Grounding without using back of pots

[dward0487]

I realize that most people usually solder all their ground wires to a single point (usually the back of a volume pot), and then run a ground wire from the back of that pot to the ground ring of the jack. However, I was considering an alternative that did not involve using the back of a pot and potentially damaging the pot. Is there anything wrong with gathering all the ground wires together (from the pickups, bridge ground, ground lugs of the various pots, etc.) and soldering them together to a main wire that runs to the ground ring of the jack? As long as there is heat shrink tubing around the solder joint to avoid any shorts, it seems like this would be a fine method. Am I wrong?

Here's a wiring diagram I drew up that shows what I'm talking about:

As far as I know, connecting the ground lug of a potentiometer to ground is all that is required to ground the pot, right? There is no reason, from an electronic standpoint, to ground the actual casing of the pot itself. Am I correct? I was under the assumption that people only soldered to the backs of pots because they provided a convenient connection point for star grounding, not because the case of the pot needs to be grounded (as long as the lug is grounded). Do I have that right?

 

[DavidRavenMoon]

Re: Grounding without using back of pots

The casing of the pot serves as shielding. And it makes a convenient place to solder wires. There’s no reason to not do it.

Also there’s no reason to have your grounds gathered together (i.e. star grounding). It’s all the same ground potential. So you typically run a wire from one pot to another, etc.

Some people have the misconception that you can cause a ground loop in a guitar. This is not possible since there is only one ground reference, which is at the output jack leading to your amp.


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[Chistopher]

Re: Grounding without using back of pots

You are right, the grounded lug of a pot can connect to ground anywhere, it's just easier to do it to the back of the pot as it's easier and less wire to worry about.

As for star grounding, you will see me on other threads go on rants about how it isn't necessary, so long as every metal part of the guitar is grounded, it doesn't matter how they are connected. If you wanted to, you could ground every single part of the guitar in a massive circle and it would have no effect on your guitar. Ground loops can't occur inside a guitar. The way you wire it in your diagram is certainly possible, but would be unnecessarily difficult. If you are worried about destroying the back of your volume pot, don't worry about it. If you are bad enough at soldering that you destroy a volume pot, you have no business wiring an electric guitar.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Grounding without using back of pots

Agreed that star for ground loops isn't necessary. But learned over time that collecting grounds at a single point can make wiring easier for different reasons.

When shielding the control cavity, it can be hard to insure a good connection at jack... Connecting all grounds to a central screw, which penetrates shield is a great way to get solid shielding.

When working with reduced height pots, there is no metal on back of pot so running independent grounds to central point is a great workaround.

And when working on rarebirds (especially when replacing sub asymbolies that can be restored) sometimes it's easier to tie together new grounds and old at a single point.




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[FuseG4]

Re: Grounding without using back of pots

you can do like how fender uses a screw and a soldering terminal into the body that stands up into the cavity. ground all to that,very easy to get 6 or 7 wires into the size of terminal they use then whenever you want to pop the whole thing out you can unscrew the solder terminal from the body

 

[Clint 55]

Re: Grounding without using back of pots

It reduces noise to ground all your components with a wire. I don't know why people are so averse to doing that.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Grounding without using back of pots

On my RG2 I did something like that
I pulled a bunch of wires together and soldered the up
But there was a wire from each pot as well

On my pickguards I have a four point terminal with one pair for hot and one pair for ground
So I can easily swap pickguards
But there's a wire to each pot as well