Amp shielding

[rutledj]

What do you normally use for shielding the open side of the chassis (when mounted in the cabinet)? Foil tape or a thin piece of sheet metal?

Thanks,
Rut

[martin manning]

In many cases I have found it to be unnecessary, but if you can hear an improvement by laying a piece of sheet metal over the chassis then by all means add it. Foil tape will work, but the strips have to be electrically connected to each other and to the chassis. Your local home store should have 10-foot rolls of 0.010" bare aluminum flashing in various widths, which would be easier to work with and more durable.

[Stevem]

I have found that the need for it can depend heavily on if the bell end of the PT comes thru the chassis, and the lenght of the wire runs from whatever type of recto isused to the filter bank.

It will never hurt so I always do it, or added it to the amp.

If you don't have steel sheet or aluminum adhesive tape you can do what Fender did and staple in metal window screening.

I find with the tape that if I overlap it and then punch it into the wood with a philips screw driver that it will all have contenuity to each layer.

[Phil_S]

Heavy duty aluminum foil from your kitchen, smear glue on the cabinet, rub it on the glue 'til it's stuck. If you are care about contact with the rest of the chassis, double it over at one edge to insure it touches or use a bit of bare copper wire at the edge. It's cheap. It's easy to fit. Works well.

[JD0x0]

I've been using aluminum flashing material for roofs. You can get big rolls of it for like $20

[rutledj]

How do you normally attach it?

[Andy Le Blanc]

I found issues with how the input is grounded, and wire dress, the actual physical wire lay in the chassis, was more important than adding extra shielding.
Inside the chassis, some points in the layout are prone to capacitive coupling, long grid wires. Sometimes the choice of wire in a build will introduce more capacitance into the signal path, and increase "pick up". Chop sticking can reveal a lot, sometimes you have to back up and re-think. I would use a thin steel sheet over an aluminum. Mind that it has a sufficient ground contact.
It can be simply stapled in.

[Phil_S]

How do you normally attach it?

It can be attached with construction adhesive, which is very sticky or epoxy. These will resist any curl the metal might remember from being rolled up, or, as Andy says, staple it. As for grounding it, if the sheet extends so it makes contact with the chassis when you mount it, I don't think you need to do anything else.