# Shielding a guitar pedal



## Impasse (Dec 9, 2009)

This is music-related at heart, but it's really an electrical problem.

I picked up a wah pedal at a pawn shop for half the retail price. That's a huge difference in price, as wah pedals are as overpriced as guitar pedals get (seriously, a hundred and twenty for a crossover circuit and a pot? I'd make the pedal myself but Radioshack doesn't sell the parts), but it was in the pawn shop 'cause there was no battery cover, and the rack-and-pinion assembly was rather stiff.

It also picks up AM radio.

I know it's not the amp or instrument. The radio only comes through when the pedal is engaged and all the way back. So what I need to do, I guess, is shield the circuitry. The pedal has a cast-iron case and aluminum bottom, with the only openings being the battery case on the bottom and a spot at the top for the pot. These are probably fairly elementary questions but I actually have very little knowledge about electricity and circuitry:

-Does metal shield a circuit from radio signals?
-If it does, can I just slap a metal plate on the bottom?
-If it doesn't, how else can I shield the pedal?


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## Sinjo (Dec 10, 2009)

The only thing that would shield it is tinfoil ( reflective side facing out) or lead.

The radio, however should not affect a pedal, that's weird.


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## Tovarich Volk (Dec 13, 2009)

Impasse said:


> This is music-related at heart, but it's really an electrical problem.
> 
> I picked up a wah pedal at a pawn shop for half the retail price. That's a huge difference in price, as wah pedals are as overpriced as guitar pedals get (seriously, a hundred and twenty for a crossover circuit and a pot? I'd make the pedal myself but Radioshack doesn't sell the parts), but it was in the pawn shop 'cause there was no battery cover, and the rack-and-pinion assembly was rather stiff.
> 
> ...



 Check the cabling on it as well. A metal shield will provide RFI shielding, but if you're in a doom/stoner metal band, and the radio station your pedal picks up is a religious station, I wouldn't change a thing.


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