Guitar Wiring 101 What do I need to know?

[sniperfrommars1]

I want to learn how to wire my guitar better i want to be the zen master, although Ive been successful with changing pickups and pots out in the past Im still struggling horribly with my sg project and its driving me insane. I dont know that Im using the write combination of tools, wire or anything, because I simply dont understand the principles of it. Im really saddened that we dont have a tutorial for wiring on this website, since I would imagine custom jems are so very popular, but I often wonder how many of us are in the dark on this subject. Basically what I want to do is wire my gibson sg up with a 3 way toggle, two volumes and two tones, and although Ive aquired a schematic at seymour duncan.com Im still receiving a very weak signal, and i just dont know that Im doing it right. I live in Kentucky so I dont really know of anyone nearby I can take it to and do it cheaply, or learn from anyone I know of, so this is really on me unless one of the forum members can give me some support. Any advice? I would love to have a major thread started here including, what power soldering iron should I be using, solder type, helpful equipment, how to get the perfect bead of solder going, etc. etc. etc. Right down in the mechanics of it, with pictures and the works like on Rich's website. Ive just never seen a decent tutorial on wiring, or any how to use a soldering iron for this purpose info.

[JESTER700]

Go spend some time on guitarelectronics.com and guitarnuts.com. Lotsa info there, though no basic tutorial IIRC.

[Akhenaten]

In my shop, there are 3 things we usually see when a home wiring job comes in with a weak signal. One is that the grounds are not all hooked up. Usually this accompanies a buzz...

Another thing we see is where someone overheated the wiring and melted things together and through the shielding. This also includes people who have done the opposite and not quite heasted things enough. (The cold solder joint)

One other thing is the obvious...it's wired wrong. For that, you'll have to check again on your own with the diagrams. Make sure you got the right color combos together and stuff, for example, with Duncan stuff, usually the red and white wires will go together, the green and bare ones grounded, and the black one to the switch or pot terminal. With DiMarzio, it's the same colors, but black and white go together, green and bare to the ground, and red to the pot.

It's the little things, so check carefully... :-)

[frankfalbo]

The best quickie I can give you is to start thinking about pickups as coils with ins and outs rather than associating wire colors with them. Start thinking about electricity as flowing water and the wire as the pipes. You'll be able to self analyze an idea or schematic if you comb over it and find out "where the water is going" (or if it's leaking somewhere!) Then start thinking about components as what they do, rather than boxes with solder tabs on them.

I can design any crazy onboard system I want, and have all kinds of unique switching setups that no one else does just because I think outside of the LP/Strat/Jazz Bass realm. I don't think the answer is to have books of schematics so you can refer to them for whatever situation comes up. Rather gain the knowledge to make your own. For example, how about something so stupid as the bridge ground on a guitar with a pickguard. If you take the pickguard off to work on it, there's two seperate points connecting the guard to the body: the bridge ground, and the output jack wires. This often makes it hard to flip the guard over and work on it. So years ago I started running the bridge ground right to the output jack. Now I can lift my guards off and they flip right over. And you'll never see that in a diagram or on a factory guitar! It's silly not to. I started taking coil junctions to "hot" when I wanted the "other coil" and that's never discussed. I mean I know I didn't invent this stuff and people here like Scott, Mic, Rich, etc have all said various things like this in the past, but the point is, we get to it because we know how the signal flows. (is that being a "zen master"? Because I'm a Christian )

As for diagnosing problems it's pretty easy if you can "see" the flow of electricity to test things or pinpoint your problem. If you're getting a weak signal try wiring the hot from the toggle right to the jack. Then you'll know if its before or after that part. If it's before, you have pickup or switch trouble. If it's after, you have pot or jack trouble. If only one pickup is weak then listen to each coil seperately. Wire them straight to the jack to see if one coil is dead. You can easily melt the plastic off of a wire inside the shielding, so you'll never see it but you're shorting out inside the 4 conductor cable. It probably wouldn't be both coils though, so you could tell.

[sniperfrommars1]

Thanks for all your help frank those are some really helpful things youve went over me with. I did happen to get it wired correctly once yesterday with the proper output and everything i wanted, then I turned the guitar over to close the control cavity and I hadnt screwed the pickup in. needless to say the damn thing fell out jerked half my wiring lose and I got so mad I punched my pickup ring and broke it. Oh well. I then calmed down and busted out the dremel and did some more work to the neck and body. I hope to get it sorted out and maybe even painted over this weekend. The guitar Im working on is a 68 gibson sg which was a gift from a friend. It had a headstock break that I fixed years ago, but he took the liberty of adding bolts to the headstock, ive since removed these bolts and filled the holes. The guitar originally had P-90s in it, and has had a flame maple veneer added to the top which I think was after the bottom tone pot smashed through the control cavity. Its been rerouted for humbuckers and stuff. The neck actually plays amazing, its got that real old school broken in feel. It also has a kahler trem added, and schaller tuning keys. Ive added a locking nut, and a dimarzio paf in the bridge, and an old V7 out of my 520. Hopefully i can get the wiring complete and get my painting done soon though. Ill post pics sometime this weekend hopefully

[Scott of Actual Time]

Originally Posted by frankfalbo

Start thinking about electricity as flowing water and the wire as the pipes. You'll be able to self analyze an idea or schematic if you comb over it and find out "where the water is going" (or if it's leaking somewhere!) Then start thinking about components as what they do, rather than boxes with solder tabs on them.

that's excellent advice. if you learn how to fish like frank says, you can learn how to wire your guitar, your car, and even the lighting/receptacles in your house, all using the same principles.

a great starting resource is the free tech sheets on the Stewart Macdonald site, www.stewmac.com . they used to sell a Yamaha 24 pole switch that came with a whole booklet that diagramed how volume and tone controls work, the two different ways to coil cut a humbucker, how to see if two coils will hum cancel given their magnet polarities and the direction of the windings [lots of people forget that second thing], a chart of winding directions and polarities for a dozen pickup manufacturers, and even really wierd stuff like how to make a tone control also act as a variable coil cut knob.

the drag is they don't sell that Yamaha switch any more, but the sheet for the 24 pole "Superswitch" they do sell still has lots of good info, and they have other tech sheets that talk about wiring volume controls and stuff. definately check their list of info sheets out as a beginning resource.

[sniperfrommars1]

Got the wiring almost done, its finally firing right. Turns out one of the coils wasnt hooked hooked up. The clean sound is REALLY good. Im surprised actually. Still havent finished the neck position part of the circuit as im pretty much out of wire at this point and have spent way too much time as is. I need to get started on the painting now so thats more cash out of my pocket