String ground
The wire that connects the bridge or tailpiece to the guitar's ground, so the strings themselves are at earth potential.
Its purpose is noise: because a player's body acts as an aerial, touching a grounded string discharges the interference they are carrying, which is why a guitar hums when the hands are off it and goes quiet when they touch. Without the ground, touching the strings makes the noise worse instead of better. The connection is usually a wire under the bridge plate or a tailpiece stud, and it is a common source of hum when it breaks.
Example: a guitar that gets noisier when the strings are touched has a broken string ground rather than a pickup fault.
See also
Related
- PageShielding
- PageGround loop
- PageActive pickup
- PageAlnico
- PageBlade pickup
- PageAaron Dessner
- PageAce Frehley
- PageAd-Rock