Grounding Help

[rrr123]

I'm currently in the process of installing a pedal inside my guitar, but i have a couple of questions about the grounding.

1) Since the guitar signal will be wired directly to the input (of the pedal), there will be nothing touching the ground connector on the input jack (of the pedal). The battery wire also connects to this ground, so i figure that its important that it wire somewhere, so where does it go?

2) I took the pedal out of its casing but plugged it into my effects chain. I experienced a terrrrible buzz until i reseated the circuit board so that it was touching the casing, and the buzz stoped and the normal signal resumed, so im guessing that the board needs to be grounded. Is it as simple as taking the common ground on the circuit board and wiring it to the ground inside the guitar (volume pot)?

Thats all for now, thank you very much, im quite inexperienced!

Edited August 21, 2006 by rrr123

[Paul Marossy]

Since the guitar signal will be wired directly to the input (of the pedal), there will be nothing touching the ground connector on the input jack (of the pedal).

That's easy. Connect all the grounds together.

The battery wire also connects to this ground, so i figure that its important that it wire somewhere, so where does it go?

Use a stereo jack to switch the power to the circuit on when you plug a cord into your guitar.

I took the pedal out of its casing but plugged it into my effects chain. I experienced a terrrrible buzz until i reseated the circuit board so that it was touching the casing, and the buzz stoped and the normal signal resumed, so im guessing that the board needs to be grounded.

That's correct.

Is it as simple as taking the common ground on the circuit board and wiring it to the ground inside the guitar (volume pot)?

Yep, it's that easy.

Edited August 21, 2006 by Paul Marossy

[rrr123]

thank you very, the response to the second question was quite helpful, but for the 1st, maybe im just confused, or maybe its because i have little idea of how this grounding works, but the wire that runs to the input jack of the pedal is already connected to the common ground on the circuit board, so wouldn't wiring it to the ground in the guitar create a ground loop (or something)? pardon me for my confusion

here is a rudimentary drawing of my question, the problem highlighted in red

http://home.comcast.net/~latusrectum/circquestion.bmp

[rrr123]

does anyone have a response to my previous post? the mail comes with my switch today!

[Paul Marossy]

You're getting hung up on the circuit input. As long as your circuit is grounded with everything else, it will work.

The input jack on stompboxes is usually a stereo jack which is wired in such a way that when you plug a cord into the jack, it completes the battery circuit to ground. If you don't make provision for shutting the power off when your guitar isn't being used, the battery will die quite quickly. That's all I was getting at.