DIY in/out connection box question. Shielding?

Ok, you got your soldering iron and nothing is going to hold you back, but you have no clue where to start or what to build. There were others before you with the same questions... read them first.
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R_Rbnsn
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Joined: 20 Sep 2011, 22:36

Post by R_Rbnsn »

Hi everyone,

So here's my problem...

I wanted a little box to handle all the in and out connections from my pedalboard, so rather than having to connect 4 cables in 4 places to set up I'd just have to plug them all into a single box. So I ordered a 4-way patch box from Loopmaster, but when it arrived and I set it up it seemed the box would add a hum into my guitar signal. After a lot of experimentation we discovered the metal box seemed to be responsible for the problem, and so we moved all the jacks into a plastic enclosure with all the wire connections soldered direct to the jack (as pictured) and it seemed to sort the problem.

I've been using it without issue for over a year now, until at my last gig it became apparent there was a break in one of the cables coming out of the box. Obviously as it was all soldered direct to the sockets I couldn't do anything about it until afterwards, so I've now decided to make the "out" connections of the box into jack connections, so I can quickly replace a problematic cable should there be a problem in future.

So I unsoldered all the previous direct to cable connections and fitted the new jack sockets onto the side of the box, and then just wired from one jack socket onto the other, one lug to another straight across. I just tried testing it however and it seems I'm now getting some interference when I use the box, it's nowhere near as bad as it was with the metal enclosure but still noticeable enough to be a problem. When I take the box out of the equation the buzzing disappears so it's definitely that, plus when I am running through the box if I move it around by hand the buzzing gets quieter or louder depending on its position.

Now obviously I was thinking the box might need shielding (and that it wasn't a problem before because the cables were wired direct to the jacks so all the shielding was provided by the cable's sheathing) but before I do shield the box I remembered that previously it seemed to be the fact that all the 4 jack connections were metal and touching the enclosure that was giving me the worse buzzing from the previous metal enclosure... so what should I do?

Just to clarify the use of the box, it basically has 4 connections

Guitar input: Guitar plugs in here and is sent to all my effects
To amp: Comes from the last effect in the chain back into the box to be sent to the amp
Send: From the amp's fx loop send to my time based effects, delay etc (top row of the pedalboard)
Return: Comes from the last effect in my fx loop back into the box to go back to the amp's fx return

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks
Attachments
Previous wiring
Previous wiring
photo.JPG
Box in use with the full board (bottom right)
Box in use with the full board (bottom right)
pedalboard.jpg (55.78 KiB) Viewed 784 times

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R_Rbnsn
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Joined: 20 Sep 2011, 22:36

Post by R_Rbnsn »

Also here's a diagram to illustrate how the box is used
Attachments
io box diagram.jpg

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