Grounding Question

[Dingus420]

k so i got this pre wired pickguard, SSS, off of guitar fetish, but im not sure if it has been properly grounded, looks to me like the 5 way has gotta be grounded to the volume pot as well, but im not really sure

[psw]

you can test it with a multimeter but it looks like the shielding silver stuff is grounding everything together as it is without wires...don't forget to add a wire to the spring claw for string grounding though!

[bluesy]

I agree, but relying on mechanical, rather than soldered connections SOMETIMES causes problems. You could run a ground wire from the switch metalwork to the common grounding point, but route the wire physically close to the metalwork. This reduces the area of any hum loop that may be formed. This also applies to the black wires you have joining the pots together. Push them down to run along against the metal shielding.

[egdeltar]

That piece of metal on the pick guard is acting like a chassis ground for all your pots and switches.

[GregP]

agreed-- further to this, if the metal on the pick guard IS continuous between all those ground points, you'll want to unsolder the ones that go from the back of one pot to the back of the next. Likely, these are all pre-soldered harnesses dropped into a "shielded" pickguard without much care taken for making a nice cleanly laid-out ground.

Potential for ground loops seems to abound in that pickguard.