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Connect Bass' Earth when using Bartolini preamp?


Delberthot
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I've had a good rake round and can't find anything.

I am about to install a Bartolini prewired assembly to my gold Warmoth bass.

Its a 2 band EQ with stacked bass and treble so as to retain the original look.

The problem I have is that it doesn't say whether to connect the earth wire coming from the bridge or not.

I have fitted EMGs before and the ones I used advised me not to but there aint nothing here to tell me yay or nae.

Anyone fitted as set of these before?

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[quote name='Delberthot' post='346312' date='Dec 5 2008, 12:18 PM']I've had a good rake round and can't find anything.

I am about to install a Bartolini prewired assembly to my gold Warmoth bass.

Its a 2 band EQ with stacked bass and treble so as to retain the original look.

The problem I have is that it doesn't say whether to connect the earth wire coming from the bridge or not.

I have fitted EMGs before and the ones I used advised me not to but there aint nothing here to tell me yay or nae.

Anyone fitted as set of these before?[/quote]

My EMG-P is definitely quieter with the bridge grounded. Try both and see which is quieter. Can't do any harm.

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[quote name='bremen' post='346315' date='Dec 5 2008, 12:20 PM']My EMG-P is definitely quieter with the bridge grounded. Try both and see which is quieter. Can't do any harm.[/quote]


I have to agree, If I use lots of compression and distortion, having the bridge earthed helps to keep the noise down, picked up from stage lights etc.

The reason that it is suggested that you don't need to earth the bridge (and strings) is that with these active shielded pickups, there is no need.. oh.. and there's a 'shock hazard'. If your bridge and strings are 'earthed' they are connected directly to your amp (to over simplify), thus should your amp go pop and send a nasty voltage up your guitar lead, you are more likely to get a nasty 'bite'. - Well, EMG dont want to have fingers pointed at them when something goes wrong, considering the litigious compensatory society we live in these days; So 'no bridge lead' it is.

I have heard of cases where amps have gone wrong. Though each of the cases that I found out about were all amps with either valves in the first stage of the preamplifier, or indeed a dedicated valve amplifier. This leads me to believe that a failure in a signal valve had sent the HT voltage (sometimes as low as 40V all the way up to 360V for example) out of the input to the amp. I have never heard of a solidstate amplifier doing the same. If it was indeed HT leakage, then *most* if not all solidstate amps are pretty safe, as integrated circuits and similar SS components need much less voltage to do the same job as a valve.

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Thanks for the advice.

I decided to conect the earth cable and it sounds fine.

I'm going to treat myself to a wireless system for Christmas as I've had enough of faulty cables recently and have this OCD thing going on that if there is a cable on the floor near me, I have to kick it away.

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