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Stratocaster grounding

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  • Stratocaster grounding

    How do you properly ground a stratocaster.
    Specifically a MIM version with a 920d pickup guard. Wondering what parts of guitar need to go to ground. 920d has 2 black ground wires but appears there is no place to connect one of them on my red mim. My white mim has a place inside the cavity to connect gnd #2.

  • #2
    Here's similar to how I do it.
    I glue on a aluminum shield on the whole pickguard.
    Mount your components on the ground shield.
    You can ground the body cavity, but since everything is mounted on the pickguard it is not necessary.
    I like to use shielded wire from the jack to the volume pot.
    "If Hitler invaded Hell, I would make at least a favourable reference of the Devil in the House of Commons." Winston Churchill
    Terry

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    • #3
      I ground everything to the back of the volume pot. I run a jumper to the tone pots and to the switch.
      Drewline

      When was the last time you did something for the first time?

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      • #4
        Ground loops all up in here!!! To REALLY do it right there should be only one ground point and ALL grounded terminations should have an individual lead that goes there. But that doesn't matter as much as all that because there ARE two ground scenarios happening in a guitar. There is a ground that connects to the ground in the amp. That is going to share a VERY long lead via the guitar cable to get to that ground. So how much could it matter if you run individual leads to any star ground point in the guitar itself!?! Then there's the bridge ground. This is what is going to be grounded to YOU. Fine for small signals and your body, at it's meager conductivity, is still a better option that the long guitar cable for small signal grounds because of it's close proximity. But then there's safety!!! How many times have players been shocked because they were touching ground via their guitar strings? Forget about it!!! Use a 10mA fuse between the bridge and ground in your guitar or at least a capacitor. Maybe 33n to 100n. That will still stop most of the buzz and keep you from being connected to DC and most of the dangerous AC. And "just because" use a single ground point to the output jack - terminal and individual ground leads from each grounded point in the circuit. SHIELDING should be grounded there and only ONCE.

        But the difference in noise between doing it wrong (other than not doing it at all) and doing it right is small enough to ignore. That's why there's so much lore surrounding the best method. Try proving it!?! Why is the back of the volume pot the best place for all the grounds!!!???? BS! If the guitar is shielded then the pot cases don't matter a squirt of piss in a fire. But that's how so many vintage guitars were done that it's in our heads like lawnmower man. Those vintage guitars weren't usually shielded like we do now. So grounding the pot cases to the bridge AND jack was the best way to mitigate interference getting onto the resistor inside. Really guys, it's a moot point with all the modern shielding paints and techniques that are used. And superior. Let go of this back of the pot grounding thing already. It takes a "s" ton of heat to melt solder on a pot case and modern pots are notoriously fragile anyway.

        Last edited by Chuck H; 01-14-2020, 01:11 PM.
        "Take two placebos, works twice as well." Enzo

        "Now get off my lawn with your silicooties and boom-chucka speakers and computers masquerading as amplifiers" Justin Thomas

        "If you're not interested in opinions and the experience of others, why even start a thread?
        You can't just expect consent." Helmholtz

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