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With my homebuilt archtop I have not grounded the strings. Some say I should. Its going to be a bit tricky since I'm using a wooden tailpiece. I'm not sure why one would want to ground the strings. Can somebody enlighten me?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Grounding the strings minimizes the hum produced from your amplified sound. What type of pickups are you using?

Barry I'm using Gibson Classic 57 and Classic + 57 humbuckers. I've used Gibson braided wire for the most part.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

This is sure to touch off a long and energetic discussion thread. I posted a similar discussion at MIMF a couple of years ago, and was amazed at the discussion it provoked. Yes, grounding your strings is likely to make your guitar more quiet in terms of background hum. Some respondents will say grounding also protects you from getting a lethal electric shock should you ever happen to simultaneously touch another piece of equipment (microphone, etc.), but I don't know enough about electric wiring, polarization, and grounding to UNDERSTAND why this is a potential threat. Others will insist that grounding makes you more likely to attract a lethal shock. Just wait and see the debate. But I do know that I've played my guitars in lots of venues that had decades-old wiring, with no grounding sockets in the receptacles, and which forced us to lead drop cords from many different circuits and outlets, with ungrounded adapter plugs attached to every one of them. (That was in my younger, more stupid days. I don't do that any more!)

Bottom line: Most factory made electric guitars ground every metal part, including the strings, in some way. Maybe it's just to avoid lawsuits. Maybe it's the best idea. All I know is, I grounded the strings on my archtop, and will do so on all future guitars, too.

Patrick

Are you using the sacconi-style tail adjuster? If so one way I thought of to ground the strings and not have any wires visable is to use copper shielding tape under the tailpiece where the ball ends go through. Then you could either run a wire from that or just use more tape down to where the tail adjuster comes through. Bear in mind that this will only work with a stranded wire adjuster like stew mac sells. Then strip a little of the cover off of the adjuster where it wraps under the jack so that you have continuity with the jack. I have yet to actually implement it but I don't see why it wouldn't work and it will look nice and clean.
Jason

Makes me wonder why my Taylor 414 CE isn't grounded?

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

Official response from Stewmac tech support is that ES-175 type guitars do not have grounded strings.

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A higher purpose for wood.
Rich Smith
Issaquah, WA

I did not ground my bass strings as I used individual bridges and it would have been a PITA to do so. Can't tell the diff. Actually, IMHO, you'd lessen the chance of shock by not grounding them. Like I said, IMHO

I am an amateur guitar builder but a real electrical engineer, I suspect grounding the bridge on guitars with passive pickups will bleed off quite a bit of 60 cycle noise from the strings that the pickups can pickup. I agree there is less of a chance of shock if the bridge is not grounded. I suspect most shocks come from amps plugged in to poorly wired outlets and sending power line to the guitar instead of a ground. The "grounded" bridge sends that voltage to the strings. Just a little shock unless you are standing in water or lean up or touch a grounded steal pole while holding the strings.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Is there any tonal benefit to be had from doing both at the same time?


Cheers

Kim

It seemed to have a good tonal benefit during some of the sets at Woodstock.

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http://www.Harvestmoonguitars.com

Nothing like the shock on your lips when you touch them to the microphone.

Can somebody explain to me how to ground wood?

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http://hufschmidguitars.com

Back when I was playing live, you could see a blue spark about 2 inches long leaping from the mike into my mustache. I swear I got a callus from it happening so much.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

I was so excited to have strings on my first build that I wired the pickup directly to the output jack, tuned it up and plugged it in. I couldn't believe the crisp tone from P90s and an all maple guitar - like no other axe in my collection.

I had been playing for almost an hour when I realized that I forget to add the ground wire. It certainly didn't need it. The sound was pure and clean and no buzz at all. I got to thinking that since wood is a great insulator, and my hands are in no way touching the electrical componants of the guitar, why put yourself at risk by adding a ground wire?

Just wondering how the lack of ground wire would affect a Strat style (single coil) circuit, or a Les Paul (humbucker) circuit?

J

I use a trick from Adrian Legg's book, 'Customizing your Electric Guitar': Wire a 220K resistor in parallel with a .001mF cap. Put this in series between the string ground and the ground reference for the rest of the guitar circuit, like a volume pot. Supposedly it's a safety net in case there is a ground leak on stage. Of course the best thing to do is make sure the whole stage is grounded to the same point.

You may not have hum from ground when you are in the comforts of your own studio using a guitar with no string ground but once you are in the right venue it can be awful.