Gibson style 3 point bridge and ground wire

[martyy]

I have a Jack Casady bass that has developed a ground issue - the bridge/strings are no longer grounded. I took off the bridge to investigate. I couldn't see the ground wire under any of the inserts. Presumably the wire has pulled away.

How is the ground wire meant to be connected with this style of bridge? Is it just a friction fit under one of the inserts? Is one of the posts meant to screw down onto the wire?

Struggling to see how to fix this one!

[martyy]

I got this sorted in the end - I'll give a quick description of how I fixed it in case it can help anyone else. The bridge ground wire comes out against the side of the bridge post insert nearest the G string, and the wire is simply held in place by the friction of being sandwiched between insert and wood. My wire had come away for whatever reason.

The fix was like this:

• Pull the ground wire out completely through the f hole (you can just about see the hole through which it gets to the bridge post).
• Remove the insert - I just put half a wooden dowel in the hole and screwed in the post, and it came out easily.
• Feed a stiff wire through the insert hole and on through the small ground wire hole, hook it out through the f hole and use it to pull the  ground wire back through.
• Press the insert back into the hole, making sure that the ground wire makes contact properly.

Job done!