Dugz Ink Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 I've been looking over my first guitar project, and thinking about various things, like routing out the body and mounting the control pots. Then I looked at the grain of the body again. What if I mounted the cover panel on the front, and mounted the pots through the panel? If I used aluminum, that would provide a consitant ground to all of the pots/switches. And it might actually look interesting with the woodgrain on this body. Something like this: Any comments or ideas are welcome. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAI6 Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Nothing strange about that. Just like a Tele, or a Jazz bass... Just make sure it fits the overall flow and design of the body...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Yes, that would be cool indeed. Just keep in mind that unless you use active electronics, you still must ground everything to the strings, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dugz Ink Posted October 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 ...you still must ground everything to the strings, too. I was thinking about using the cover as the mutual ground for everything, since the pots will be securely mounted to it. It seemed like a good idea, but I didn't know if I was overloooking something... like the metal being too thin to mount the pots. Thanks for the feedback that I've received so far. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LGM Guitars Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 That's usually all a pickguard is is a cavity cover for the front Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 The aluminum (or any other metal) will be a good common ground for the electronics, but it will not be a sufficient ground plane for the system. Also, it's always best to have the grounds solidly connected by solder in an electric guitar. This is because the electronics are generating a relatively weak signal that is susceptible to interference and sensitivity to ground connections. When you touch the strings of a properly grounded guitar, you are the ground plane. It supresses noise and other spurious interference. Active electronics don't need a path to ground because they are well shielded and feature preamps that handle all of the grounding needs of the system. It is possible to not connect the electronics to the strings and still have a quiet guitar in a passive setup, but it is very difficult to eliminate and shield all sources of noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genbloke Posted October 13, 2004 Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 Aluminium oxidised very quickly. The connections for the grounds will gain a lot of resistance because aluminium oxide is non-conductive, this is not good. I would have thought something like stainless steel would be a better bet. genbloke Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dugz Ink Posted October 13, 2004 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2004 I was thinking about using aluminum mostly because it's non-magnetic, which allows it to be a good RFI shield. And also because I have some gun-metal blueing that gives aluminum an black-oxidized finish. But you've made some interesting points. Thanks. D~s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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