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I'm a wiring NEWBIE!

Posted by Brendon Anderson on August 12, 2011 at 12:21am in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Hey guys, so all of my electronics came in today and now I'm really anxious to solder them all together...

 

Basically I'm doing this setup: 1 Piezo, 1 Humbucker, a 3 way switch, and a volume pot.

 

The problem is... I'm a complete wiring NEWBIE!

 

I kind of have the basics down on which wire goes where according to this chart...

http://i645.photobucket.com/albums/uu176/Brenderson/Screenshot2011-08-04at55704PM.png

 

 

I really have no idea about what the whole "ground" stuff is... Can someone explain to me what I do with all of the ground wires?  Where do I solder them to?

 

Thanks!

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Replies

  • David L. August 12, 2011 at 4:47pm

    The way I do it is to bend that lug up so it touches the side of the pot and then put a blob of solder over where they meet. it is then grounded to the jack (along with all the others) via the single earth wire to the jack.

    If you prefer you can use a small wire from this lug upto the top of the pot - either works.

  • Brendon Anderson August 12, 2011 at 4:12pm
    So the lug on the volume pot that is bent upwards... do I solder the ground wire to that lug?  Because in the diagram, it looks like the solder is connected to the ground wire, the back of the volume pot, AND the lug.  Is this how I need to do it?  Or do I only solder the wire to the back of the pot and not the lug?
  • David L. August 12, 2011 at 2:33pm

    Hi Brendon,

     

    The same wire can be used for all the wiring - if you used shielded wire it does cut down on the electrical hum that the wires can pick up (it depends upon how much the background hum bothers you).

     

    The jack socket ground lug is wired to the back of the volume pot in the diagram so all the other grounds going to the back of the pot are each grounded but only via the one wire to stop ground loops forming.

     

    The humbucker you have is made from 2 separate coils each of which have their own start and finish which gives 4 wires -  the extra bare wire is the shield for the cable to cut out electrical noise from other electrical equipment in the locality. This gives you different coil wiring options - series (wired: hot-north coil-south coil-ground) / split (only 1 coil wired) / parallel (each coil is wired between hot and ground) all of which give different tonal qualities.

    If you look on the Seymour Duncan website you will see the huge choice you have in wiring these type of humbuckers

    http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/

     

    David

     

  • swampapple slim August 12, 2011 at 1:59pm
    i think you should google single pup diagram and it will tell you all you need i see lots of wrong in your diagram no offence please but i feel you can find a diagram without switch and its a lot easier and its a must brigde is grounded strings are makeing ang breaking current for sound and get shielded wire a must on ebay you can get complete harness solderd and ready from 5 to 3000 bucks id use a 500k pot and .u47 cap if you ad a tone otherwise pup will always sound same yuo can do it get 60/40 solder rosin core sheilded wire and 2 500k pots and 1 ,047 tone cap and youll be rockin
  • swampapple slim August 12, 2011 at 1:47pm
    you dont need a switch for 1 pup wire strait to pot then to jack
  • swampapple slim August 12, 2011 at 1:42pm
    be sure to get sheilded wire like on your pickup with shielding wrapped around insulation or it will be noisy on mine i found the hot to jack really picks up noise i found some braided sheilding wire you slip over your sheilded wire and rapped the legs seperatly on pots wrapped pots and it is dead silent i can be playing vol. on 4 set cbg down and it wont make a sound i didnt think it was possible i used a rubber tape no glue it sticks to it self and i cant believe it i thought they all hum a bit and mine wont i will post a pic soon its not preaty but for not active its amazingi use1 vol and 2 tones look at my pics diagram there will work for as many pups as you want i had 3 but fender style in neck pos. was junk so im using 2 p 90s but ck my picks and make sure wire is sheilded or you will have to re wire it good luck it easy after you get your head around it Slim ps mine uses a .022uf on 1 pot and a .047 on other they are both on in all positions endles tonal posibilitys it actually a strat mod.Good luck
  • Brendon Anderson August 12, 2011 at 1:06pm

    Thanks you guys!  That definitely helped simplify things... for some reason I had a super complex idea of grounding and was overthinking it.

     

    Anyways, a few more questions...

     

    1. If I go to buy wire at Home Depot, do I need to make sure I get the correct wire types?  Or will any wire work for any situation (For example would a Hot wire work for Grounding)?

     

    2. David, the ground wire from the jack is connected to the lug or is not? Or is is soldered to the back of the volume pot like the others?  I'm a bit confused on that one connection.

     

    3. The pickup I got is the GFS PAF Humbucker... It has 5 wires.  It has a Green (Which I believe is the Hot in this case), a Black (Ground), a Red and White (which are soldered together already), and a silver braided wire.

     

    If the green hot wire is going to the 3 way, and the black ground is going to the volume pot shell, where do the Red/White combo go?  And where does the silver braided wire go?

     

    Also what are these wires (red/white and silver braided) for?

     

    Thanks!

  • David L. August 12, 2011 at 7:27am

    Hi Brendon,

    The GND on the diagram just means a ground wire and they normally don't add a full wire as the diagram looks a bit too crowded.  For a guitar most people suggest using a star type of grounding - all grounds go to a single point (usually the back of the volume pot as it is a nice big site to solder to) and then only one wire goes from here to the ground of the output jacksocket.

    Adding the wires the diagram looks like this

    305737230?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024

    Points to note on the diagram - the volume pot has the lug on the right (the only one not connected to a wire) bent up and soldered to the pot casing.  At the ouput jack the hot wire (red in this diagram) connects to the lug which makes contact with the very tip of the jackplug (if you insert a cable jackplug it will be easy to see which one).

    Adding an extra ground wire to a metal bridge can help to reduce the hum you sometimes get by grounding the strings although it may not be necessary as you are using a humbucker.

    The corners don't need grounding.

     

    Good luck,

    David

     

    PS wear glasses and long sleeves as the solder sometimes spits.

  • Mike Bingham August 12, 2011 at 6:31am
    Hey Brendon, welcome to the hobby! You should run all ground wires to a common point in order to avoid creating ground loops, or multiple paths to ground.  I'd suggest grounding the pickups and switch to the case of the volume control.  I'd also suggest using a metal bridge and grounding it to the volume control as well. Run one ground wire from the volume control to the output jack and you should have a nice quiet installation. Here's a link to a LOT of wiring diagrams if you are using pickups with the same color codes as these in the diagrams.  Enjoy!
  • Brendon Anderson August 12, 2011 at 2:16am
    Oh and also, I am planning on adding brass corners to my cigar box, I don't need to ground those do I?  That seems like it would be overkill.
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