New to forum/ shielding

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 12:38 pm

Good idea, does it sound as good as a cord, some people I've talked to have said it's not quite as clear going wireless, but then I suppose it depends on what you are using for a wireless unit.

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 6:29 pm

Sergio, I'm pretty sure you know more about electronics than most of us, but I think any electric or electronics engineer would strongly recommend against disconnecting the string ground. It's possible for bad things to happen either way, but disconnecting the ground is just not considered proper and won't meet any code standard.

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Thu Jul 17, 2003 11:12 pm

Wrong, my knowledge of electronics is pretty limited, however I've succeeded in shielding all my Rick basses without leaving the string ground on. I think you are misunderstanding something here, guys. The string ground becomes redundant once a guitar is properly shielded with aluminum foil and/or conductive paint, which are to be connected to any part of the ground path - back of pots, jacksocket ground lug, wherever - to effectively shield the guitar against hum. And remember: 'bad things' will only happen if you leave the string ground on.

rictified · Post by **rictified** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 2:00 am

Sergio,
Unless you are grounding the bridge somewhere else which you did not not seem to indicate to me in your post ,if you leave the groung wire off the bridge plate the tailpice, strings and keys are not grounded at all, that is the only point that they are connected to ground. That whole assembly is grounded so if you contact anything live like a mic, you will know it right away. Without that ground they are dangerous. While I am not a tech, I did go to technical school and graduate many years ago, even studied tube theory (for one day)LOL. The only thing I can think is that you must be grounding that assembly some other way, it would still be noisy if you didn't.

big_g · Post by **big_g** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 3:45 am

My wireless unit is a 900Mhz system, and it sounds great, I have no distortion even better noise rejection, better than a 1MegOhm input impeadence.

My fav thing is the mobility, less things to trip over, and the ability to check out the sound going out into the crowd during my sound checks and during different points during the performance.

Drawback would be cost to get into and I burn about one battery per a performance and a half.

dave4004 · Post by **dave4004** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 10:07 am

And remember: 'bad things' will only happen if you leave the string ground on.

No, bad things can happen either way. But the bad things that can happen with the string ground intact can only be caused by faults in other equipment. The solution is to check for and correct those faults, not disconnect the ground.

There was quite a lively discussion on TBL back in 2000, I'm going to quote moderator Bill Bolton on the matter:

"The electrical safety principle is that exposed metal parts of anything that is connected to a non-double insulated mains powered piece of equipment (i.e. the amp), WHETHER OR NOT THE ITEM ITSELF IS MAINS POWERED, should be grounded to a solid mains ground.

The problem that needs to be addressed are why there EVER could by any equipment around with live exposed metal parts on it as a expected semi-common occurrence, or any equipment which is not double insulated that does not have a solid mains ground. The solution is to correct those problems, either by eliminating the possibility of live metal parts and no solid mains grounds, or at least mitigating the risk exposure by correct use of GFIs and similar safety systems. Unless a situation of double insulation applies, it is NEVER the correct solution to disconnect grounds from other exposed metal parts just because they may under some limited circumstances create a circuit to ground."

rickcrazy · Post by **rickcrazy** » Fri Jul 18, 2003 10:40 am

Suit yourselves.