black bridge on DJB-4 Bass not conductive

[patrickparks1]

So, installed my ground wire under my bridge and found surprisingly that the paint on the bridge is not conductive, and thus the ground wire is not grounding any of the strings.

Seems quite strange to me that I'm going to have to scrape off paint to get down to some actual metal that will allow me to ground this.

Anybody else run into this?

[patrickparks1]

Have conductivity now to each of the string guides. Had to sand the back of the plate where the ground came out of the guitar, and then had to sand the inside of the head of the screw, the bracket where the screw touches on the bridge, and then the areas where the strings sit in order to get conductivity with the volt meter.

[patrickparks1]

It just dawned on me that the only thing I probably had to do was to sand the paint of the back where it touched the wire. The strings will most likely pull ground from the string through holes where I will put the strings into the bridge. Oh well, the extra bit that I sanded paint off from won't hurt, and will be under the strings anyway. And I'm sure over time it would have worn away paint anyway.

Just wanted to update in case anybody else neglects to see the obvious like I did tonight. It's late, time for bed.

[Trevor Davies]

So, installed my ground wire under my bridge and found surprisingly that the paint on the bridge is not conductive, and thus the ground wire is not grounding any of the strings.

Seems quite strange to me that I'm going to have to scrape off paint to get down to some actual metal that will allow me to ground this.

Anybody else run into this?

Yes. This is typical of all the black hardware - they definitely need to be filed, scratched or sanded to get a good connectivity with the ground wire. The black studs for the tuneomatic bridge or tailstop also need to be done!