Why doesnt my Pbass have a bridge grounding hole?

[Moreau]

I got a pbass body off ebay, that doesnt have a bridge hole for grounding. Other than the traditional method, and the copper strip, what other methods are available to me?

I was going to use a 3/8" auger bit to go to my pickup cavity thru the strap button hole, fill it with dowel, and then hide the dowel with the strap button. or with star grounding, can i simply not ground to the bridge? i have searched but i am still unclear.

Thanks

[JimmyM]

Unless you have an active system, you have to ground the electronics to the bridge. I'd just drill a hole into the cavity from under the bridge. You'd probably need a long bit to drill the hole, but it's the proper way to do it.

[luknfur]

FWIW:

if it doesn't hum and sounds fine I wouldn't mess with it. It's a shock hazard (as in can kill you under the right circumstances) so you're better off if you can do without it. There are some alternatives used for grounding the bridge, they're comparatively rare, so it may be grounded and you just don't know it. Stick a meter to the bridge and jack and if it reads infinity then the jack has a solid connection to the strings somehow - so is grounded.

[Showdown]

Stewart MacDonald used to sell an extra long drill bit for that purpose. I don't know if they still do. It was about a foot long so that you could drill from the control cavity at the right angle without the drill getting in the way. I used one on a Frankenbass I built. I first drilled a hole in the top under the bridge using a bigger drill bit (I think it was 3/8"), then used the long bit to go from the cavity to that hole. IIRC it took two tries to hit it.