GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

[kylewrt1986]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

If the guitar is properly shielded, then the pots (from contact with the shielded cavity) with 'ground Themselves' (so to speak) anyways

To further this point; From what I understand, if the guitar is properly grounded where the shielding is grounded, then grounding the pots with wires would cause 'ground loops' wouldn't it? Not sure exactly of the detrimental effects, would this possibly cause hum? I'm thinking of doing a star grounding similar to how Artie described...i get nervous applying too much heat to pots!

edit : sorry didn't notice im about thr 4th person to say this lol!

 

[larry_emder]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

I dont know about ground loops.....wanna explain this too artie? :reporter:

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

I always use mini switches and I have never grounded them.

 

[Pierre]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

...Well that was an easy way out I'll remember that hehe... Thanks guys!

It all makes life much easier.
Oh does anyone know the importance of grounding everything back to the bridge?

 

[shredaholic]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

You could always do what I did and get an aluminium pickguard

 

[Artie]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

I dont know about ground loops.....wanna explain this too artie? :reporter:

Actually, "ground loop" is a bit of a misnomer in guitar electronics. You may have a bad ground, but you won't have a ground loop per se. The best example of a ground loop is in a car stereo, where you've placed a head unit in the dash and an amp in the trunk. (Boot, to our English bro's.) They both have 12 volts run to them. If there's much resistance in the "ground" going to one unit, the two "grounds" are at slightly different potentials. Thus, current flows in the ground lead, and you get noise.

In a guitar, however, the maximum distance between any two points isn't long enough to create this problem. Also, voltages aren't great enough to be a problem either. The main reason to bring all the grounds in a guitar all together is just to be sure you didn't miss one. And, there aren't that many good places to ground in a guitar to begin with.

Artie

 

[kylewrt1986]

Re: GAH!!!! I can NOT ground them darn miniswitches...

Ah that's cool then, guitar-nuts explanation confuses me a bit..it's kindof saying there's two 'grounds'...a signal ground (negative signal basically) and the shield ground chassis..and that you should connect all your negatives to one point (i.e. all pup negatives and any negatives from pots..so I would assume that also means the capacitors) and then that point gets conencted to a star washer via a 1uf capacitor, between a pot and the pickguard.

The shieilding is connected to ground by the bridge wire, and the shells are grounded by contact to the shileding, and he tells u to remove connections between the pots because the'd be 'ground loops'...but then surely the converged signal ground / negative connection -> pot washer is a 'ground loop' too....

Anyway what i'm driving at is...if you copper tape the pickgaurd and cavities, is the following method OK:

1 - connect bridge wire to shielding, maybe using a washer screwed into the cavity
2 - connect all the circuit grounds to this washer, and the jack ground/negative
3 - would you then need to wire another washer from the converged ground point to another washer between a pot and the pickgaurd, or would this not be necessary provided the shielding was continuous? Or would it be good just for safe measure, and would it also be ok to ground the capacitors in the usual fashion, by soldering to the pot, just for convenience?