Will any type of wire do for grounding?

jeffjozwiak

Junior Member
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What's the best way wire to use for grounding? Copper? Should it be looped around ( "S" shaped) the bridge base to make a good contact? Any specific gauge? Sounds strange but I want it thin enough so the bridge sit right when screwed in.

thanks
 
Use the same wire that you use for the electronics.
22 gauge stranded. The "modern" stuff is usually copper, and the cloth stuff looks like nickel.

Make sure you fan out the strands.
 
line6man said:
Make sure you fan out the strands.

That's a good tip! I've been having some minor grounding issues with my first guitar I wired up, and I couldn't figure out why. Since I'm getting ready to do my second, I'll give this a shot. I haven't seen anyone else mention that. :)
 
Actually, the best way to ground a bridge IMO, is like this:
3172361271_e4e22ac71b.jpg


But this can be tricky if you don't have a recessed area under the bridge, where you can solder the wire to the foil.
 
Looks like overkill to me, l6m.  Just leave the wire dangling IMO.  Keep the unstripped part in the hole, and let the bridge squish the wire against the body.
 
With the copper tape, is the sticky side conductive?  What I'm getting at is that overlaping areas, like in body cavities, if not electrically continuous because separated by the adhesive, could be conductors separated by a non-conductive material (a capacitor).  If not all connected with a jumper, in theory it could make a problem where none existed, and worse than if not shielded at all.
 
Super Turbo Deluxe Custom said:
With the copper tape, is the sticky side conductive?  What I'm getting at is that overlaping areas, like in body cavities, if not electrically continuous because separated by the adhesive, could be conductors separated by a non-conductive material (a capacitor).  If not all connected with a jumper, in theory it could make a problem where none existed, and worse than if not shielded at all.

According to Gregg the adhesive is not conductive, and you should solder any seams between pieces of tape.  But I have personally tested tape I bought from Warmoth and found the adhesive conducts perfectly well.

In fact one of my Warmoths uses nothing but pieces of copper tape to connect the output jack ground to the pot casings.  So if the adhesive ever stops conducting, I'll know it!  It is going strong after about 1 year now.

Your mileage may vary, of course.  For all I know it will fail tomorrow.  :dontknow:
 
That copper tape stuff does have conductive adhesive. For grounding purposes, it's just fine. At work, we use the same kind of tape to shield from RF frequency noise.

It's aluminum tapes that generally do not have conductive adhesive.
 
Some copper foil has conductive adhesive, but most of it does not.

You simply drop a bead of solder between the pieces that overlap.
If you look closely at my picture, you can see the solder where the two pieces of copper join.
 
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