I feel super dumb but......please help

doing my first build.....first guitar wiring anything. What do i ground to? i tried the search and could find nothing on it.thank you in advance

the water pipe in your basement...


No, seriously, ground to the back of the pots.

Look here (http://support.fender.com/service_diagrams/telecaster/013-5102B_SISD.pdf) for a standard tele wiring diagram.

And the bridge plate, bottom of bridge pickup and casing of neck pickup.

What are you building?

Do you mean where is ground in the guitar wiring?
Ground is the common side of the circuit. The shield terminal on the output jack
is ground, through the cable to the amp. So basically, everything connected to
the jack shield terminal is grounded.
This would include one side of each pickup, the low side of the volume control,
one terminal of the tone circuit, the bridge, and any shielding. Also the pot cases.

The cases of the pots are usually used as convenient points for making connections
to ground.

im building a 72 deluxe. So i dont run a ground wire to the bottom of the bridge?
im starting a thread. with pictures in it if you would like to see. Its not a tdpri build haha but i think its going to look awesome when its done

Normally you don't have to run a wire to the bridge. The bridge will be grounded
by the black wire from the bridge pickup. That black wire is ground for the pickup
and also for the bridge.

im building a 72 deluxe. So i dont run a ground wire to the bottom of the bridge?
im starting a thread. with pictures in it if you would like to see. Its not a tdpri build haha but i think its going to look awesome when its done

That's a good question. I would assume that you want the bridge and strings to be grounded, but hopefully someone with more experience will chime in.

Normally you don't have to run a wire to the bridge. The bridge will be grounded
by the black wire from the bridge pickup. That black wire is ground for the pickup
and also for the bridge.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but the 72 Deluxe used 2 humbuckers and a separate hardtail style bridge. As a result, unlike the traditional tele bridges, there is no connection from the ground of the bridge pickup to the bridge unless you run a wire between the two.

Even though normally you are grounded by your bridge pickups ground wire and since the screws on the bridge go down and touch it grounds it is a good idea to run another ground wire and lay it under the bridge just to be on the safe side it cant hurt. In your case since you dont have that bridge and have a humbucker it wont be the same.

Soldering to the bridge plate can be a problem, you need a big powerful soldering iron. If you use a gas torch you may discolour the plating.

However the bridge plate earth is also a safety feature - relying on the pickup springs is a bit dodgy.

If the neck pickup has three wires (for 4-way switch) then it has a separate earth wire.

I spread out the wires and just lay it in between my bridge and body...

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but the 72 Deluxe used 2 humbuckers and a separate hardtail style bridge. As a result, unlike the traditional tele bridges, there is no connection from the ground of the bridge pickup to the bridge unless you run a wire between the two.

I missed the "deluxe" part. You would have to run a separate wire.

I spread out the wires and just lay it in between my bridge and body...

It works but does not provide a terribly good electrical connection.

If you use a Residual Current Device (RCD) on your amps, then any current going to earth will trip them before it kills you. Fuses are not quick enough for this and a dodgy earth won't work it.