Grounding - Tune-o-matic

[wdelaney72]

I know strats have a ground running from the bridge to the contol cavity... do LP type guitars with tuen-o-matic bridges typically have the same?

[Scumback Speakers]

Usually from the stop bar tailpiece stud anchor.

[fillmore nyc]

I know strats have a ground running from the bridge to the contol cavity... do LP type guitars with tuen-o-matic bridges typically have the same?

The tune-o-matic AND the tuners (and sometimes, unfortunately, your hands ) get grounded from the strings, which act like connecting wires from the stoptail piece. The stop tail almost always has a small wire from the stud anchors into the control cavity, installed when the guitar is being built.
Honestly, rather than using my own body as a science experiment to see how much amperage it can handle should there be a reversed ground, I usually just shield the guitar as best as possible and eliminate that wire from the circuit. You dont have to cut it... just unsolder it and tape it off, out of the way. If the guitar has humbuckers, the difference is really negligible.
A 2nd guitar player in an old band got zapped real bad when he found out the hard way that his amp and his mike stand had reversed grounds. By default, we played the rest of the set as a power trio... I was REAL glad that I dont sing, and even MORE glad that we knew some instrumentals, cause nobody else sung either!!!

/

[wdelaney72]

I've had that happen to me... fortunately, it was a small amp and pa.. so it just "woke me up" a bit.

I ask because I have an Explorer cut and routed by Divebomb, but there's no hole to run that ground. So if it's OK, I'd asume not use it... I am using humbuckers.

[fillmore nyc]

I ask because I have an Explorer cut and routed by Divebomb, but there's no hole to run that ground. So if it's OK, I'd asume not use it... I am using humbuckers.

Yeah, you dont have to use it at all, but if you really WANTED to ground the bridge, if its a trem guitar, you could always solder a ground wire from the trem spring claw to any grounding point in the control cavity. On a stoptail, its no big deal to drill a small hole from the stoptail anchor hole (assuming the anchor isnt installed) into the control cavity. Most decent hardware stores sell individual long drill bits, and they're always useful if you build your own bodies to get a hole from the neck to bridge pickup cavity, or from the bridge pickup cavity to the control cavity.
Personally, I'd just leave the ground wire off, and save the call to the EMT's should you play thru a 100 watt Metro some night and find out that the mike stands ground is ass-backwards!!
BOOM!!!! All riffing is DONE!!
/

[wdelaney72]

I ask because I have an Explorer cut and routed by Divebomb, but there's no hole to run that ground. So if it's OK, I'd asume not use it... I am using humbuckers.

Yeah, you dont have to use it at all, but if you really WANTED to ground the bridge, if its a trem guitar, you could always solder a ground wire from the trem spring claw to any grounding point in the control cavity. On a stoptail, its no big deal to drill a small hole from the stoptail anchor hole (assuming the anchor isnt installed) into the control cavity. Most decent hardware stores sell individual long drill bits, and they're always useful if you build your own bodies to get a hole from the neck to bridge pickup cavity, or from the bridge pickup cavity to the control cavity.
Personally, I'd just leave the ground wire off, and save the call to the EMT's should you play thru a 100 watt Metro some night and find out that the mike stands ground is ass-backwards!!
BOOM!!!! All riffing is DONE!!
/

OK, I'll leave it off....

Just so I understand, you are saying it's actually safer to NOT have the bridge grounded?

[fillmore nyc]

Safety wise?? Definitely better to have it NOT grounded, cause then YOU dont become the conduit for voltage should something go wrong. You obviously need everything else grounded, like the pickups, pots, etc, cause if you dont, they wont work!! The grounded parts of the guitar are grounded thru the jack and cord, neither of which are connected to your hands if the bridge ground is removed, unless you have some kind of oddity, like a metal pickguard (like a Strat guard, for example) that comes in contact with a pot or some other grounded point.
The objective behind grounding a bridge is nothing more than hum reduction. A guitar can potentially hum more without a bridge ground, but IMO its a safer guitar to play, especially thru a big wattage rig and questionable grounding to other objects on stage.
If hum is really an issue, then its time to invest in some copper shielding tape, and start shielding the control cavity, etc, but on a humbucker equipped guitar, it really shouldnt be necessary.