Hello.
I recently bought a new set of Fender Custom Shop '60's J bass pickups
(single coils) for my Fender Jazz. I opened up the box, and there are
two shielding plates that are included. These plates sit under the pickup,
and both have a black lead. One of the plates has an "arm" that looks like
is supposed to connect the bridge position plate to the bridge. (?)
The diagram provided doesn't mention anything
about the shielding plates, or how they are to be connected. I have never
encountered this before, and I assume its a vintage thing. I have a
ground wire that runs through the body that connects the tone pot to the
bridge. Where do I connect the shield plate wires?
I have searched the internet and have had results finding the diargram as it
exists in the later model basses, but none have mentioned where to connect the
shielding plates. Am I supposed to connect all the ground wires to the tone pot?

Anyway, any help or suggestions that you can give me would be very greatly
appreciated.

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Still rambling...
Chris

>Am I supposed to connect all the ground wires to the tone pot?

That'll work

Give the man a cigar, you're absolutely correct. The "arm" from the bridge pickup shielding plate is supposed to fit under the bridge bass plate to connect the bridge and therefore the strings to ground. That's the way Fender did it before they started running the ground wire to the bridge through the body. Since you already have the wire going to the bridge, you can remove the "arm" with no consequence. In fact it would be advisable to do so. If you leave it you might create a ground loop which could increase the noise level of your instrument.