What's Up With The Grounding In This Jackson?

[Rackman]

Got a 2002 KE2 I'm re-wiring. AFAIK it's got the factory harness in it right now, but I'm beginning to doubt that...

Under each pickup there's a... ground wire I guess?
Neck:

Bridge:

The neck one I'm wondering if that material under the screw is conductive and is some sort of shield? The bridge one just seems to be screwed to the wood/paint. There is also a separate ground wire to the trem claw like I would expect.

Both wires run back to a ground bus in the crontrol cavity that in turn runs to jack 'sleeve' like you would expect.

Anyone know what's going on here? I've never seen anything like this. I'm planning to install a set of Fishmans and it seems like they might short or have one of the "ground this to change modes" pads/pins touch ground. So it seems like these need to be removed? Or at the very least taped over?

 

[vultures]

I've removed tons of those things from old Charvels and new Jacksons. They make little-to-no difference. They're supposed to give continuity to ground in all the cavities, but it looks like there's no shield paint in the neck pickup.

If you're going active there's no need for it anyway, remove it to give yourself a cleaner cavity.

 

[ChurchHill]

This ^^^. Most if not all of the older Jacksons and Charvels I've seen have had this. I don't think that whatever they were using for conductive paint shielding was worth a damn because it didn't seem to make any difference if I left those in place or removed them.

 

[Rackman]

Out they come!