twins4me
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Post by twins4me on Jul 29, 2015 6:55:48 GMT -5
Hi
Hopefully a quick question with an easy answer. I am undertaking a new build and I am looking to make my own bridge (for aesthetic reasons). It will be made of wood with metal saddles donated from an existing strat style bridge. The strings will come through the body and bridge with metal ferules on the back of the body.
If the bridge works out (yet to be confirmed) I realised that I don't have the usual place to ground the electrics. I am wondering what would be the best way to ground the whole thing? All I could think of is: - Embed a piece of metal in the body and put the ground wire to that
- One of the ferules
- Take the ground wire to the neck and grounding it to one of the screws that hold the neck on
Any thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Stuart
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Post by JFrankParnell on Jul 30, 2015 15:39:49 GMT -5
I'll take a stab at this, before one of the smarter guys comes and tells us why I'm mostly wrong Firstly, if you think about it for a sec, you might see why connecting ground (whether a hunk of metal embeded in the wood or neck screws (same thing)) to the body is silly. The main thing is, the bridge is not 'the ground'. Everything connected to the minus side of the output jack is ground, which includes the minus of the pups, the shell of the pots, etc. The reason to hook the bridge to the ground is to reduce noise when youre touching or not touching the strings and/or bridge. So, in this case, you'd want to ground each of the strings thru *all* the ferrules or whathave you.
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Post by newey on Jul 30, 2015 19:49:53 GMT -5
JFrank is right, it's not the bridge you want to ground per se, it's the strings. And, not just one, but all of 'em. Connecting the ferrules together and running from there to your grounding point would seem the most logical route to go.
Many of the hollow-body Jazz-style guitars don't have a string ground. It's noisier not to have one, but if ear-bleeding volume levels are not on the agenda, lack of a string ground doesn't produce intolerable amounts of noise. I have a Univox semi-hollow bodied guitar from the late '60s that doesn't have a string ground, it's ok noise-wise unless the amp goes to 11.
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twins4me
Rookie Solder Flinger
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Post by twins4me on Jul 30, 2015 19:56:55 GMT -5
Thanks guys. I wondered if it was the case the ground was the human and not the guitar body. It never felt quite right if it was just another piece of metal in the wood.
If my bridge prototype works, and doesn't have the sound or sustain of a wet sponge, I will devise some extremely clever and neat way of connecting the ferules together. Or I might forget the through body and go for a through bridge stringing system and use a thin metal strip as a stop for the string ends and ground on that.
Thanks again for the assistance.
Stuart
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Post by ashcatlt on Jul 30, 2015 20:46:54 GMT -5
Thanks guys. I wondered if it was the case the ground was the human and not the guitar body. The "ground" is actually the amp or whatever is on the other end of the cable. Basically this this connection shorts the noise that emanates from our bodies to ground so it can't bother our pickups so much.
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