the "ground wire to bridge" on seymour's standard wiring for tele...

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vanguard

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is it necessary? i don't recall there ever being a little wire stuck under the bridge plate of any of my stock fender teles when i took them apart. seymour has a little wire running from ground, through the bridge pickup wiring cavity, and then under the bridge plate. can i just leave it out? thanks.
 

milocj

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It depends on whether your bridge pup has a baseplate under it or not. If it just has the fiber bobbin like a lot of newer Teles have then the bridge won't be grounded without that wire. If your pickup has the copper/metal baseplate then the bridge will be grounded by virtue of the pickup mounting screws.

I've never pulled apart a newer Tele to see how they actually ground the bridges with the non-baseplate style pickups.
 

ShortBuSX

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It depends on whether your bridge pup has a baseplate under it or not. If it just has the fiber bobbin like a lot of newer Teles have then the bridge won't be grounded without that wire. If your pickup has the copper/metal baseplate then the bridge will be grounded by virtue of the pickup mounting screws.

I've never pulled apart a newer Tele to see how they actually ground the bridges with the non-baseplate style pickups.

My HWY1 doesnt have a baseplate...nor does it have a wire under the bridge.
Im pretty sure this is causing my #2 switch position to be noisy(noisier than #1 or #3).
Instead mine has an uber lame jumper(the blue wire) from the pup to one of the height screws(uses a ground washer).
I think Id like to add a ground to the bridge plate...now what/where do I run it from???

100_2187-1.jpg
 

vanguard

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It depends on whether your bridge pup has a baseplate under it or not. If it just has the fiber bobbin like a lot of newer Teles have then the bridge won't be grounded without that wire. If your pickup has the copper/metal baseplate then the bridge will be grounded by virtue of the pickup mounting screws.

I've never pulled apart a newer Tele to see how they actually ground the bridges with the non-baseplate style pickups.

sweet. so if i'm using a nocaster bridge pup with zinc baseplate, i'm good to go without the ground wire?
 

jefrs

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Your blue wire is earthy and it is grounding the bridge plate.
Do not add an extra wire, you may get a small induction loop. Position #2 is both pickups so twice as much noise.
 

ShortBuSX

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Your blue wire is earthy and it is grounding the bridge plate.
Do not add an extra wire, you may get a small induction loop. Position #2 is both pickups so twice as much noise.

Awe come on!!!
No hum canceling position???
WTH?
 

mellecaster

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Ground (Earth) Loops be dammned !...I run a separate ground to the Bridge on everything I build...whether it has the Silly little Blue jumper, or the Metal Baseplate...it's 50 cents of cheap insurance...JMO...YMMV...but it shouldn't..;)

DSCF4182JPG.jpg

Before-Gnd.jpg
 

JasonRobert

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you can check ground continuity with a continuity tester with one end on the control plate and the other on the bridge plate... if it beeps or shows a reading then the bridge is grounded and you dont have to worry.
 

ShortBuSX

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you can check ground continuity with a continuity tester with one end on the control plate and the other on the bridge plate... if it beeps or shows a reading then the bridge is grounded and you dont have to worry.

Id planned on just testing a jumper from the control cover to the bridge to see if that helped...but I like your idea too.

In my search I found this link here, so if my jumper helps Im just gonna follow this:

Wiring3-way.gif
 

ShortBuSX

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Is it normal for Tele pickups to be RWRP like a Strat?

Are the OV's RWRP? If not is there something comparable that is?
 

ShortBuSX

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I tested the polarity of my pups and theyre the same :cry:
So of course the jumper didnt help.

So Im beginning to wonder if/why its common not to have RWRP on a Tele?

I notice with aot of the Tele pickups advertised for sale make no claims either way...so Im wondering if this(RWRP) is something I should be looking for or not...but then I cant figure out why its not so already?:confused:

Any insight would be appreciated...but Im afraid my question is probably buried in this topic where its hardly relevant anymore.
 

JasonRobert

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Firstly, what I would do is run a separate ground wire to the bridge plate.

Then disconnect the existing grounding to the bridge plate you have... it looks like the blue wire is connected to the screw... so just take that bit of the wire off the screw and insulate it with tape.

Now you can switch the wires on with control panel to the bridge pickup. This will change the polarity and should help with the noise problem in the middle position.
 

ShortBuSX

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Firstly, what I would do is run a separate ground wire to the bridge plate.

Then disconnect the existing grounding to the bridge plate you have... it looks like the blue wire is connected to the screw... so just take that bit of the wire off the screw and insulate it with tape.

Now you can switch the wires on with control panel to the bridge pickup. This will change the polarity and should help with the noise problem in the middle position.

Im pretty sure that wont change the polarity(north or south) of the magnets.
 

PeteG45

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I wired my tele as a B-Bender Nashville Tele with a set of the Fender OV pickups and a RWRP strat pickup (from a MIM strat). I do have a ground running to the bridge plate and base plate on my bridge pickup. The notch positions are noise-less. The 1 and 5 positions have a little noise but it's certainly acceptable. The middle position gives me just the neck and bridge combined and it has just a tiny bit of noise. I have always run the extra ground to the bridge plate.
 

JasonRobert

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Im pretty sure that wont change the polarity(north or south) of the magnets.

it wont... it will change the electrical polarity of the pickups, which should mean that your position two will be hum-canceling. As you are getting noise when the pickups are connected together, it seems that they are producing the noise rather than "bucking" it. And as you have already confirmed its not a ground issue by trying jumper cables, it will either be pickups or a lack of shielding. And because it is only on position two it can only be the pickups which are causing this problem.

"The polarity of the noise signal is independent of the magnets -- it depends only on the direction of the coil winding -- so the noise signal across the two coils is cancelling, or out-of-phase." (from http://www.guitarnuts.com/wiring/pickups.php singlecoil v humbucker paragraph).

so by switching the cables from the pickups, you are changing the direction the signal flows round the coil.
 

ShortBuSX

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Sorry if Im being a complete idiot, but if I swap both the + and - wires all Id be doing would be putting them out of phase...and I dont think I really wanna do that either. Wouldnt that make my position #2 sound really really HOT?(and possibly noisier?)
This still wouldnt equal RWRP...its just "out of phase", right?
 

Vizcaster

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Ok you will be cancelling the hum if you just reverse the wires, but it will not sound right. It will be out of phase with that quacky nasaly tone. In order to get a hum canceling combination you need all the letters in the RWRP acrynym: reverse wound, reverse polarity.
 

ShortBuSX

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Ok you will be cancelling the hum if you just reverse the wires, but it will not sound right. It will be out of phase with that quacky nasaly tone. In order to get a hum canceling combination you need all the letters in the RWRP acrynym: reverse wound, reverse polarity.

Thanks...I thought I was missing something there.

So then is there a reason why non-RWRP arent AS common among Teles as they are among Strats?
Is there something that is lost by using RWRP on a Tele???
I mean a HWY1 is far from vintage...so I just dont get the reasoning(if that is a valid reason). Who wants hum???
 
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