Grounding...

[Stalefish]

Helloo.. I'm in the midst of planning out my first project guitar and a little something just occured to me.. I understand that the guitar's electronics are generally grounded on the bridge through the inside of the guitar.. At least with those hardtail bridges.. What about a tunomatic with tail stop?? It doesn't go all the way through to the inside of the guitar, does it??

[westhemann]

the ground wire goes throuh a hole drilled from the control cavity to the hole drilled for the insert of the t.o.m.

then it is just smashed to the side of the hole as the insert is driven in

[Drak]

Just to add 2 points to Wes' post (which is exactly the way I do it)

1) You might need a foot-long drill bit to get the length and angle you need, these are available at Home Depot for a few bucks, not expensive. Mine is the same drillbit I use to connect my pickup cavities.

2) I usually take a piece of my conductive copper shielding tape and wrap a bit around the bare wire end that will get 'smashed' to really get a good contact. I'll bring the wire thru the control cavity, into the post hole, and up thru the post hole, out the top of the body, where I'll wrap the shielding tape around the end, then just pull it back down into the bottom of the post hole awaiting the post insertion to smash it down and make contact.

I try to angle the wire hole so it will enter the post hole very near the bottom.

Once everything is wired, I take an ohmmeter and check all ground connections for good grounding and contact.

[johnsilver]

I am also planning a guitar with a TOM bridge and stop tail. Can I ground to the inserts for the stop tail posts instead of the bridge inserts?