Does the tremolo claw have to be grounded?

[BillL]

I just finished putting together a guitar from parts, and after installing a tremsetter (can't live without it because of oblique bends) I realized that I never ran a ground wire to the claw. There is no noise issue, even with distortion on the amp. Is it necessary to ground the bridge and strings? Thanks.

 

[Tony Done]

Something in electrical contact with the bridge and strings should be grounded, to reduce the risk of stray noises from hand contact with the strings and the like. You might not have noise in one particular situation, but a change of environment could cause problems; better to play safe.

 

[xtrajerry]

Yes..

 

[bsman]

Here's what will happen if you don't ground it:

image removed

 

[BillL]

Thanks guys. Time to heat up the solder iron.

 

[Vizcaster]

Something in electrical contact with the bridge and strings should be grounded, to reduce the risk of stray noises from hand contact with the strings and the like.

Actually the purpose of the string-ground has nothing to do with finger noise on the strings. When you touch the strings, your body becomes part of the ground circuit and this helps to shunt away some types of RF noise.

For Strats with a trem-setter, I like to use a ring connector crimped to the end of the ground wire. You can put the ring connector on one of the term-claw screws when you replace the original them claw with the two separate claws that come with the trem-setter. That way you can restore it easily without re-soldering if you ever remove the trem-setter.