Jump to content
Heritage Owners Club

Grounding: bridge or tailpiece?


yuominae

Recommended Posts

Posted

Do Heritage ground the bridge or do they ground the tailpiece? And do I actually need to unsolder the ground wire from the pots if I want to change the inserts?

Posted

Thanks. What I'm actually wondering about is whether or not the wire is soldered to the bridge insert... If it isn't soldered on I can just pull out the insert as is, but if it is then I'll have to unsolder the wire from the pot first.

Posted

I have removed the bridge stud inserts from all of my Heritage guitars (those that have Nashville bridges) and replace the Nashville studs with the Faber Bridge posts & Faber locking ABR bridges. There is no grounding to the bridge posts nor the bridge stud inserts. I am almost 99% certain the grounding is to the stoptail posts/studs. I know this is the case on my other single cut guitars.

Posted

Thanks for that Kuz, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear because I won't be touching the stoptail inserts.

Excellent, now I can just get on with doing the swap :)

Posted

Thanks for that Kuz, that's exactly what I was hoping to hear because I won't be touching the stoptail inserts.

Excellent, now I can just get on with doing the swap :)

You won't regrett it. I spent over $600 to convert EVERY one of my Nashville bridge guitars over to Faber bridge stud, posts, and locking ABR bridge. Next to pickups, it is the best mod I have every done to any guitar, authentic tone is spades!!!!

Posted

When I replaced all the pots in my 157, I discovered that little bare ground wire that was so thin I couldn't even see it at first. I re-soldered it to the housing of the new pots just to be on the safe side. I've never replaced a bridge.

Posted

You know, none of my LPs from the 70s have a grounded bridge or tailpiece and they don't hum... I wonder if it's really needed?

 

Here is the control cavity of my 79 LP. Original pots, no ground wire.

 

ff4de2a3de62029bc9fabd4235cb5ebe.jpg

Posted

You can bet you do. Check under the metal plate. Gibson typically comes in through the top left corner of the control cavity. If the guitar has a wraparound bridge, they would run direct from the studs to the bridge pickup cavity.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Les+Paul+switch+cavity&biw=2144&bih=1181&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=admpVKmBDIeOyATXroGwAw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=Les+Paul+bridge+grouning&imgdii=_

Posted

jacque's VIP, I believe. Note the plain wire coming at the top of the cavity.

 

PA120001.jpg

Mark, honestly, I am not sure where the ground is but I believe is going to the Stoptail studs/posts. I just pulled the bridges, bridge posts & studs from 5 Heritage guitars and didn't see any ground wire. I thought I read that the ground goes to the Stoptail studs on single cut solid bodies but I could be wrong.

Posted

Mark, honestly, I am not sure where the ground is but I believe is going to the Stoptail studs/posts. I just pulled the bridges, bridge posts & studs from 5 Heritage guitars and didn't see any ground wire. I thought I read that the ground goes to the Stoptail studs on single cut solid bodies but I could be wrong.

 

It does. Following Kuz's posts yesterday I took out the bridge inserts and there was no wire there. From the angle at which the ground wire leaves the control cavity it could only be going to the tailpiece on my 157.

 

Anyway, I got the inserts out, no problemo :)

Posted

You can bet you do. Check under the metal plate. Gibson typically comes in through the top left corner of the control cavity. If the guitar has a wraparound bridge, they would run direct from the studs to the bridge pickup cavity.

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Les+Paul+switch+cavity&biw=2144&bih=1181&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=admpVKmBDIeOyATXroGwAw&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&dpr=0.9#tbm=isch&q=Les+Paul+bridge+grouning&imgdii=_

 

That's the weird thing, if you check the picture I posted there is no hole in the wood going off to the bridge or tailpiece. It's the same in my LP Deluxe and in my LP Firebrand. I've also taken out the plate to which the pots are attached when I swapped out the pots and didn't have to unsolder anything.

Maybe there is some other path through which the bridge is grounded, but I bought that Les Paul as a body with only the pots and toggle switch and rebuilt it from scratch. I don't have any noise problems so far, but maybe I'm just not playing loud enough...

Posted

 

NOW I think you are on to something! hahahaha

I think so too. I just spotted the ground wire in the LP firebrand. I'm suspecting I was spouting rubbish earlier and will be giving the LP cavities a good look over tonight as they might just not have been grounded by whoever was at them before me...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...