DIY Pedalboard help?

[pinhedgtr]

So I've built a wedge shaped pedalboard to make life a little easier, but I have a question about shieling. I have the input and loop connections on the top right side of the board and the electrical on the left side of the board. With the electrical, I wired a powerstrip to a panel mount 3 prong Male AC plug. I am getting some hum from the wall warts hooked up to the powerstrip. I've tried moving the powerstrip around to different places underneath the board and it helps a little, but it's still not a quiet as I would like.

Would it be helpful to line underneath the wedge with aluminum foil or something to help block the interference?

Thanks in advance,

Brian

 

[pinhedgtr]

here's a crappy picture :lol:

 

[kiff]

I assume the pedalboard is made of wood... correct? Your signal wires need to always be surrounded by metal to shield it. If the board is made of metal then everything should be ok, but otherwise you'll need to shield it inside the board also. Also, keeping the signal wires away from power sources will help too, but the shielding is even more critical

Are you using shielded cables inside the board?

 

[pinhedgtr]

Thanks for your quick reply!

Yes the pedalboard is made of wood, and the cables are shielded as well. they are actually soldered onto the 3 jacks on the side of the pedalboard.

So you are saying that I should shield the entire inside of the pedalboard? Is this something that could be done with aluminum foil?

Thanks,
Brian

 

[kiff]

well, if the cables are shielded then it should be ok. lining the inside with foil (and connecting it to ground) can help, but I don't think that's the problem you're having. are the jacks shielded? if there's a break in the shielding there, then that could be an issue

 

[pinhedgtr]

The jacks might be the problem, they are just radio shack input jacks like this one:

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103379

They are soldered to the cables and there is probabbly about a 1/2" of wire going to them that are not shielded. How would I go about shielding them?

Also, I think it may be a problem with the powerstrip as well, cause the hum definitely gets louder and quiter when I move it around in there. I wonder if building like a little isolation box around the powerstrip would be helpful?

Thanks again!
B

 

[kiff]

yea, that unshielded area could be the problem. make a small box/covering with foil to test if it fixes it. make sure the foil touches the shield/ground of the jack or it probably won't help. if that does the trick then make a permanent covering with some sheet metal or something.

 

[pinhedgtr]

Awesome, thanks for your suggestions Kiff! I'll give that a try tonite and see what happens.

Thanks,
B