Bridge grounding issue on RGA121

[Vinco]

Hi!

I had a little problem when installing a TB4 pickup on my rga. The wire grounding the bridge melted down. So now, the bridge and strings are no longer grounded.

The problem with this situation is that the RGA has got a fixed bridge. The bridge grounding wire goes from the electronic cavity to the bridge screws via a hole drilled in the guitar body. It is impossible to weld the wire through this very small hole (like you would do on a floating trem).

I have no idea on how to establish a correct electric contact now.

Does someone know a tip to solve this problem?

Thanx.

[j.arledge]

hold the guitar up and so that when the solder melts it will run into the hole . Use an alligator clip to help stop the heat from travleing back down the lead. You'll just have to get the wire put in there the best you can and heat it and hope you can get some solder to stick to the bridge insert.

Or enlarge the hole that leads to the bridge insert large enough where you can get some contact with a soldering iron and solder .

good luck and please post what you end up doing and if it works or not .

[Vinco]

Thank you for your support!

I tried to drill a piece of wood to let solder drip into it. Well , Mission : impossible! The solder sticks on the side and nevers falls in the bottom : (

As i would like to avoid any aggressive treatment, i had another idea. I used a piece of a aluminum film which i pushed in the bottom of the hole with a screw driver. There is still a piece of it coming out of the hole in the electronic cavity. Using an ohmeter i checked that there was a zero resistance between the bridge and this piece of aluminum. So it seems i managed to make the contact!

First part of the mission is ok. I now have to find a robust solution to ensure contact between aluminum and the others grounded wires.

Any suggestion?

By the way, do you know the consequence of not having the string grounded?

[j.arledge]

lots of hum and you could shock yourself while playing.

I installed a push/pull tone pot and just plain and simple forgot to run a ground wire from it to the volume pot and i plugged my guitar . It made and extermly loud noticable humming nosie and if you didn't set all of your hand down on the trem , and only touched it with a finger i'd shock me.

I am glad you found out something that may work for you . You could solder the ground to a corner of the aluminum film and stuff it in the hole as best you can . Maybe if it is stuffed tight enough it will it's self in .

[Vinco]

Unfortunately this solution, that seemed to be excellent, does not work.

Impossible to weld on aluminum.

Got someone any idea or experience?

[j.arledge]

ok try this.

take a piece of braided wire, or multi-strand wire and solder the tip . be sure to strip the wire so that enough sticks out of the hole that you can put the soldering gun on. The heat will go down the wire and hopfull get hot enough to melt the solder making the connection to the braided wire and bridge insert.

If not you will just have to enlarge the hole so that you can get a wire down in it and have enough space to solder it .

[rty13ibz98]

bridge grounding...ALWAYS sucks. what i use is this:

for complete rewiring i have a 6/22awg multiconductor that is shielded. the shield, black, or green is what i typically use for grounding, different applications depending. for your situation, it would seem more feasible for the bare shielded conductor. this is because the lack of insulation makes it fit better in smaller drilled holes. also...and this is key for BRIDGE soldering. a 100w soldering gun. i typically solder the control cavity connections with a 30w wand, but use a 100w gun for bridges and pots. this is due to their amount of surface area. ther size dissapates heat and is hard to get 60/40 rosin core solder to take. also the 100w makes for easier connection without having to "scratch prep". something to remember as well, ALWAYS pre-tin your wire before you make a connection, doing this will save you many headaches later. this is almost imperative if you are soldering stranded wire...which in the guitar world "should be" at all times(minus some shields: ie. dimarzio). you don't want to do intricate soldering with the 100w, though, as it will burn up the wire insulation into the pre-tinned wire and make for harder wire-to-lug terminations.

what is sad is that a lot of local(LR,AR) shops here don't follow these simple rules and i have had to redo many installs that have looked like utter crap do to the lack of properly prepping the conductors and soldering basics.



rich


rich