grounding a bridge ?

[Buffalo John]

Hi All. I am building my first coil type guitar. I got one of those complete wired coils with vol and tone off ebay for a 1,00 and from what I can gather the strings need to be grounded. what are some of the most common ways of doing this ? Thanks !

[Ben]

Hi John,
I built a lap steel that used an oak block as a tailpiece (the strings go through one side and out the other). It is screwed onto the box with the screws coming through the inside of the box. I plan to use a thin sheet of brass that will mount on one side of the oak with the same holes drilled in it for the strings and the screws. I figure that the strings will contact the brass plate, which will contact the screws. I can then solder to the screw where it comes through on the inside of the box. I hope this works and I haven't overlooked anything obvious.

[Steve Becker]

Here's how I did mine. The tailpiece is a picture hanger, that I soldered a thin wire to. I drilled a tiny hole through the box, behind where the tailpiece mounted, and just soldered the other end to the pot. Works great. If you bridge is going to be metal, you can use the same idea and just drill a small hole through the top of the box, underneath the bridge and run a thin wire to the pot.
http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/239502310?profil...

[Buffalo John]

Great ! Thanks for the photo . I will do it that way. Thanks again !!