hollow body guitar question

[Mad Rax]

Here´s a question for you vintage gibson dudes;

Tun-O-matic bridge electrics (SG´s Les Pauls, Explorers etc etc) are grounded to the treble side post on the tun-o-matic tailpeice, where does the grounding go on wooden bridges with trapeze tailpieces (say on an ES175)?

I obviously don´t have one so I can´t check by myself, ha!

[ksdaddy]

Most electric archtops have an extra little hole drilled near the tailpiece mounting holes. A wire runs from the ground on a pot through the hole and is grounded by the tailpiece. This is concealed by the tailpiece itself.

[Mad Rax]

Thanx, but what happens when the tailpeice itself is made of wood? For example:

 

 

I,m sure there are some Vintage Gibsons with wooden tailpeices right?

[L5Larry]

Many electrified guitars do not have the strings grounded.

[SamBooka]

Thanx, but what happens when the tailpeice itself is made of wood?

 

Last year I asked Bob benedetto how he does it with his ebony replacement bridges. He replied his pickups are well shielded enough not to need string grounding (but if some insisted he would use a little strip of copper on the underside). I kinda smiled and left it at that.

 

This year at the Montreal guitar show I asked any luthier with magnetic pickups and wooden tps how they grounded.Most didnt. One who did uses a metal ligatures like Stewmac sells. These are metal with plastic coating. This luthier just scraped a small portion of plastic off where it comes in contact with the strap button.Ground wire comes out the strap hole... grounding goes through the ligature and to a small metal plate under the TP. (I didnt see the plate, he explained it was there tho).

 

Fast forward to a month or so ago. The lousy Gibson-Original tailpiece on my ES165 broke (google it.. it is more common than you think.. and I wont stop *****ing about it). I found a used benedetto TP on ebay for 35$ and used that in the intrim. No ground. Results? If there was more hum and noise than grounded it wasnt noticable. Of course I am not playing in high-gain amps. The wiring on the guitar is all stock except for the pickup which is a Classic 57 Plus.

 

This is a "everyone has an opinion" topic. Just putting mine out there.

[JimR56]

Good post, Sam.

 

Your avatar has got me curious... is that a an Epi (looks like the top of a frequensator tailpiece)... with a C.C. pickup?