grounding a bass with no rout to bridge

[vindy500]

anyway to do this without getting a extremely long drill bit?

[62bass]

Probably not if you don't want it to show. Long drill bits are pretty easy to get now. Ask for a jobbers length bit.

[jeffhigh]

Early jazz basses used a thin stip of metal between bridge pickup cavity and bridge, located on the front surface of the bass.
They were intended to have a cover over bridge abd pickup though

[vindy500]

its going on a p bass, so theres no other way to ground it?

[bassdane]

Fast "repair" ... or untill you have found a way to drill.

Take a small wire. Losen the screws by the bridge and place one end between the body and bridge - you can solder but notmally ok without. Losen the female jack - and stick the other part of there wire in there. NOW YOU HAVE ground. I have gigged with my 65 precision like this the last 6 months ... till I get the time go get the job done ...

[vindy500]

so you just have a wire on the outside of our bass?

[bassdane]

Right - not a heavy one - app 2mm thick.

Works ... my 65 precision strangely does not have the drilled cave inside - and I do not like the humming!

[blipndub]

YOu can also drill from the bridge area to the rear pickup route, sometimes easier than making the journey to the control cavity. A good tip is to dremel down about half an inch that way you have a ramp that is under the surface making it easier to not have to get so much of a downward angle. Go slow and stick a piece of wire in the drilling occasionally to see how far you're progressing. I've punched through the back of one bass but successfully drilled half a dozen more. Use a carbon bit to avoid snapping off the bit inside the body (trust me on this one).

For a jazz bass you can always use one of these grounding strips

[spudmaster34]

a pic of my soon to be done thunderbird
Theres a bass with the type of ground these people are talking about. Good luck.

[Nick Ioannucci]

you could go to the shielding tutorial in the electronics forum and check out star grounding, in which you use a lug to ground all your wires to a common place.