Tele bridge grounding

[Fatman]

Is it really necessary to ground the neck bridge on a Tele build? The screws that hold the pick-up in place contact both the bridge and the grounded part of the pickup, so it seems the bridge would already be grounded.
Any thoughts?

[Sonic Mountain]

Hmmm don’t think I’d rely on that. Having everything properly earthed makes a big difference, the hole is there for the wire, it’s not like it’s a big effort to ground the bridge.

[fender3x]

Its easy to find out with an ohms meter. Put one lean on the ring part of the jack and the other on the strings. If the meter shows close to 0 nothing further needed.

If the meter stays at 1 your pickup baseplate may not be grounded.

You shouldn't need a separate ground for the bridge since the screws to the baseplate should already do that if the baseplate is properly grounded...but you should still test.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

[McCreed]

I'm with Sonic. I just do it. 2 minutes work can save extraneous minutes of frustration later.

[Simon Barden]

On Teles, I normally solder a ground wire onto a small washer, which is then held against the bridge plate by one of the pickup mounting screw springs.

[agus]

That's a cool idea Simon (washer on screw spring).

[Fatman]

[QUOTE=Fatman;187699]Is it really necessary to ground the neck bridge on a Tele build? The screws that hold the pick-up in place contact both the bridge and the grounded part of the pickup, so it seems the bridge would already be grounded.
Any thoughts?[

[Fatman]

Thanks for the help--love the washer and spring solution.

[Simon Barden]

Is it really necessary to ground the neck bridge on a Tele build? The screws that hold the pick-up in place contact both the bridge and the grounded part of the pickup, so it seems the bridge would already be grounded.

Any thoughts?

There is no one answer to this. Not all Tele bridge pickups have a copper base plate fitted, especially at the low-cost end of the market. So if the pickup doesn't have a copper (normally zinc-plated) base plate, then you'll definitely need a separate ground for the bridge.

If it does have a metal base plate, then as Fender3x says, check with a multi-meter to see if there's a low resistance reading between the output jack ground and the bridge. If it's nice and low, then you can get by without a separate ground connection. But personally, I prefer to fit one to be sure. Over time, you'll invariably get some corrosion on the screws. Depending on how much and how acidic your hand sweat is this could vary from months to years. But it will happen, and the more rust and corrosion there is, the greater the likelihood that the resistance to ground increases.

Obviously it's not the end of the world; the guitar will still work but you may get more hum. It's a bit like whether you solder a ground connection to the back of both pots on the Tele control plate, or trust the plate itself to provide a good ground between the two. It's fine when the pot mounting nuts are done up nice and tight, but they do loosen up over time, and again, corrosion can set in. So I always solder a ground link between them. It is belt and braces, but it's certainly reliable.

[Fatman]

Thanks again for the help, but I'm still stuck and also need to clarify some.

It was the bridge pickup--a humbucker--not the neck pick-up--a regular pick-up, that was not working. I did use the ohm meter and sure enough the reading was zero between the humbucker bridge and the jack base and obviously the strings and the jack also. When the volume is up and the tone is either off or on and I tap the bridge pickup (non-humbucker) with a screwdriver I can hear it through the amp.

I can also hear the screwdriver tapping on the humbucker "dots" on the pick-up through the amp, but only when the tone is turned up. However, even in this situation when I can hear the screwdriver through the amp, I cannot get the guitar to play through the amp from the humbucker pick-up. Also, the screwdriver is attracted tom the "dots" of the humbucker pick-up, which I assume is normal.

So, I'm really confused why the tone has to be turned up to hear the humbucker tapping, and since I can hear the humbucker tapping when the tone is turned up why no sound from the humbucker through the amp when I play the strings.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.