A carding cloth (10) has a backing (12), carding needles (11) passing through this, held in position thereby and projecting on a first side of the backing (12) and an electrically conductive layer (13, 15) arranged on a second side on the backing (12) facing away from the first side such that it is in electrical contact with the needles (11) on the second side of the backing (12). Or the layer (15) is a component of the backing (12), and the needles (11) contact the layer (15) through said backing. The layer (15) can be a textile fabric (15) with electrically conductive threads which are coupled together electrically directly or indirectly via the carding cloth needles (11), which threads can extend longitudinally or transversely to the cloth (10), which has an electrically conductive contact element (20) such that it contacts the layer (13, 15) electrically in such a manner that the contact section is electrically coupled to all the threads. The contact element (20) has a connection section (16) designed to electrically contact an external element (50). A carding bar (10, 20, 30) comprises a cloth holder (30) having a holding section and an electrically conductive cloth connectionsection (20) forming the external element (50) and the cloth (10) held stationary in the cloth holder (30). A spinning preparation machine has a carding bar (10, 20, 30) of this type, a carding bar holder (70) to hold the carding bar (10, 20, 30) and a carding bar contact section (3) designed to be electrically coupled to the cloth connection section (20) when the carding bar (10, 20, 30) is mounted on the carding bar holder (70).