I’m pretty new to building cigarbox guitars. I got an MGB mini box bucker 2.0 pick up and I’m trying to solder it to an economy 250 K volume tone jack harness. I’m not sure what to connect or what. On the diagram you can see wires 1,2,3,4 and 5. Basically I need to know how to connect all those together. If this is easy for anybody and you can explain it that would be awesome. Thanks a lot.

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Solder  2 to 4, solder 1 to 3 ;  5 is the ground wire that connects to the strings, or bridge, tailpiece

Thanks for the tips. I’m not really sure what to solder the ground wire to because the strings are completely on the outside of the box. There is really no metal bridge or tailpiece. Is there anyway I can solder that right to the unused prong On the jack ?

The ground wire is not necessary to complete the circuit. The jack is prewired. 2 to 4 & 1 to 3 is all that is necessary.

Hi, as that pickup is magnetic it will pick up extra noise if it is not grounded to the strings. It may hum or buzz until you become the ground by fingering the strings, buzz then goes away.

With wooden bridges and tailpieces there are ways to attach that earth wire to the strings. I have posted a photo instruction of how to do it on here before, not sure how you would find it now though.

Taff

Hi, this where you will find all sorts of wiring diagrams. Just select from the list, yours would be- 1 humbucker with vol & tone.

https://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/1-pickup-guit...

Taff

Not sure what your tone pot is going to do for you  without a capacitor. As far as wiring Jerry's got it right. Use shrink tubing or electrical tape to keep the soldered hots and grounds separate. And be carful on how you handle that mini bucker. Those rapped wires are thin and easy to brake. In the 40 odd years I've been modding electric guitars I've never seen a tone without a cap. ???

Soldering wire 5 back to the output jack will loop your ground. Without getting into the tech it's a very bad thing. To get help quick i'd start a second thread. Ask folks here how to ground a pup without a metal bridge or tail piece. 

Thanks for the input. It just shows how little I know about what I'm doing, especially regarding wiring. I don't ever really know what a tone pot without a capacitor means:)

it was a prewired setup i bought and I soldered and installed it like you guys told me the bucker works great and it sounds smoking but when I tried changing the tone knob from 1 to 10 it didn't seem to change the tone at all:) perhaps thats what you mean:)

I ended up drilling a hole through the neck near the bridge and feeding the ground through it and soldered it to the bolt/bridge in an effort to ground it. That's another thing that shows how little I know-I really don't even understand "grounding"

Anyway thanks again-all that being sai I'm really proud of the brickhouse and think it looks really cool and it sounds sweet!

Your tone pot doesn't work because it doesn't have a cap ( capacitor).

what you need and how to come by them.

The wiring harness you have is actually for a single coil pickup. But that's totally OK. We'll treat this pickup like a normal humbucker. You'll need .047 uk capacitor. 100 volts or less. As far as the material it's made out of? Capacitance is what it is. Despite the mojo blow there's no difference in capacitance. The real difference is in the quality and +/- range of the unit. What this means. If you get a cheapo ceramic cap at 0.47 and it's + or - 5%. These means your more than likely to get a cap that will be + or minus and not at 0.47. Can you hear this when compared to more expensive caps? Hardly to No. Unless the cap is really far off. Don't believe me? Gibson was selling .17  cent ceramic caps made to look like Bumble bees for $200 bucks each. Everyone swore they sounded better than anything else. Until someone cut one in half and revealed the truth. Bottom line. Don't get ripped off. Where to buy them? Ebay, Amazon or if you have one a local electronics store. 

How to make your tone pot work.

for this I will need to see a better picture of the back of your tone pot. We can work with it. Worst case you may have to do a bit of unsoldering. Can't tell in the pic as it is. 

Here’s a picture from the website of the exact harness and it appears it does in fact have a capacitor on it I think the website describes it as a .47 when I was just playing the guitar the volume works fine but when I turn the tone button all the way from 1 to 10 I can’t discern any real difference in the sound I’m not sure how much change should actually make but it doesn’t make much at all or it makes no change. I’ve never done it before so I have no point of reference but it doesn’t  seem to make Any real difference

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Hello, After reading the rest of this post, I had a thought or two., If the tone pot does not work, it could be a bad pot, bad cap, or no cap., without the cap it should work as a redundant volume knob.,. the bottom line is this is an economy harness from the depths of China, and your supplier buys in bulk, and does not test the harnesses before they ship.,., in bulk these harnesses cost about 75 cents., if the tone pot doesn't work, email MGB and tell them your dilemma .,., if they are worth their salt, the will ship you a replacement free of charge.,. its called good customer service and it makes sense for them to keep you happy, so you will buy more parts up the road.,., they are losing nothing by sending you a replacement, and losing a customer if you are unhappy.,., I work in the trade by day, and I would not hesitate to send you a replacement for free.,. we are talking about a 5 cent cap, or a 25 cent pot.,., these economy harnesses are not built with quality parts.,.,,.good luck.,.,and Rock On.,.,!!

Turns out after I investigated it a little bit it does have a  capacitor on it but when I just played it and turned  the tone from 1 to 10 it’s seemingly made no difference in the sound. I never did one before so I don’t know how much difference it should make it I know when I do it on my Strat it changes the tone a lot. So maybe your idea that the capacitor is bad is right I don’t know. One thing you said is that the harnesses from a place like that are pretty junky would you recommend buying the parts from someone else. Would CB Gittys  be any better?

OK After looking at what's on their wed site. And taking a good look at your picture. The honest first thing I would recommend is unsoldering it and tossing it. The only thing wired correctly is the output jack. Now if you want to use what you already have you really need to unsolder and rewire the harness. Below is the correct wiring for this set up.

Don't sweat the soldering. If you've never done it before there's plenty of really good help on Youtube. Get some practice in on a few scraps and your on your way. You'll be modding your guitars in no time!

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