Thread: String grounding a bone saddle guitar, help!?

you dont really touch the strings on a lapsteel? except with a slide....

wouldnt grounding the thing have an opposite effect?

go look at the challenge the challenged thread, jeremy talks about grounding with a bone saddle in there i think....

also, you could rout a slot in the neck and run a wire to a machine head before you glue the fretboard on?

yeah,
you dont touch the strings sometimes, but even with copper shielding you can get a nasty hum if youre not grounding the strings. My first attempt was so noisy until in frustration i got an old piece of guitar string and stuck it underneath the bridge post then glued it to the pickup cover... my first lesson in string grounding.

I'll check out the thread you cited, (halfway thru reading it anyway, good to see people with questions all the time just like me.), but my point is, is there an easy way to ground it or am i forced to rely on my pretty ordinary skills at routing etc and drop a metal plate in to the back of the guitar?
cheers
lloydr

well what is the standard bridge design like?
an acoustic bridge?

just to clear up what i'm on about,
i need to connect all six strings with the grounding point. one machine head wont do it...

yeah it will be like an acoustic bridge, bone saddle with a rosewood bridge blank i have ready to carve. so, all strings are 'electrically separated', unless i can join them at the nut or at the bridge, failing that i have to connect them at the string-through ferrules and i'm not sure i want the look of a brass plate for the back of the instrument, but it might actually look cool...maybe a piece of fretwire on the saddle will do the job.

so if its an acoustic type bridge, the ball ends of the strings will be mounted in it with bridge pins?

nah,
i will make a bone saddle and the strings will pass over it and into ferrules in the top of the guitar, then be held by (chunkier) ferrules on the back side. no pins, and the strings will pass through the body a good few inches past the bridge.

Hi thelloydr,

If you are using the string ferrules you could just run the grounding wire to them.

Or you could just make your saddle out of brass or aluminuim instead of bone, unless you are intending on putting a transducer/piezo under the saddle to complement the pickup.
cheers

making the saddle out of brass would be good i guess. I'll have to figure out where I get the brass and how to machine it though.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that when playing a lap steel, most of the time some fingers will be touching the strings for muting/damping?

cpsmusic,
you're right, hands are pretty much always in contact with the strings. Its more an issue of "worth doing, worth doing right." My first lapsteel (long since cannibalised for parts) I didnt know about string grounding and electronic shielding etc, and it was so noisy when I wasnt playing it. I ended up grounding it by jamming a guitar string into the pickup screw, and under the bridge posts. Looked terrible but cut the hum out. SInce then, Ive felt its always worth taking the extra few hours to ground the strings, and to shield pickup cavity and control cavity with copper tape etc.

Originally Posted by cpsmusic

Maybe I'm wrong, but I thought that when playing a lap steel, most of the time some fingers will be touching the strings for muting/damping?

whoops,
my mistake

you could incorperate a ground wire/strip into (or under) an inlay going from the ferrules to the control cavity cover

Just a crazy thought, but what about earthing at the headstock somehow?

Originally Posted by cpsmusic

Just a crazy thought, but what about earthing at the headstock somehow?

i voiced that idea up there ^
lol