Bridge grounding - is it necessary?

[Billy Porter]

Hi
I’m building a Tele and am using the surgical tubing that came with Pickups I put in my other Tele as I don’t have any springs – I appreciate that the ground passes through the strings but............

I want to ensure that I have as good a ground as I can so have soldered a wire to the back of the bridge which I’ll solder to one of the pots.

I’ll also be shielding all of the cavities (don’t mind hum at rehearsals/gigs but want to minimise it for home laying or recording

Could they above create a ground loop? Am I going over the top?

[Tuxedo Poly]

Should be ok.
Alternatively feed a ground wire under the bridge and strip about an inch off the end. When the bridge is screwed down it will make a good ground connection.

[Jazzy Jay]

I did not shield my esquire's cavities, and I didn't solder a ground wire to the bridge. The guitar's dead quiet.

[chezdeluxe]

Bridge grounding allows your body, when you are touching the strings, to act as a shield against noise generating external signals. The vast majority of electric guitars have bridge grounding for that purpose.

You will /can not create a ground loop in the wiring of your guitar.

[dilver]

What are you using to shield the pickup cavities? If you're using copper foil, just extend a strip from the bridge pickup cavity to under the bridge plate, fold the end back on itself so it's raised a tiny bit and screw the bridge plate down on top of it. This way, you won't create an indentation on your guitar body by squashing the wire with the bridge plate. I shielded all the cavities on my partscaster tele and it's dead quiet.

[soulman969]

Originally Posted by Tuxedo Poly

Should be ok.
Alternatively feed a ground wire under the bridge and strip about an inch off the end. When the bridge is screwed down it will make a good ground connection.

+1 This is an easy way to do it. Then just ground to a pot or the cavity itself if it's shielded.

[JohnS]

Yes.