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Fam,

Just got a new American Tele. And I fucking love it. But it has a GNARLY buzz that I'm pretty sure is a grounding issue because it's worst on the bridge pickup setting, and when I touch the control plate especially it goes away, but really any metal.
Except the bridge.

Help me! I don't wanna return the damn thing and fuck with all that shipping and shit, but I have no idea how easy it'd be for them to phone in a warranty repair out here. lol

Anyway...suggestions, tips, yeah?

Sounds like bridge isn't grounded....first check the control plate, easy enough to remove and see if there's a wire going to the bridge. If the ground came loose from the back of the pot, that's probably your easiest fix, just resolder and good to go. If it is connected to the pot, you might have to take off the bridge and make sure the wire's making enough contact with the bridge plate underneath.

Nick wrote:Sounds like bridge isn't grounded....first check the control plate, easy enough to remove and see if there's a wire going to the bridge. If the ground came loose from the back of the pot, that's probably your easiest fix, just resolder and good to go. If it is connected to the pot, you might have to take off the bridge and make sure the wire's making enough contact with the bridge plate underneath.

Yeah, this is my feeling, too. It goes completely away if I just touch the control plate, but yeah when I took it off, it appeared that everything looked okay to me. It's the design that grounds it to the cavity underneath by soldering it to a little clip that's screwed into the body.

I was just honestly trying to avoid having to take the bridge off, out sheer laziness, lol, but I'm gonna follow your advice and check it next anyway, because it has to be something easily fixed since it resolves itself when it's fully grounded. lol

Thanks for the tips dude! I will definitely be putting them into action.

Not only does the wire gotta be under the bridge but you gotta scrape the chrome bullshit off and tape the wire to the scrapey part you made is. Chrome dont getcha home with grounding brother

I knew a guy who built a partscaster tele and forgot the bridge ground, so he just connected a small wire between the bridge plate and control plate. It worked but for aesthetics I think it was only a short term solution.

Nick wrote:I knew a guy who built a partscaster tele and forgot the bridge ground, so he just connected a small wire between the bridge plate and control plate. It worked but for aesthetics I think it was only a short term solution.

Did he just wrap it around one of the bridge screws or something? I wonder if it'd work if I routed it through the same cavity the PUP wires go through, but basically write the bridge plate to the control plate the same way, but through the cavity...hmmm...worth a try prolly.

JamesSmann wrote:Fam,

Just got a new American Tele. And I fucking love it. But it has a GNARLY buzz that I'm pretty sure is a grounding issue because it's worst on the bridge pickup setting, and when I touch the control plate especially it goes away, but really any metal.
Except the bridge.

Help me! I don't wanna return the damn thing and fuck with all that shipping and shit, but I have no idea how easy it'd be for them to phone in a warranty repair out here. lol

Anyway...suggestions, tips, yeah?

if u bought it new from a shop just bring it back and tell them to fix the issue! even Guitar Center is really good about doing small repairs on new guitars because they want to make sure you dont return it!

brainfur wrote:

JamesSmann wrote:Fam,

Just got a new American Tele. And I fucking love it. But it has a GNARLY buzz that I'm pretty sure is a grounding issue because it's worst on the bridge pickup setting, and when I touch the control plate especially it goes away, but really any metal.
Except the bridge.

Help me! I don't wanna return the damn thing and fuck with all that shipping and shit, but I have no idea how easy it'd be for them to phone in a warranty repair out here. lol

Anyway...suggestions, tips, yeah?

if u bought it new from a shop just bring it back and tell them to fix the issue! even Guitar Center is really good about doing small repairs on new guitars because they want to make sure you dont return it!

Yeah, the only issue is that I bought through AMS and they'll do a return with it for sure, I just don't wanna be w/o the guitar in the meantime. If they'll ship the new one first and let me send this one back that'll be awesome.

Trust me, if that's the route I've gotta go, I'll go that way, I just hate going through the hassle of returning something for a simple grounding issue.

Oh well in that case, a telecaster is the easiest guitar to take apart and put together!

JamesSmann wrote:

Nick wrote:I knew a guy who built a partscaster tele and forgot the bridge ground, so he just connected a small wire between the bridge plate and control plate. It worked but for aesthetics I think it was only a short term solution.

Did he just wrap it around one of the bridge screws or something?

that sounds right come to think of it, this was 12 years ago, but it makes sense since the whole goal was not removing the bridge.

Nick wrote:

JamesSmann wrote:

Nick wrote:I knew a guy who built a partscaster tele and forgot the bridge ground, so he just connected a small wire between the bridge plate and control plate. It worked but for aesthetics I think it was only a short term solution.

Did he just wrap it around one of the bridge screws or something?

that sounds right come to think of it, this was 12 years ago, but it makes sense since the whole goal was not removing the bridge.

y'all remember the same feature on my pink Duo Sonic I bought to Fla.

Good god, I loved that guitar

it looked and played way better than my bucket

Nick wrote:

JamesSmann wrote:

Nick wrote:I knew a guy who built a partscaster tele and forgot the bridge ground, so he just connected a small wire between the bridge plate and control plate. It worked but for aesthetics I think it was only a short term solution.

Did he just wrap it around one of the bridge screws or something?

that sounds right come to think of it, this was 12 years ago, but it makes sense since the whole goal was not removing the bridge.

So what I basically ended up doing was a temp fix (for now) was just run a wire and wrap it around the same screw that they used for the first ground, and then I fed it into the pickup cavity, stripped the end of it, and basically let the metal bottom of the pickup in the bridge plate ground the wire. It was a trick I read about on another board and wanted to try because I'm absolute SHIT with a soldering iron anyway.

It worked,but it's still not the permanent fix since it makes some noise if the wire inside gets jostled too much. For that I think I'm gonna do your friend's trick. that seems like it would do the exact same trick, but be better since the plates are screwed into the wood, and the pickup isn't.