Should this be connected?

musicalstash

Any ideas where this wire connects to a lp deluxe guitar , it looks like an earth wire which has come loose  but not too sure as the guitar seems to sound fine with no issues with the earth.

https://ibb.co/4mHXn3W

WezV

I'm not sure as there is a red wire going to a screw where I would expect the  earth wire to appear, and the angle of the pic doesn't show any other holes

is the back of the plate shielded?  Was it going into the screw hole to connect that shielding 

Jonathangus

It looks to me like there's an imprint round the backplate screw hole where that wire has been squashed down.

SteveRobinson

It should connect to the other tone control.

Edit: it's earthed thorough the plate of course.

ICBM

WezV said:

is the back of the plate shielded?  Was it going into the screw hole to connect that shielding 

Jonathangus said:

It looks to me like there's an imprint round the backplate screw hole where that wire has been squashed down.

This. It's to ground the shielding foil on the backplate.

Interestingly it looks like the string ground wire has come adrift at the stud insert end, and been fixed by driving a screw into the hole so it contacts the stud - this does work, and although it's a *little* bit of a bodge, it's a lot easier than pulling the stud insert out of the body and fixing it 'properly'.

If you want to reduce noise even further, shorten the red, white and especially the black wires from the 3-core cable to the absolute minimum lengths needed to reach their terminals. Check the switch end too - this cabling is the biggest source of noise in a Les Paul.