Les Paul wiring/ground issue

[Skrapmetal]

Just picked this 1993 Les Paul Studio up off ebay... it's got some ground buzz that decreases if my finger brushes the pickup covers. Pulled the cavity cover and the wiring looks like this:

As you can see (where my screwdriver is pointing) the bridge ground is disconnected and bent upwards like it was done intentionally. You can see where there is a glob of solder on the pot directly under it where I assume it was originally connected. The only modification that was supposed to be done was a capacitor added to the bridge volume pot (which is there).

Any of you know of why someone would intentionally disconnect that ground wire? It seems like it should be a simple fix to just heat that solder up on the pot and reconnect it, but I just can't figure out if it was disconnected for a good reason.

Also, isn't there supposed to be a set of wires grounding all of the pots to each other? Or does the metal plate handle that?

 

[deadweight]

the metal plate is supposed to i think, i would just plug in and hold a piece of wire to the bridge ground and the pot and see if it fixes your problem

 

[glpg80]

you cannot lift the ground of the bridge pickup, get some solder wick or solder sucker and get rid of that junk of glob that is on there. Solder it back correctly and trim off any access. Yes - all of the pots should be grounded together and all of them should terminate to only one ground connection going to the cable/jack output.

To be quite honest i would rip it all out and start from scratch. it is actually good practice to terminate the grounds of the pickups as close as possible to one another, any distance between them causes resistance between them and this can cause a voltage drop across that resistance heard as noise. pick a single pot, ground everything to it being careful not to overheat it, and then wire the other pots to that ground location as well. use as little solder as possible, and keep cap leads as short as possible and within reason.Use good 24-26AWG stranded wire for the ground connections. I wouldnt want to claim the work for that, complete hack job IMHO.

 

[rupe]

Just resolder the ground wire as you suggested...should do the trick

 

[Skrapmetal]

you cannot lift the ground of the bridge pickup, get some solder wick or solder sucker and get rid of that junk of glob that is on there. Solder it back correctly and trim off any access. Yes - all of the pots should be grounded together and all of them should terminate to only one ground connection going to the cable/jack output.

To be quite honest i would rip it all out and start from scratch. it is actually good practice to terminate the grounds of the pickups as close as possible to one another, any distance between them causes resistance between them and this can cause a voltage drop across that resistance heard as noise. pick a single pot, ground everything to it being careful not to overheat it, and then wire the other pots to that ground location as well. use as little solder as possible, and keep cap leads as short as possible and within reason.Use good 24-26AWG stranded wire for the ground connections. I wouldnt want to claim the work for that, complete hack job IMHO.

I might just take your advice and rewire it. Probably all new pots, too.

Any idea why someone would have disconnected the bridge ground to begin with? It was obviously connected at some point.

 

[Anonymous]

there's no reason you can't just resolder it, see how it sounds, if you like it, then drive on with the mission = playing.

 

[Skrapmetal]

there's no reason you can't just resolder it, see how it sounds, if you like it, then drive on with the mission = playing.

That's the plan for now. Gives me a chance to see if I like the original pickups or not before I do anything too crazy.

 

[Anonymous]

pm'd

 

[Greazygeo]

Any idea why someone would have disconnected the bridge ground to begin with? It was obviously connected at some point.

Guy probably had EMG's in it at some point.

 

[Skrapmetal]

Got that ground wire reconnected and it's... better. Not perfect, but a lot better. Then spent three hours cleaning it up and setting it up. I love the well-worn mojo, but boy was it dirty. Strings were a year or two past needing changed, the neck had too much relief for me, and there was a heavy buildup of sweat/skin/dirty crap.

 

[blackba]

Glad you got it reconnected. Dirty, grungy guitars are the only ones people seem to want me to work on. Most of the repair time is generally in the cleaning.

So does that LP studio have an ebony or rosewood board? I used to have a '95 LP studio, should have never have sold that guitar.

 

[Skrapmetal]

Ebony. You're right... most of the time was cleaning. I love worn guitars, but I can't handle playing a guitar covered in someone else's filth.

It took a setup really well, one of the fastest setups I've ever done. I'm no Les Paul expert, but this one feels more "right" than most of the others I've played.

 

[Anonymous]

Any idea why someone would have disconnected the bridge ground to begin with? It was obviously connected at some point.

Guy probably had EMG's in it at some point.

This.....and forgot to resolder it back and ...yes...the plate completes the ground to all pots