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String grounding

Is this wire good enough for grounding my strings? I was too lazy to run out to the barn and search and the wire for the piezo ground was not much bigger.I ground it to the volume switch case and soldered it to the brass tailpiece

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on February 4, 2023 at 8:09pm

Hi, it will be ok, but if using a piezo pickup there is no need to earth to the strings. This is normally done when using magnetic pickups.
Cheers Taff

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Permalink Reply by BrianQ. on February 5, 2023 at 12:21pm

Any electrical wire will do, it doesn’t matter how big as long as it’s connected to the circuit properly? And as Taff said, piezo’s don’t require string grounding since it’s not an electromagnetic coil? But it’s a good practice :)

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on February 5, 2023 at 2:36pm

Hi, with respect to Brian's comment "it's good practice", my thought is to not put one's self in the electrical circuit [when holding the strings]if it is at all avoidable.

It is rare but if you are playing in circumstances where there is bad earth in equipment or in a building, it has been known for the guitarist to become the path to earth through their strings when / if using faulty circuits.
Just saying this so people know.
Taff

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Permalink Reply by John B Treutlein on February 5, 2023 at 4:58pm

I believe in this process I read of a player in ,ithink the Eagles,died under rather,uh extreme conditions going in a warm pool, I assume with his guitar live ,seems it was cold ,and he wanted to get warm but does not seem a good idea,anyway .Maybe wireless and thought it was safe? In the story I read the inference was because it was not grounded .I feel details were not complete and I had never heard of the incident before..but I love the Eagles ,but I did it just because and in case of mods ,I kind of did mess up before that as I had a really long wire as it came from Gitty,so I wrapped it around the inner neck inside three times .I was bothered a bit all night,then I realized that that was in effect a electromagnetic coil,I think it may have caused some noise with an amp,am I right? But I changed it then added the ground. Any input on this is welcome and thanks.

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Permalink Reply by Carl Floyd on February 6, 2023 at 11:01am

I have never heard that story, but it was not a member of the Eagles.

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Permalink Reply by John B Treutlein on February 6, 2023 at 3:13pm

My mistake,the source was Fuelrocks..com; the group was The Beach Boys,not the Eagles both groups are favorites of mine

“Brian Wilson,a BEACH BOYS singer,died in a hot tub in 1977 while playing a guitar in the pool.When you use a wireless system between the guitar,you break this connection.what is the reason behind no increase in noise.this is due to the fact that the battery works in the same way as the ground system.A guitar with grounded strings and a “ grounded” housing tha isn’t grounded will knock you flat on fyour back.If it is executed properly,it is possible to harm yourself one of The Beach Boys died while jumping into a hot pool with a guitar in his hands.”

this is just a paragraph I copied from the story,I’m sure some of you are familiar with the incident,I wasn’t,and was doing massive amounts of research on guitars in general and cigarbox guitars in particular so the names in the incident were changed,in my mind probably to protect the innocent !? ( I also watch Dragnet reruns and Sherlock Holmes !)Again my apologies for the mistake ,the full story for those interested ,again ,is on Fuelrocks.com a kind of cool guitar site I found before I joined here where the emphasis is on our cigarbox guitars.

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Permalink Reply by Taffy Evans on February 6, 2023 at 3:24pm

Hi, if I have a post that I forgot to send as we have to now, and it does not show, this is what I do.
As I have said I always check after sending that it appears properly.
If it is blank I hit the 15-minute button at the bottom of the post
That takes me back to the blank page...
I scroll up and there is my original post still sitting in its box
I then just hit HTML and resend
I then check it appeared ok
If it has I click on the red X on the incorrect post

It saves having to retype a long response or losing interest altogether and not bothering again. I have done that a few times in the past.
Taff