Moving on from there, it starts to get only slightly more complicated.
Let's say we want to control the volume.
Here we need to add a potentiometer (pot) in order to control the volume of the pickup.
A pot normally has 3 legs.
From left to right :
- Input A
- Output
- Input B
Here is a diagram of it.
In this diagram you may notice there is a GRD ( ground) for one of the legs and a +5V on the opposite end.
I will explain that in a bit.
The only thing you really need to know right now is that the knob turns to either signal a or b, and the result of what is leaving the pot goes through the output middle.
Here is where we can start to control the circuit with the knob.
If it is making a connection with Signal A (ground) then volume is at 0 because 100 percent of the signal is being sent to the ground.
If we turn to signal B (the hot from the pickup, then the signal is passed to the output jack and you have volume.
Any where in between and you get a percentage of both results.
Ok. So how does this look?
Well, not as simple as the jack. However after 1 slight change, it's super simple.
The ground terminal is normally soldered to the back of the pot. This will ground the pot in a step sometimes called self grounding.
Here is a diagram.
After the pot is grounded, the cables from the pickup is attached to the pot just like the jack.
Hot to hot,
Ground to ground.
Only thing left to do is connect the pot to the jack.
You need a hot and ground again for this.
Ground attached to the top of the pot. Anywhere is fine but most just use the same point as where they attached everything else.
The hot goes out of the middle leg of the pot.
Notice in this finished diagram the wires on the pot are different. Make sure you follow your diagram to get the legs on the pot correct.
There is also an additional wire we didn't cover called the bridge ground. This is just another ground wire and can attach to the top of the pot anywhere. This is here to ensure that any metal you can come in contact with is safe from shocking you.
Also notice that one of the legs is bent up to touch the back of the pot.
Some people do that instead of the extra wire like I drew in the example. This achieves the same thing and is done to ground the pot.
It is the same thing, and saves on like a cm of wire, I just drew it out to emphasise what is happening.