Grounding strings?

Replies

The Phrygian Kid March 17, 2014 at 9:02pm

Often when a guitar circuit is a little noisy you can silence most of that noise by touching the sleeve of the jack connector (the ground) so earthing the strings just makes this pretty much the default case, because you're usually touching the strings to play your guitar. There's a bunch of ways you can do it, even burying a little cable all the way up the neck to one of the tuners, but generally the tailpiece is easiest, if it's not metal you can just add some aluminium tape to the underside so the ball ends contact with it and ground that
- Eric Kasten > The Phrygian Kid March 18, 2014 at 6:24pm
  
  Thanks for the reply. I didn't know if it was something I had to do or not (since the two electrics I made didn't have the ground and worked fine). Sounds like not...
  - The Phrygian Kid > Eric Kasten March 19, 2014 at 12:52am
    
    It's generally agreed that pizzos don't need it. But mag pups generally do. The big thing about grounding the strings is that during the build it's real easy to do, almost a non event. But once an axe is strung up and finished and you find that you wish you'd done it it can be a real pain in the butt. This might occur when you move house or play in a new place with dodgy wiring
    - Eric Kasten > The Phrygian Kid March 19, 2014 at 5:46pm
      
      Understood... piezos pick up on the vibration while the magnetic pickups would be sensitive to electrical current.
      
      Good point about doing it during the build!!!!!