Strat pickup base plates

[axg20202]

Hi all,

theoretical question here. If you have, say, a bridge strat pickup with a metal base plate fitted, what's the situation with grounding of the plate and some of the non-stock "pickups in series" switching mods? Should the base plate be grounded by a discrete link to ground that is separate from the negative lead of the pickup it is mounted to? Should I not bother grounding the plate?

When you switch a pickup into series with another pickup, the switch effectively connects the hot of one pickup into the ground lead of the next - it is this fact that has me scratching my head when it comes to how the base plate could cause a problem with regard to making the 'ground' hot, if you catch my drift. Maybe it's because it's a Monday and I missed my coffee this morning. Duh!

Thanks,

Andy.

[Philly Q]

I know there are issues when using a covered Tele neck pickup with a 4-way switch for series wiring.  The pickup cover shares the pickup's ground wire, so in series mode the cover itself would be "hot".  So, that ground connection needs to be broken, then a separate ground wire is added just for the cover.

I guess a Strat pickup with a metal base plate would be exactly the same.

[axg20202]

Sounds sensible to me. So I run a ground to the plate and make sure that there is no continuity between the plate and leads of the pickup.

I'll have to play around with the wiring and see what works - I'm installing a Deaf Eddie Fat-O switch. The electronics in strats are such a PITA to modify, test, modify etc. I guess I'll be tapping some pickups with a screwdriver pretty soon!

Thanks.

[Philly Q]

Yeah, I guess you have the wire from the plate permanently grounded, then you can forget about it and use the other two wires however you want.