My Chinese P-bass clone S101 Standard bass guitar was suffering from a creaky and static prone Tone control. And from electrical interference humming generally.

It is the heaviest of my bass flotilla with super bright strings hard for me to control, floating thumb or not.

And it was a gift so all I had in it was $30 for a strap and new strings, very piano sounding strings.

I’ve had it on Craigslist for a few weeks but today I decided to fix the dirty tone potentiometer with some toxic spray I have, liquid plutonium or whatever, wish I’d masked up, cough.

And I also happened to have a roll of this copper Elk brand foil tape for Faraday cage type shielding, $17 usd. So I figured it would sell or trade better on Craigslist if it sounds better, though it already sounded good with the super bright D’Addario roundwound strings on it.

The V/T Controls do turn easier now and most of the Tone crackle is gone.

I’d never used the thin copper tape before but it turned out to be pretty easy, only hard part was pulling the thin copper from the backing paper with thumbnail after cutting to shape with scissors.

Here I’m ready to install the loaded pickguard.

I tighten up all fasteners, these things really vibrate.

I flattened the neck for a lower action and tuned it up, raised the E string to cut buzz. And I was impressed. Humming and static are gone.

Of course as soon as I played it using my new used BOSS chorus pedal I fell in love with it, no static or humming whatsoever. This copper Elk tape stuff really works. And Aerosol Death Vapor really does clean pots a bit. Now I know.

Heavy? Well, I’ll play it sitting down. The bright strings will be what the US Army calls Valuable Training. I’m in love again. So beat it, Craigslist, it’s all mine.

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