Originally Posted by
fender3x
You can get a pretty nasty hum if the strings are not grounded. On steel covered strings a lot of the hum will go away once you touch the strings, which means your body is acting as the ground.
I didn't know that the originals came with tape wounds, but I would think that would be an even better reason to ground the tailpiece. The string core is still ferrous. I have a set of D'Addario tape wounds on an ES bass with a tailpiece. The "ball" on the bass end is colored metal which is conductive. The metal string core wraps around the ball, so a grounded tailpiece will ground the string, even if tape wound. The wrap is also pretty loose on the G string, so I am pretty sure it would ground at the bridge as well. .