Wire screwed to body under pickups?

[Testament77]

I've seen in alot of factory wire jobs a wire that is screwed into the body under the pickups and run to ground. What is this for? Im assuming its to ground the pickup, but isnt the pickup already being grounded from the ground wire coming out of the pickup itself?

[Sunbane]

Re: Wire screwed to body under pickups?

The pickup cavities are painted in conductive paint, to provide some shielding for the pickups. I think the wires are there to ground these "shields". =)

[etaeniura]

Re: Wire screwed to body under pickups?

It acts like the foil on the back of a strat pickguard. The conductive paint picks up interference and sends it to ground to reduce the amount of noise picked up by the pups. Actually if you have a cheap guitar with noisy pickups, you can buy the paint from Stew mac and shield the cavities to quiet them down a bit.