Grounding a tailpiece with a metal bridge?

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by GARAGE HERMIT on August 30, 2011 at 2:28am

only one,,

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 30, 2011 at 2:50am

Mister Scott,

The Hermit is correct, but it would also depend on what type of pup you're using, piezo or magnetic. With the piezos I'm using in my builds, I find that the cutlery tailpieces and bolt saddles don't require additional grounding, because the piezo is not designed to create a magnetic field, but works by transmitting vibrational energy (which I'm sure you already know, just thinking my way through the problem). I have not yet built with a mag pup, but do know that my commercially-made guitars with the trapeze setup you describe typically have just the bridge grounded, although one of them does have the trapeze / strap button grounded to the jack. I suspect this was to prevent a ground loop, as it has multiple humbuckers, and a more sophisticated wiring harness.

Hope this helps,
Oily

Permalink Reply by Mister Scott on August 30, 2011 at 10:46am

Sorry, all, should have said something: the pickups are going to be 2 humbuckers with a Tele-style control plate.

Permalink Reply by Ron "Oily" Sprague on August 30, 2011 at 12:04pm

Mr Scott,

The boys over at TDPRI seem to recommend grounding the bridge.

Oily

Permalink Reply by Paul Erbe on September 23, 2011 at 11:28am

Seems to me the strings would ground both through contact?  Meaning if you ground one the other would have a mechanical connection to the ground through the strings?