Tunneling the ground wire to the bridge

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Phil Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:11 pm

Tunneling the ground wire to the bridge

Post by Phil Donovan »

Hi folks, I was laughing at myself last night when I discovered that I neglected to ground the bridge on my fretless Strat solidbody.

I'd be really interested to hear some input on how you might implement the grounding.

So, it's a solidbody electric with the output jack and control panel on the lower right corner of the body. Fairy typical. It has one of those Strat hardtail bridges, basically a gold color plated rectangle plate with 5 mounting screws and through body string mount. I think I got it at Stew Mac.

My first idea is to drill a passage through the output jack/control panel somewhere just under the bridge. But, where to bring the ground wire. Will it come up through underneath the bridge via a second "meetup" hole? Or, will I try to aim at one of the mounting screws and configure it that way. There seems to be a couple of ways to go about it, just not sure which way will end up being the smartest and most effective. So, before I paint myself into some corner with this, I thought I'd check to see it there is a known good way to do this for the best results.

Thanks you for stopping by and reading,

Phil Donovan
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Peter Wilcox
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Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:31 am
Location: Northeastern California

Re: Tunneling the ground wire to the bridge

Post by Peter Wilcox »

The easiest is to drill a diagonal hole from anywhere under the bridge to the control cavity. Then run a wire from any ground point on the controls (pot or output jack) up under the bridge and splay out 1/2" to 1" of bare wire and fasten the bridge down on top. For a firm connection, best to drill the hole close to one of the mounting holes - then you can just shove the bare end of wire down into the screw hole and mount the bridge.
Maybe I can't fix it, but I can fix it so no one can fix it
Phil Donovan
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:11 pm

Re: Tunneling the ground wire to the bridge

Post by Phil Donovan »

Ah ha, thank you Pete! Didn't think of that - start your big long drill bit under the bridge area. Much easier to nail your destiny than starting at the cavity and hoping you come close to something near the bridge. Very good thank you, thats the plan. I took my time and hit my planned spot going from the pickup cavity to the control cavity with careful visual alignment. Suppose I will apply that same tactic from bridge to control cavity.

Thanks again,

Phil
David King
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Joined: Sat Jan 07, 2012 10:01 pm
Location: Portland, OR
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Re: Tunneling the ground wire to the bridge

Post by David King »

I bought a selection of "aircraft drills" for this purpose. The smaller sizes, 1/16- 1/8" are 6" long and the larger ones are 12" long. The flute length is 8 or 9" on the longer ones so you can go a long way before you have to clear the chips. I can't imagine life without them. I have 3/32",1/8", 3/16", 1/4" and 3/8".
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Peter Wilcox
Posts: 1317
Joined: Sun Jan 08, 2012 1:31 am
Location: Northeastern California

Re: Tunneling the ground wire to the bridge

Post by Peter Wilcox »

Long bits are truly useful - I couldn't do without them. I tried making one from steel rod years ago, which did the job, but was a PITA. So I broke down and started buying them, and now have about 20, ranging in length from 6 to 25 inches, and diameter from 1/16 to 3/8.
Maybe I can't fix it, but I can fix it so no one can fix it
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