Query on upgrading a cheap reso

[rickS]

Hi all, am upgrading an Ozark woodbody reso, the type with a lipstick pickup, & discover that the cone (original, crap, & to be replaced) has a wire (presumably ground?) from the vol pot attached to its rim - since the cone sits in a wooden well, & doesn't come into contact with the player, what is its purpose? Presumably the same as for grounding the strings on a regular electric, but my ignorance of guitar electrics prevents me from seeing how - I'd prefer not to have to reattach it to the replacement cone that's going in there; any advice/ suggestions/enlightenment much appreciated

best,

Rick

[Michael Messer]

Hi Rick,

Like you, electrics & wiring are not my thing. But earthing the pickup to a cone in a wood well doesn't sound right to me. You're lucky, I have seen cheapo-reso-electro guitars with the wiring run straight through the cone....they just knock a hole in the cone and run the wires!


I am sure one of our forum members will know the answer.

Shine On
Michael.

[LouisianaGrey]

No, you don't need to earth the cone.

You do need to ground the strings because of the magnetic pickup. I would normally do this by running a wire from the strap button under the tailpiece to somewhere on the earth side, usually the body of one of the pots. The bodies of the volume and tone pots should already be wired to each other and to the earth side of the output jack.

As far as I can see from the description on their website the Ozark only has that single lipstick pickup, so the wiring should be exactly the same as any single pickup electric guitar, and you should be able to find that on somewhere like Guitarelectronics.com. The existence of the cone is irrelevant to the wiring.

[BigBadDom]

Rick,
My guess is that the intention is to earth the cover plate (through the cone) and this might also earth the strings if the tailpiece is in contact with the cover plate. However, aluminium is not a great conductor (if the wire is under the cone) and some reso's have a piece of plastic or felt between the tailpiece and cover plate which unless earthed elsewhere, will leave the strings isolated.

The principle is to earth anything metal, to minimise electromagnetic intereference (hum, etc).

Dom

[LouisianaGrey]

Good in theory, Dom, except that it wouldn't earth the coverplate because the cone doesn't touch the coverplate at any point - if it did it would buzz.

I don't believe there's any need to earth the coverplate anyway, I don't do it on my own electric resos and I don't have any hum problems.

[rickS]

Thanks all, was thinking that re-routing the groundwire to the tailpiece was the way to go,(same way that the bridge is earthed on eg a Les paul), this confirms it - cheers

regards,

Rick