Grounding of the electronics.

[Fruitwine]

hi all, i was wondering...
when we ground our guitar's pickup circuits, what is it for? is it because there is "extra" current moving about the circuit? if so, could i stick that extra electricity into a tiny single LED light, and consume it, instead of grounding?

 

[stillwater]

in the simplest form i can think of, grounding is the common point in circuitry theory. try reading up some basic circuit theory to get a better understanding...

 

[Fruitwine]

lol no need for that, i've just studied the dumb physics chapter on induced currents and crap like that hmm... but what would happen if the electronics arent grounded? maybe i'll hear a tonne of humming?

 

[dario]

hahahax... as far as I know, grounding is basically to prevent shocks to the person using it. Without grounding, the strings may became "live" and thus give the guitarist a bad shock when he touches them. I've experienced this before when my friend plugged me into his laptop via his mixer with an ungrounded power source. Woohoo. pain!

 

[Ionized]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think proper grounding reduces electrical interference from whatever electrical devices your guitar is connected to. Such interference can affect your guitar's output signal badly.

I have a cheap strat copy and whenever I plug it into my amp, I will hear a kind of static buzzing noise. Very annoying. If I touch the bridge or the strings, the noise becomes softer but not eliminated. The unresolved noise could be due to the crappy shielding in stock strats as mentioned in another post about humming guitars. My other Ibanez guitar doesn't exhibit this problem. So my conclusion was my strat has bad wiring and/or grounding.

 

[GC]

I have a cheap strat copy and whenever I plug it into my amp, I will hear a kind of static buzzing noise. Very annoying. If I touch the bridge or the strings, the noise becomes softer but not eliminated.

This sounds like a problem not from the guitar but from the amp. Your amp power point is probably a 2 pin plug which doesn't have a ground. Replace it with a 3 pin one and you won't experience this problem.

 

[Ionized]

Maybe I didn't describe properly earlier when I said, "My other Ibanez guitar doesn't exhibit this problem." I swapped my strat with my Ibanez and connected it to the same amp, same settings, same cables, etc, and the noise was gone. By the way, my amp uses a 3 pin plug.

 

[RG2820]

it could be due to the pick ups in the strat. maybe its of inferrior quality compares to ur ibanze pick ups.

 

[Ionized]

The strat is equipped with stock pick ups and I have no doubt it's no better than any ibanez's. But how would one explain the reduced buzzing noise when I touch the metal parts or even strings on the guitar?

 

[ShredCow]

Well, chances are, if it were such a cheap guitar, then its highly probable that its grounding is not too good.

I'm assuming here.... Your strat with single coils (?), and improper grounding, can lead to a lot of hum. The Ibanez if it ain't single coils but hums, then there will be much less noise.

In anycase, you can have it grounded nicely and all that all by yourself if you know what to look for... there's a site online that details the whole process. I don't have the website know but the topic of the site was "Quietening the Beast" , do a google. Apparently, strats, even with their single coils, just have poor grounding and with proper grounding the hum is minimized. When I split my humbuckers, they generate very little 60cycle hum, less than the full hum actually, due to the drop in output power.

 

[Ionized]

Well, chances are, if it were such a cheap guitar, then its highly probable that its grounding is not too good.

That was what I thought too. Despite all the advices, I've already decided to retire the cheap (first hand 100 odd bucks) strat copy.

So what is the moral of the story? Don't be a cheapo like me and buy the cheapest guitars. They won't last. :wink:

 

[Fruitwine]

lol either that, or do a internal makeover, u dont really need to junk it if u love it