model wiring

[bsfc9]

I've had EMG's in my Model 6 for almost twenty years now, but I seem to remember the original wiring included a ground? wire screwed directly into the wood of the control cavity. Anyone know what this was for?

[Sunbane]

All the cavities on the guitar should be sprayed with conductive paint that create a shield around the electronics. When hooked up to ground, this shield should form a Faraday-cage that would assist in filtering away outside noise. This is why you have a screw with a ground wire in the control cavity. You should also have similar ground wires coming from the pickup cavities, connecting to the screw in the control cavity.

[jrnic]

I believe that is a lug screwed in at the bottom of the pickup cavity that is used for the ground wire. A wire that comes from the bridge then is connected to the lug and then another wire is soldered to that lug and that goes into the control cavity to attatch to the control pots.

[charvel750]

EMG's need to be grounded BUT the strings on an EMG equipped guitar do not necessarily need to be. However, on a non EMG equipped guitar, failure to ground the strings results in annoying buzzing. As it would if the pickups themselves were not grounded. Although, most pickups not grounded will also not yield any output.

[bsfc9]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. So do all model series guitars have conductive paint in the control cavity?

[Sunbane]

Thanks for the responses, everyone. So do all model series guitars have conductive paint in the control cavity?

I actually don't know, but I know that my '87 Model 6 and my '89 750XL both have it. There's of course the posibility that someone may have stripped and refinished the guitar at some point, leaving it unshielded.

If you still have the screws in the pickup cavities going into patches of masked-off dark paint (the graphite paint is under the finish), you probably still have that shielding there.