole in the shield but wasn't so sure about attempting to bend the nodes the wires connect to - any thoughts on that? There does not appear to be any increase in noise from not installing the shield and I of course saved it if I need to retro-fit it.



I haven't had much time to test drive it other than to make sure it really works. My intial impression is very positive in that now I really can distinguish the differences in the tri-sound switch settings for the pickups where as before they seemed really subtle - I am looking forward to learning all of the variations in tone I can get there. I haven't pushed it through my effects yet but I have practice tonight so am toally looking foward to it. Thanks to everyone for your help and insight!!!

Interesting shielding concept! You should be able to enlarge that hole to fit the jack through- maybe just a file? You might be able to bend the lugs on the jack, I'd do it outside the guitar and stick a plug in the jack while you do it to see where everything will end up when plugged in. In any case- if you go back to the jack shield I'd make sure it was insulated- either the inside of the metal shield or around the jack- to make sure you don't ground out anywhere in there. Electrical tape?

There are two camps on shielding. I do it. It doesn't hurt (some even disagree on that) but on most guitars I'd be surprised if you noticed any difference without it. Particularly the shield for the jack hole!

Well done.

TI4-1009 wrote:Interesting shielding concept! You should be able to enlarge that hole to fit the jack through- maybe just a file? You might be able to bend the lugs on the jack, I'd do it outside the guitar and stick a plug in the jack while you do it to see where everything will end up when plugged in. In any case- if you go back to the jack shield I'd make sure it was insulated- either the inside of the metal shield or around the jack- to make sure you don't ground out anywhere in there. Electrical tape?

There are two camps on shielding. I do it. It doesn't hurt (some even disagree on that) but on most guitars I'd be surprised if you noticed any difference without it. Particularly the shield for the jack hole!

Well done.

A well shielded guitar can make a world of difference. I've tried to make sure all my instruments are well shielded. The only one I've had trouble with is my '67 Starfire bass with early 70s Alembic electronics. Getting everything shielded inside there, even with a door cut in the back, is a bear.