From the mind of UK based luthier, Jamie Swannell of Swannell Guitars comes a really simple but genius helping hand for guitar wiring, the Ground Bug! This solder lug washer has some very handy uses indeed, from neatening up your wiring installs, to making ground connections easier and any future changes/mods/maintenance much easier too. So what is it?



This is a simple washer design that fits underneath your pots and has extended lugs so that you can easily solder ground wires to. This is very useful for those that perhaps really struggle with making, or consistently making ground wire solder connections to pot casings, drastically reducing the risk of damaging a pot from excessive heat for example. As with the Ground Bug installed, you simply solder your ground wires to any of the 8 lugs available. 



You don't even need to solder the ground bug to the pot casing either, with it being used as a washer directly against the pot casing you will achieve ground continuity furthering it's ease of install. No more messy blobs of solder on the back of your pot casing, great for those that like neat looking installs. But neatness isn't just a visual thing, it also really helps for any maintenance in the future too, with each ground wire having it's own ground lug it makes replacing pickups, or even your pot a much easier process.



I also think these will be incredibly useful for making pot casing ground connections on CTS push/pull pots too. The CTS push/pull features a rather large plastic casing on the back of the pot that houses the switch, meaning there is very little metal casing real estate for soldering any ground connections too. Even for a pro tech, these can be fiddly to work with and the ground bug will make a lot of installers lives easier when working with components like these for example.

The Ground Bug is designed to fit standard CTS pots, with it's 10mm mounting hole to suit their mounting thread diameter and can be installed simply as a washer between the pot and mounting surface. Or if you prefer, the ground bug can also be screwed/mounted directly to the body and has two small holes to help with this already machined. 



A brilliant, incredibly simple item that I think will really help installers of any experience/skill level. I'll certainly be using them and recommending them for as long as Jamie keeps making them! Proud to stock this great little wiring tool.

These are now available from the Home of Tone, and you can order them HERE!

James