Is grounding the bridge thimble even necessary with proper shielding?

[DrippyReverbTremolo]

If the either the bridge or the tremolo (choose one of these two) are not grounded, touching the strings won't remove the buzz, because there is no continuity between the strings and the electronics. I bought a Jaguar once that had the ground wire in the tremolo cavity come loose in transit and was no longer touching the metal. I knew right away this was the problem, because touching the strings, tremolo, bridge, or tuners did not eliminate the buzz. Once I fixed this issue, the buzz went away when I touched the strings or any of the aforementioned hardware.

That's basically the reason I started this thread. I was able to shield my new JM to the point where there was no buzz to go away when touching the bridge. That's not weird in my experience with JMs due to how the wiring is laid out in the guitar, but it did get me thinking about it (i.e. why do we ground the bridge). After some further research, it seems that the bridge ground is only necessary when shielding is inadequate. As I learned, the late 70s/early 80s Gibsons used some significant shielding techniques and omitted the bridge grounding wire as a result (and anecdotally people seem to think these are very quiet guitars when fully stock).

I have an 81 Les Paul Custom. It's not any different to Les Pauls from other eras (in that department).

[alexpigment]

I have an 81 Les Paul Custom. It's not any different to Les Pauls from other eras (in that department).

I can't speak for that exact models and years, but at least as late as 1980, they had shielding "tubs" in the control panel, pickup selector panel, and output jack route. In these particular models, it seems that the ground wire to the bridge was omitted. Here are a few discussions about this:

https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/les-p ... st-7362910

https://www.lespaulforum.com/index.php? ... ng.177574/

https://www.harmonycentral.com/forums/t ... tailpiece/