Question:
So I'm putting a P-90 in the neck of my Tele and the P-90 has mesh around it, do I have to electrical tape around the mesh so it doesn't make contact with the shielding? or does it even matter if the mesh touches the shielding?
also, I've heard it will fry the pickup if it touches the shielding. what part of the pickup can't make contact with the shielding just so I can be extra careful?

Answer:
fry the pickup? i've honestly never heard that one before and i've shielded many guitars. if anything, you might inadvertently short the pickup by grounding the hot lead but there is no harm done that isnt completely reversible. and even that is usually only if you are working with 4-conductor humbuckers and reversing the phase, IIRC. naw, aint no issue for your application.

Answer:
So, I don't need to wrap the mesh in electrical tape then right?

Answer:
What kinda mesh are you talking about? The only kind of mesh I can think of that is used in pickup construction is non-conductive.

Answer:
He's talking about the mesh covering the pup leads.

Answer:
Couldnt hurt to wrap in in tape

Answer:
The mesh is for grounding, so what's the problem?

Answer:
The mesh is for grounding, so what's the problem?
I think the OP was concerned about the braided ground making contact with the newly added shielding. I hope they didnt "fry the pickup".:poke::lol:

Answer:
The sheilded wire should be grounded.

Answer:
What kind of voltages are we talking about coming out of a pickup? Hardly enough to fry anything.
If the wire leaving the pickup is already shielded...I don't thing shielding the cavity or the channel to the pot is really going to help much. I DO recommend shielding the control cavity and grounding the pots and grounding the wire to the bridge etc....

Answer:
just shield the cavity and don't worry about the mesh,worst thing that could happen is a ground loop if the shielded cable makes a good enough contact which is unlikely to happen.The only way you will fry the pickup is to have a major amp malfunction and you'll know it when you pick yourself up from the floor after you get electrocuted.

Answer:
Ya, i was talking about shorting out the pickup, "frying" in the general sense of the word is pretty much the same damn thing. I wrote the post on the fly and the word wasn't coming to me.

Answer:
In my experience, you can let that braid touch the shielding, the outside of your pickup, or any other ground point all day long, and you'll be very hard pressed to hear much of a difference. Yes, technically, you only want the grounds all connected at one point to avoid loops, but it's been my experience that you're making enough improvement just by shielding, that you won't notice any of those little currents caused by a few extraneous pickup braid ground connections. Just don't let it touch any of the braid touch the control pot connections, because it might short your pickup signal out. It won't fry anything though if you do. Just will sound very bad or very quiet until you correct it. No harm at all as the previous poster stated. I generally use wire ties to tie up any excess pickup lead and prevent floppage.

Answer:
Don't worry; when you turn the volume or tone down on your guitar you are shorting the signal to ground...that doesn't cause any problems.
I wouldn't worry about ground loops because that isn't even the correct use of the term when referring the electrical connections or shielding of a guitar.
A ground loop is when you have two connected devices with different ground potentials and one device finds a path of least resistance to ground through the signal path. That can cause a dangerous voltage potential difference if it was to say be a mic going to a console and a guitar plugged into an amp on a different breaker and the chasis' had two completely different ground potentials. You play a chord, get too close to the mic and boom you complete the circuit...ouch.
And moving those ground connections won't prevent that, though adding the cap may as it should be the correct value to block 60Hz. I'm not sure because I didn't calculate the value.
Moving the ground from the back of the pot to a little washer inside of the guitar less than six inches away...that by the way is still connected to the back of the pot will not 'remove ground loops' the potential is still the same on all compenents as there is no resistance between them.
I highly doubt that it will improve RF interference rejection which is the whole point of adding the shielding.
And just to make sure that I don't get into a flaming war, shielding does help to reduce RF interference because it helps to block and absorb it.
Shield your guitar, don't worry about the braid because it is ground, the same ground as all of the other grounded stuff in your guitar. There are no voltages in there that can hurt you or any component in there. If the braid was to come into contact with the pickup selector, the output jack or the volume or tone pot's signal connection (i.e., the hot side of the pickup) than it would just be like turning your guitar all the way down.
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