Questions about wiring on a hardtail strat

[SlowHand87]

I'm building a custom Strat from Warmoth parts.
I have a hard-tail strat body and 3 lipstick-style pickups.
I am curious as to where I am supposed to ground the pickups since there isn't a tremolo. Do I simply place a screw in the pickup cavity and ground it to that?

Any and all help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Kam]

Re: Questions about wiring on a hardtail strat

You grounded your pickups on the vibrato bridge...?

I've never seen that. Generally pickups get grounded on the back of a pot and then a wire takes the ground signal from the back of the pot to the jack. There should be a wire coming from the bridge which should also be soldered to the pot.

So, you soldered pickups directly to the bridge or did I misread that?

 

[SlowHand87]

Re: Questions about wiring on a hardtail strat

It's a hard-tail. The guitar doesn't have a vibrato.

I know on tremolo equipped Strats there is a ground to the tremolo claw on the back and there is a screw in the pickup cavity as well.

 

[idsnowdog]

Re: Questions about wiring on a hardtail strat

You have to ground a non-trem bridge too. There should be a channel inside the guitar cavity that runs to a hole under the bridge. You can make contact between the bare wire or you can crimp on a grounding loop to make contact with the bridge. Then you should solder the wire to the back of a pot or to the ground lug on the jack. If there's shielding in the cavity I would crimp together two wires with a round grounding lug and screw that into the control cavity and then run one end to the bridge and the other to the wherever you want to ground it to.

 

[uOpt]

Re: Questions about wiring on a hardtail strat

Only on black and red guitars, though.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Questions about wiring on a hardtail strat

Only on black and red guitars, though.

^
:chairfall IMO, black and orange would have been funnier. (Ian Dury & the Blockheads reference.)