Oops

Pistol Pete

I was re-stringing a '63 Strat last night (not mine, borrowing it from a friend for a while) and I decided to take off the pickguard to retrieve a plectrum that had fallen into the guitar not so long ago when I was playing it (I know, I know).

Now the guitar has a set of custom active pickups in it and the electrics are all contained within the main cavities, i.e. there's no wire going off to the input jack because the input jack is where the second tone control would normally be on a Strat. There was however a small wire soldered to the underside of one of the screws on the bridge which in my carelessness I tugged free, looks like an easy job to solder back on or whatever but seeing as the guitar seems to function properly (I didn't put a set of NEW strings on it, pending the repair of this, but I restrung the old ones just to test) I'm wondering what the hoo-hah I did in my idiocy.

feylya

If they're active pickups, they shouldn't need a bridge connection.

Pistol Pete

Yeah they're a set of Alembics (!!!) and they use a 9v battery, that DOES mean they're active doesn't it?

feylya

Not necessarily but probably. Assuming that the pots are just standard pots (ie no electronic doohickies on them) then they are active.

Pistol Pete

Ok cheers, and bear with me here because I know absolutely zero about electronics in general, but that connection to the bridge was probably an earth right? Are you saying that because it has active pickups that that earth is unnecessary?

feylya

Correct. One of the advantages of active electronics is that there's no connection between you and the ground connection in the wall. If your amp decided to act up, it could start sending high voltages down the ground connection and you'd have your hands on the strings. BBBBBBBBZZZZZZZZZZZ and you're gone.

Pistol Pete

Haha okay cool, thanks for your help!