Brilliant idea...

dm251z

Junior Member
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For those (like me) who have touched an improperly grounded device while playing your electric...you know this is brilliant....

Fused String Ground
Even reckless rock 'n' rollers have to respect the "blue spark" effect of getting shocked when grabbing the mic at a venue with improper ground. We designed a fused string ground (wired to the switch plate inside the guitar), so that in the event of faulty ground or funky wiring, the 5-milliamp fuse will fry instead of you. If the fuse blows, your guitar will still play, but it may be susceptible to more noise until you can replace it, which is easy to do, especially since you won¹t be in the hospital.

(Excerpt taken from description of new electrics from Taylor Guitars)

 
seymour duncan(i think thats were i foud it) has a better way. it involves a capacitor i'll find the details and post it.
 
Pictures? Is it a regular glass 1/4" fast-blow amp fuse? I've even got some of those around here somewhere, in my old-fashioned parts dept.
 
I have no idea what sort of fuse they use....that's all the info I could find.  But one way or another, this is going into the current build.
 
IIRC, Active pickups solve this problem, too. You're supposed to disconnect the string ground with EMG's.
 
neilium said:
IIRC, Active pickups solve this problem, too. You're supposed to disconnect the string ground with EMG's.

Woah, that may be a more brilliant idea, but I have no experience w/ active pickups.  Do their active single coils (like the SV) have any 60-cycle hum?  If they don't, that might push me over the edge to at least try them.
 
My experience with EMG's (not specifically the SV's, though): they're quiet. When I first installed them (with the SXG expander control, I had a little bit of hum that was hardly noticeable (went completely away when the SXG was off). I rearranged things, tidied up the wiring, and it got quieter. I've spent a fair amount of time with them (60A's) and I'm not entirely sold on the tone. They don't sound nasty or anything; they're perfectly capable of making music. I guess they're just not what I'm used to. I'm sticking with them in one guitar because I like the idea of them. I like the fact that I could play at the World Neon Sign Museum or inside the particle accelerator at Fermilabs and not pick up any additional hum. (I'm not saying i get those gigs all the time, but it could happen. I need to be prepared.)
 
Just finished my first bass with active PU's and also active electronics (SD AJJ-1 Neck & Bridge, STC-3A). No ground wire to the bridge (the SD schematics show that there is none), and no particular attention to the wiring, I plan to redo that a somewhat neater a bit later. Just the traditional shielding of the Control Cavity, and with that already the absence of background noise is almost scary... With some of my other basses 50Hz hum can really be a problem in our rehearsal place (lots of fluorescent lights and lousy grounding) but this one is a dream in that respect. I agree about the sound, though. It's hard to describe, but it's as if something is missing that you would expect to be there, or maybe it's just the other way round. And that's with all the sound shaping that the STC-3 is capable of doing. On the other hand I've only used it for just one rehearsal so it is probably just a matter of growing used to it.
 
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