ground wire not connected

[Randall]

A 70's Japanese Ric bass knock off with odd pick ups came to me recently. Both pickups made sound, but were weak and noisy. Much to my surprise, I found neither had it's shield connected. One was severed at the pickup, and the other at the tone pot. They sounded a lot better once I connected them both, but how is it even possible that they even worked at all that way?

[Mike Sulzer]

A 70's Japanese Ric bass knock off with odd pick ups came to me recently. Both pickups made sound, but were weak and noisy. Much to my surprise, I found neither had it's shield connected. One was severed at the pickup, and the other at the tone pot. They sounded a lot better once I connected them both, but how is it even possible that they even worked at all that way?

Since the input impedance of the amp is is high, stray capacitance lets some signal through, but the bass must have been dreadful.

[Zhangliqun]

It's true -- I test pu's with alligator clips and run into the same noisy-with-surprisingly-significant-signal-level thing and discover the clip holding the ground lead on has unclipped.