Question about replacing MIM tele bridge

[swolter]

I'm thinking about replacing the bridge on my Mexican tele with a three-barrel one. Stew-Mac has some that look like they will drop right in. My question is, is there a ground wire (or anything) attached/soldered to the old bridge that I will need to deal with, or can I just unscrew the old one and screw the new one in? (I realize I will need to remount the pickup, of course).

[BWB927]

I actually just did the same thing two days ago. I was going from a modern bridge though, so I had some other challenges that you may not run into. As far as a ground wire, mine was just sitting under the bridge with the bridge mounted over top of it. No soldering to worry about. Overall it's a fairly easy swap. Have you bought the bridge yet? If not, I HIGHLY recommend this one:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Wilkinso...les_p_872.html

It also comes in chrome if the black doesn't do it for you.

For the money, that bridge is awesome. It completely transformed my guitar in terms of feel and tone. I'm using 10's on it and I had no intonation issues.

[Tonetele]

My friend and luthier, Steve Opitz , who repairs Matons under licence, recommends
earthing just about everything.He says, as I do, earthing a bridge pickup to the the bridge.
Simply drill a hole from the p/up cavity to underneath the bridge and add an earth wire from the volume pot. Eliminates the hum. Works for him and me. JMHO

[DrBanana]

Originally Posted by Tonetele

My friend and luthier, Steve Opitz , who repairs Matons under licence, recommends
earthing just about everything.He says, as I do, earthing a bridge pickup to the the bridge.
Simply drill a hole from the p/up cavity to underneath the bridge and add an earth wire from the volume pot. Eliminates the hum. Works for him and me. JMHO

This is normal for a Tele and should already be there on a production guitar. The lead is run through the same hole as the pup leads.

To the OP - sometimes the earth lead just sits under your bridge with the bare wires touching the base plate and probably taking a loop around one of the screw holes. On my MIM the negative on the pup had a y- split with a eye that went on one of the pup screws fixing it against the base plate.

Either way it's simple, no soldering required.

[strateles]

+1 on the Wilkinson compensated bridge from GFS. All of my MIM's have had them. Big improvement and a wonderful product at a great price. And like DrBanana said, all of my MIM's have had the eyelet ground coming off of the pickup and attaching to one of the pickup screws. Just pay attention when you take the bridge off/apart and put it back together the same way. Good luck!