HF-4 Bass - Nearly there but need some help

[Stumagoo]

Dear Brains Trust,

I have nearly completed my Hofner kit and I'm pretty pleased with it.

I'm not entirely satisfied with the fixed bridge and have decided to manufacture a brass/chrome plated bridge as I'd prefer to adjust the intonation as well.

All that aside, I have a minor electrical problem. The electronics don't seem to be working properly. One pick up doesn't seem to work and the other is a bit buzzy.

I note that there was a spare piece of wire with the kit and I'm thinking it's an earth wire to the bridge/strings, but I'm not sure. There doesn't appear to be a spot to attach the wire.

It's the only thing I can think of as the problem - wiring the pickups is pretty hard to get wrong.

So does anybody have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,

Stu

[Dedman]

Hi Stu
there should be an earth wire to the tail piece of the trapeze. drill a hole under the bracket and have it tighten up against a stripped end of wire if you get my drift., other end goes to where all your other earths are( back of the tone pot?)

I havent done one of these kits (yet) so I'm not sure what comes pre-wired on the control panel

[Stumagoo]

Hi Dedman - Thanks for your reply. I sorta thought that was what was supposed to happen but as there was no lug or anything to attach to, I wasn't sure. I'll give it a go.
Cheers,

Stu

[Swanny]

In kits with a fixed bridge, there is a hole drilled to feed a wire to connect to the bridge post, which earths the strings. If you've got a movable bridge, it'd have to be earthed through the tail piece - it's not practicable to earth the tuning pegs...

[blaine63]

I'm planning on connecting the ground wire to the strap button/tailpiece array.

I think that will work, right?

[FrankenWashie]

I'm planning on connecting the ground wire to the strap button/tailpiece array.

I think that will work, right?

As long as you get good contact with the tailpiece or the strap button. It may pay to scrape or sand back to bare metal, and perhaps even solder to it if you can.

[blaine63]

Thanks. Should be an easy solution.