Quote:
Originally Posted by berwick63  I've always thought grounding to the body(or the shielding) was a better option than to the body of the pot. But I have no physical evidence why, just what I've always done. |
The proper place to ground is to the body of the jack. The reason for this is that it's a good solid connection and is located where the signal cable enters the shielding.
The reason ("physical evidence") why you do NOT want to connect to the pot covers is that the covers are not electrically well connected to the shaft bearings of the pots (threaded parts that mount the pot to the control plate (ground) or shielding of cavity (ground). These covers are simply crimped on in most cases. over time there can be corrosion or they can simply work loose and a good ground connection is lost. It is a bad idea to rely on crimped connections for grounding. You want soldered copper wires. PLUS there it the additional problem of heating the pot excessively to be able to solder wires to the larger metal cover. Excessive heat can damage them or at best just make them become scratchy and noisy sooner than they normally would. Yes, everybody does it, but that still doesn't make it a good idea.
Also you want all grounds connected by wires. And that is true even if there are parallel "ground loops" like through the control plate or shielding. Don't worry about "ground loops" in a bass. You aren't building a mic preamp here. But relying on high resistance conductive paint for a ground connection is a bad idea. Make good ground connections with wires first and THEN connect to the paint shield!
