Official Luthiers Forum!

I am thinking of adding a floating (pickguard mounted) pickup to one of my archtops. Do you guys think I still need to ground the tailpiece? I would think its the same regardless of how the pup is mounted, but the idea of a floater is that I don't have to drill extra holes.

Thoughts?

JD

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Joe

I think you need a ground to the strings through a bridge or tailpiece. One way to find out...try it with and without a ground!

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JJ
Napa, CA
http://www.DonohueGuitars.com

The ground to bridge is mainly for the players protection. If properly done and there are problems with the amp or electrical circuit then, the grounding will direct the electrical flow to the electrical ground and not through the persons body to ground ( at least that is the theory behind it). You will notice a difference when using single coils vs. humbuckers when the bridge/ tailpiece is not grounded, but it's not much different than plugging into an old house circuit that is not grounded ( the old 2 pole outlets). They HUM!! until you touch the strings and create the ground path

Mike

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

Actually, Mike, I think you have this backwards, unless I'm just reading you wrong. It is really safer to have the strings ungrounded. That way, if the amp sends a charge to the ground, you are not connected to the circuit, and it will not go through the player. It's just noisier that way.

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

If you're talking about your first Joe, I've never done it on the five I've done so far, & have never had a problem. But I make ebony tailpieces on mine & I notice you used a metal taipiece. My gut feeling is leave it unless you have a problem. (With pickguard mounting, it's so easy to remove the whole assembly you could easily add it later.)

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Dave
Milton, ON

Mike you may be right on this , I was understanding that the High voltage of tube amps of years past and most circuits had a common and neutral and no true ground to the power an many occasions. Yes a ground internal of the amp which had a pathway back to neutral. then if there was a ground to the bridge then this gave a pathway back to neutral in the event of pickup to string pathway of current. I'm sure I'm mistaken.


Mike

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

Thanks everyone.

Dave, correct I am going to mount the pup on the pickguard and did not want to add the ground wire to the tailpiece if I did not have too. I am considering even using the mini-jack under the guard so I don't have to drill a 1/4" jack hole as well. I am just not sure. I guess I did not consider the fact that others use wood tailpieces with cat-gut connecting string. So it wouldn't matter in that case.

On #2, it will have dual humbuckers (ala Gibson L5 Cess or ES 175). That one will get the normal treatment of ground wire as well as an output jack mounted to the side of the guitar.

Thanks,
Joe

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Joe

Aside from player safety, not grounding strings essentially makes your guitar a nice little antenna - picking up most of the cycle noise in an area. If perchance a player's power amps failed and somehow there was not a direct ground and the current proceeded up the players signal cable long enough for him to possibly feel it - well then I agree with Mike Snider in that leaving the strings ungrounded - or fully independent of the remaining electronics would be the safest route...

Stephen

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www.ziegenfussguitars.com

Sorry for my info being bassackwards
I did find this little blurb on the subject though..

In article <CEH8sA.4Goq@austin.ibm.com>, rg@futserv.austin.ibm.com (R.G. Keen) writes:
> Something I picked up from Dan Erlewine's guitar repair column:
> The hardwired connection to the strings puts you at risk of
> electrocution if another piece of equipment, say the PA or mixer
> has a leak to its ground. You're grounded through the strings
> and bridge, and the leakage from the other piece of equipment
> flows through *you* if you are holding strings and grab a mike.
> It is less risky to connect the bridge to the signal ground
> through a 100K-200k resistor in parallel with a .001 capacitor.
> This establishes you at RF ground through the cap and spaces
> you 200K ohms off 60 Hz ground so the leakage doesn't zap you.

Hope that helps.
Mike

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I'm outside looking in, just farther from the window than most.

On the floating pickups I have installed I didn't ground the strings and it worked fine. I think you have to worry more if you use a cheap pickup or unsheilded wire. If you keep every thing sheilded and use good components you will be OK. I also mounted a fishman endpin jack for an archtop and before putting on the strap button/nut I turned an ebony washer for the gut to wrap around and it looked pretty slick.