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1965 Silvertone Harmony model S1478 With Original Fibreboard Case |
~ Page 42; Fabricating Strings Ground Wire ~ |
See NEXT PAGE; 1 of 4 pages of guitar case work >>> |
During the period this guitar was made, high amp gains and even high amp volumes had not reached the masses of the consumer guitar market; So 60 cycle hum from ungrounded strings was not a big concern among most manufacturers. Ironically, the manufacturers thought that if a person wanted more volume he / she would simply buy a larger amp that would provide the clean / clear headroom that was industry standard at that time and didn't accentuate 60 cycle hum from ungrounded strings. But that was soon to change as more and more Rock and Blues Players were discovering the tones of high amp gain and high amp volume, where 60 cycle hum from ungrounded strings become a noise problem. It's a piece of cake putting a strings ground on a Harmony guitar with these DeArmond Golden Tone pickups. There is loose clearance under the pickups base plate that a wire can be slipped under and connected to the strings, ...even if simply sitting in one string slot of a wood bridge. I use a length of guitar string for the job because I can choose a string gauge that will slide under there yet still fit tight enough when coiled up. The coiling will not be evenly flat so any number of places on the coil will come in contact with the pickups baseplate for a good ground: |
In the case of these roller bridges, put a "J" in one end of the wire to hook around one of the bridge's base plate mounting screws when slid under the plate with the screws loosened. Then coil the string up around long nose pliers as shown below, which will uncoil into a spiral: |
Loosen the bridge base-plate screws and pull the "J" up against one of the screws and tighten the screws back down: |
Start inserting the coil under the pickup base-plate by hand: |
Then push it further into place with a guitar pick: |
The coil / spiral will remain loose under the pickup base-plate. To look nice, adjust the wire so it is perpendicular to the bridge plate: |
Voila ....job done. You can even camouflage the ground wire by slipping an ample strip of wax paper "drop cloth" under it and use plastic model paints to paint the wire to match the pickguard. When the paint dries for 2 days the wax paper will pull out without much ado at all. The paint will usually dry well overnight, but better to be safe than winding up with a sticky mess on a great guitar ! |
NOTICE: These pictures were taken before my camera went tits-up, and show the ground wire fabrication done before the final stages of neck attachment work shown on the previous page. |
