Originally Posted by: LordathestringsSpend some time browsing the Wiring & Shielding section of the >GuitarNuts< website.

Briefly, any time you have more than one ground path, you have the potential to pick up noise. When the case of a pot is used as a convenient place to solder ground connections, and then the pot cases are linked together, you end up with ground loops (multiple paths). This is made worse by some builders who put a piece of foil on the control mounting surface of the cavity.

Done properly, the entire guitar should have only one ground point: the shell of the jack. In the "Quieting The Beast" article at GuitarNuts, he shows a slick way to add anti-shock protection by capacitively coupling this single ground point. I've used these techniques for years. They not only significantly reduce noise, but they can save your life!

Thanks much for pointing that site out; I'll do some remedial reading... :)

I've been away from this for a very long time, and back then all pickups came wired with cables that had a stranded signal lead, woven cloth insulation, and a heavily braided shield -- and really, when you get down to it, it was all star grounding, as the shields all touched one another and led to the ring of the output jack. You tacked the shields to the backs of the pots, but it was more for anchoring than anything else. The ground never really "left" the shield, travelled through the potentiometer case, and then went back to ground wiring and then out the guitar. Easy to see how that could result in potential difference between grounds.

If pickups today come wired with PVC-coated leads, and the shielding is underneath that, then you're right, you'd probably have to take a different approach to prevent the wire from damage due to soldering heat -- that kind of cable isn't as resilient for heavy soldering as the old stuff.

edit: Back then I also primarily owned Gibson or Gibson-styled guitars with humbucking pickups. The GuitarNuts site seems to focus more on Stratocaster and Telecaster wiring, and I'm guessing that single-coil pickup leads still aren't shielded?

C.K.