How to ground aluminium bridge?
David Jeffrey
made for them, (because it was the only replacement bridge I could find
for the string-through-body Fender Amer. Standard), only to find that
the bridge is constucted of light-weight aluminium; only the bridge
saddles are brass. When I called Carvin to caomplain that their catalog
decribes this bridge as a "solid brass bridge" (as in false
advertising), they only said that their "specs had changed." Of course,
the latest catalog still calls it a brass bridge. Be forewarned.
Anyway, my question is how the heck do you ground an aluminum bridge
(like with the ground wire underneath the bridge, when aluminum is a
non-conductor (last time I checked)?
Any help appreciated
Randy Payne
>
> Silly boy! Aluminium is an excellent conductor.
>
> They actually make wire out of it!!
>
> * Sent from AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Where you can also find related Web Pages, Images, Audios, Videos, News, and Shopping. Smart is Beautiful
Well, I wouldn't go so far as to call it an excellent conductor. It's a
good conductor, but not as good as copper.
Aluminum is not as good a conductor as copper per unit volume, but it is
much lighter of course, so the current carrying capacity per unit mass
is excellent. I believe it's used in high tension wires because of its
light weight.
For a while back in the 60's or 70's, they were using aluminum for house
wiring. I forgot why, I think it might have been the price of copper
maybe? Anyhow, the problem with aluminum wire is the connections have to
be made well, because aluminum tends to oxidize. For whatever reason,
copper eventually won out.
Randy
Sean Bowen
probably need to scape a bit of the finish off of the bottom where the wire
will contact.
You might also need to remove some finish from the contact points where the
saddle screw contacts the bridge. Just remove enough to have continuity.
An anodized surface is very very hard, but brittle, so you should be able to
tell when you are through it.
Sean
"David Jeffrey" <silv...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:39377672...@earthlink.net...
Nielsen_Philip
: Well, I just got a "solid brass" bridge from Carvin, the one Hipshot
: made for them, (because it was the only replacement bridge I could find
: for the string-through-body Fender Amer. Standard), only to find that
: the bridge is constucted of light-weight aluminium; only the bridge
: saddles are brass. When I called Carvin to caomplain that their catalog
: decribes this bridge as a "solid brass bridge" (as in false
: advertising), they only said that their "specs had changed." Of course,
: the latest catalog still calls it a brass bridge. Be forewarned.
I'm looking at the Fall '99 catalog, page 65, and the wording is "the most
solid bass bridge that we have ever used..." Same on the website. No
mention of brass. Did they change the wording (or introduce a typo) on a
later catalog? Or am I overlooking the obvious?
: Anyway, my question is how the heck do you ground an aluminum bridge
: (like with the ground wire underneath the bridge, when aluminum is a
: non-conductor (last time I checked)?
Aluminum is a decent conductor. If it is anodized, scrape/sand down to
the aluminum where you want to make contact. The older Carvin/Wilkinson
anodized bridges had a circular non-anodized region for the ground contact
point.
Phil
joh...@my-deja.com
copper or gold, but still pretty good. As someone pointed out, aluminum
oxide (which naturally accumulates on the aluminum surface) is an
excellent insulator. This is why the aluminum house wiring was not
successful -- poorly crafted connections heated up because the aluminum
oxide provided a resistive path for the current flow, and consequently
heated up.
One could solder a wire to the bridge after scraping (or filing, or
sanding) off the anodizing or oxide, but one could also use a screw
connection for better mechanical reliability. Maybe one is available
there somewhere?
In article <39377672...@earthlink.net>,
silv...@earthlink.net wrote:
> Well, I just got a "solid brass" bridge from Carvin, the one Hipshot
> made for them, (because it was the only replacement bridge I could
find
> for the string-through-body Fender Amer. Standard), only to find that
> the bridge is constucted of light-weight aluminium; only the bridge
> saddles are brass. When I called Carvin to caomplain that their
catalog
> decribes this bridge as a "solid brass bridge" (as in false
> advertising), they only said that their "specs had changed." Of
course,
> the latest catalog still calls it a brass bridge. Be forewarned.
>
> Anyway, my question is how the heck do you ground an aluminum bridge
> (like with the ground wire underneath the bridge, when aluminum is a
> non-conductor (last time I checked)?
> Any help appreciated
>
>
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