this may be another stupid question ...

[famousbeagle]

In the "Quieting the Beast" article, he says the reason the capacitor value was changed was to help fend off some current in the event of an electric shock so that it probably won't be lethal.

But then he says at the end, "Even so, if you gig a lot and don't have control over the wiring – play it safe by either deleting the string (bridge) ground connection entirely or by using the tiny capacitor and parallel resistor method to isolate the strings."

So my question is: Why bother with the bridge/tremolo ground connection at all? If deleting it prevents the chance of electric shock altogether, and it's not necessary, why does the article say to do it?

confused

[wolf]

Because the string grounding reduces hum, interference, that sort of thing.
Try this experiment (if your guitar has string grounding). Strap your guitar on, plug it into the amp and don't touch the strings. Now touch the strings. Notice a reduction in the noise from the amp?
This effect is more noticeable the louder the amp is or if you are using distortion.
I've always kept the string grounding connected.

As a matter of fact, I recently purchased a Dean Vendetta XM (made in China). The bridge was coated so heavily with paint that the string grounding wasn't working at all. The paint was so thick on the bridge, bridge height adjustment nut and bolt that the solution that finally worked was to scrape away a lot of the paint and I put 2 bare number 14 wires on the far side (non-playing side) of the bridge.
Go to my website page at www.1728.com/guitar6.htm and scroll down close to the bottom and you'll see what I did.
Yes, I went to all that trouble to make the string grounding more effective.