Wire It Up
Saturday, November 7th, 2009 at
4:02 pm
At last, after what seems like an eternity of video editing, I’m ready to roll out this new series of videos about wiring up guitar electronics. In these videos, I demonstrate how to lay out the components, select wire, strip and tin shielded wire, solder the backs of the pots, arrange the bundles of wires inside tubing, wire up the pots, the switch, the tone capacitor and the jack.
Here’s the first part of the video, covering initial preparations, component layout and wire selection and prep:
Tagged with: Electronics • Epiphone Riviera P93 • Video
Filed under: Guitar
Nice set of videos. Very well done. But please answer me this: Why not use crimped connection and stak-ons instead of soldering? You suggested using alligator clips to test the tone capacitor, so I’m guessing a mechanical connection will not degrade the signal.
@b5b9 – i prefer soldering. but there should be nothing wrong with crimped mechanical connections as far as sound quality- as long as they’re solid and won’t come apart with vibration and abuse and rock and roll!
I think your videos are amazing! I am working on adding a les paul classic humbucker to a shecter ultra 3 that usually has mini humbuckers with coil splitting. Any advice?
Iv got a Huge Problem iv got two active humbuckers with a battiey pack 1 vol 1 tone and a 3-way but the prole is a little Computer Chip could you help me? Thanks iv been sherching for a year and a half now
I really don’t know much about the wiring of my guitar. But a wire has become frayed twice now by my guitar cable twisting around so that I get really ugly feedback or no sound at all. I’ve gotten it repaired but do you have any advice as to how to prevent this from happening in the first place??
@clanbigger4 – a lock washer under the nut of a pot or jack can prevent it from twisting.
@carricod000 -Yes, a single pickup guitar is a nice project to start with. I recommend you experiment with your circuit using alligator leads before trying to solder anytjing, to make sure you understand the circuit. It sounds like you need to do a little homework on the basics. See the FAQ at my blog at planez for some links to resources on books, wiring diagrams, etc.
@johnplanetz Yeah I finished your videos and saw that. Thank you.
Can some1 answer this question plz:Im installing a 1 meg vol pot,4 wire Bucker …I bought 26awg single shielded wire.A single shielded wire has the Inner wire,AND the shielding which will be GROUND.thats 2 wires.I want to instal them to my Output jack one Hot,One ground …yet each has a center & a ground thats 4 wires total for just to lugs on output jack …HOW do I do this correctly? Anyone?
@97warlock – use one shielded wire- the center wire for signal and the shield for ground. You can see an example of wiring the jack like this in part 5 of this video series
what id its a 1 volume guitar how do u wire it??
@SuperVanhalen1984 – go to Guitar Wiring Diagrams Archive at guitarelectronics (link at my blog), and you’ll find all the wiring diagrams you need.
Hey, I just wanted to say a massive thank you for all of your videos! I’ve recently just finished upgrading the circuitry in my guitar and as this was my first time doing anything like this, your videos have helped answer a lot of queries along the way, they’ve been so useful! If you want to follow my upgrade, I’ve blogged it on my blog: andrewhosker. wordpress. com
Thanks again!
@rugbynut – great to hear Andrew! Your blog looks great. I also enjoyed listening through some of your electroacoustic compositions.
Hi,
Great Videos by the way!
Couple of questions please…
What’s the best Soldering Iron to use please? (I have a Weller 25W and it’s a pain)
What Solder is best? (Mine doesn’t stick to the iron but falls off in little balls…
)
Thanks in advance!
Remy, London UK
@remymullet007 – I really like my Weller WES51 soldering station, with ETA, ETO and ETC tips I usually use 60/40 rosin core solder, .032″ (1/32″) diameter.
hi john.. can i do this mod to my emg 81/85?.. and how do i go about it since it’s an active humbuckers and they are sharing one capacitor of .001uf, i meant the tone and volume.. if i’m not mistaken..please correct me if i’m wrong.. totally a nub in guitar modifications.. appreaciate your help very much.
@Sylbi – what mod are you trying to do? If you want to replace pots/caps, start by understanding your current circuit, component values, etc. Keep in mind that active guitar circuits use different (lower resistance) pot values than passive guitar circuits. As for the single cap, I couldn’t say what that’s doing without seeing the rest of the circuit. You might look at the wiring diagram archive at the guitarelectronics. com for examples.
@johnplanetz Have you heard of res-o-glass guitars? Jack white is known for playing one. Well anyway, do you know if and how i would send the ground wire to the bridge if the bridge is a tailpiece and a bridge that is an archtop style bridge. Sorry I’m Decently New To This All
@klebfg9537 – I’ve never had a chance to play a Res-o-Glas guitar, but I’ve seen Jack White playing his red Airline. Typically the ground wire is soldered to the bottom of the screw/stud of the tailpiece or bridge. If you were to remove the bridge and tailpiece, and pull up the stud/screw, you’d find a wire dangling down into the body, and soldered to a ground point.
I have a question , pls reply .i m a beginner i found ground wires from bridge,and from single coil pick up, now diagrams show only the ground wires from where i t comes ,But i dont know where to solder or where to connect ,pls reply not only for me but for beginners like me
@NESthebest83 – all the grounds must be electrically connected to the sleeve of the guitar jack. Sometimes this means that some grounds are soldered to a back of a pot, which is also soldered to the jack sleeve/ground lug. For more detailed explanation- see my video about guitar ground problems at: watch?v=YSxXra9UN-0
@johnplanetz Thanks ,God bless you,
Hi john,I have another doubt pls solve it,i found another ground wire from bridge,where i need to solder,is it solder to sleeve either to any of the pots or to knobs or to something pls reply.Bye the way nice videos John.
@NESthebest83 – the grounds all need to be electrically connected together, and to the jack sleeve lug. An electrical connection is made when two conductors (wires or metal parts) are soldered together. So you can connect bridge to pot-back, and jack sleeve lug to the same pot-back, and you have effectively connected the bridge to the jack sleeve. Or you can connect the bridge wire directly to the jack sleeve lug. Just be careful to avoid ground loops- you can search for more info on that.
how much difference can rewiring the guitar make ? what are the benefits of it ?
@wipers86 – some things are very subtle, other things are dramatic. see my video “Epiphone Electronics Overhaul, Before and After Comparisons”.
Hi john,can you make a video ,how to make a simple guitar electronic,which is not too complicated for the beginners like me ,A video with simple things like one humbucker,one tone,1 volume only, pls reply
im really mess up with my wirings… i have 2 humbucker and one single coil. the sound is so lame and the upper single coill is not working, how i can wire it? i have 5 way switch, 1 tone and 1 volume… please answer!
look at the guitar wiring diagram archive at the guitarelectronics website. Find the diagram that matches your setup and study it carefully- make sure you’ve got it all wired up correctly. See the FAQ at my blog at planetz for other tips/resources.
I’ve enjoyed your capacitor videos…great job on it, BTW.
Just a little tip instead of laterally cutting the shielding of braided wire. After striping the outer plastic cover to expose the braid, you can bend the the hot conductor with the shield, and just pull the center hot wire through an opening through the shield braiding. That way you maintain the mechnical strenght of all the braiding.
sorry for asking, but Im in a hurry and dont have the time to watch the whole vid now… but what type of wire do you recommend? what gauge or what specifications?
22 gauge unshielded wire for short lengths. 26 gauge braided shielded wire for longer lengths. See stewmac for examples.
@johnplanetz great vid but I have a question. I bought a guitar recently that had zero hardware on it. So I bought these cheap pickups from ebay for $15. I know what and where to wire, its just the pickups only have one single wire coming out of them. What do I do?!? They are humbuckers. I am also putting in 1 vol, 1 tone, and three way selector.
In order for it to work at all, there must be both a signal wire and a ground wire. Is the wire coming from the pickup wrapped in a braided shield, like I show at 2:40? If so, the braided shield is being used as the return/ground, while the center wire is the signal.
@johnplanetz also if I buy 2 b500k pots, could I use one as a vol and the other as a tone? Thank
b500k is linear. I’d recommend audio taper “a500k” for both tone and volume, but this is a personal preference. See my other videos demonstrating volume and tone taper:
watch?v=RdfIZEB2rdM and watch?v=7ANG3OrL5HI
3:04 “take a pair of good strippers…” better call up tammy and amber i guess.. sorry couldn’t help myself. But good video series, My seymour duncans didn’t come with a wiring diagram so this series helped a lot.
Hey, as a project I completely desoldered a guitar (very first one, so idc), Then I soldered it back up (I made a diagram that litterally said what wires go to which pot). I even retraced it 3 times, still the pickups aren’t even givind a noise when I tap them, and there is a hum going on, even though I grounded it.
Can you please help me?
Don’t be discouraged. Little mistakes happen, even when you’re more experienced.
Could be any number of things. E.g. you may have drawn the diagram incorrectly, and so put it back together wrong (check the diagrams at the guitarelectronics wiring diagram archive). A signal wire may be accidentally making contact with ground (short circuit) – use a multimeter to check that everything is connected properly. Or you may have a cold/bad solder joint, use your iron to re-flow each joint. Good luck!
My dad is going to help me measure it. My dad made a picture of how everything was connected and it was exactly the same.
My dad did look at the wires, and they were pretty much melted, so he expects that somewhere a signal is making contact with the ground (like you said). As for the wiring part, I rewired it like 5 times the exact same way.
Thanks for helping on such short notice!
Sorry, it didn’t fit into one comment, so I made another one.
Do you actually know how the current travels through all the wires? Are they like parallel to each other (pot for volume and pot for tone)?
AAAAAHHH!!! YOUR VOICE IS TRAVELING FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT!!!!!
What Brand Of Wire Do You Recommend And Where Do You Acquire Said Wire? Thanks
I don’t really know about brands of wire. stewmac sells shielded and unshielded, but in fairly long lengths. I’ve also bought 24 gauge stranded at pedalpartsplus. If you have a local electronics store, you can probably find something suitable.
John
Watching these videos is like watching the bob ross of guitar wiring. lovin’ it
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why can’t Americans pronounce solder
it’s sol as in sole not sad as in sadder 
great vid mate
Funny- I get asked this all the time, I need to add it to my FAQ. My usual answer: “In the US, against all reason- it’s pronounced “sodder” without the L. My family is Australian, so I was raised pronouncing it with the L (“sole-der”), and I have to really make an effort to say it the American way. The English language is such a mess!”
Merriam Webster dictionary gives:
Middle English soudure, from Anglo-French, from souder to solder, from Latin solidare to make solid, from solidus solid First Known Use: 14th century as soudure. So apparently the original pronunciation is more like sodder than soldier. Typo intended.
Thanks Watson. I get this question about solder so frequently I finally added it to the FAQ at my blog, with references to some etymology and OED pronunciation, etc. Nevertheless, I still feel more comfortable saying it “sole-der”
No problem mate. I can’t say it is wrong either way I just thought it was worth noting what the dictionary said. I was not trying to correct you either. I was brought up to say “sodder”. Thanks for the reply and a great video also.
i wouldnt know what you were talking about if you said sole-der
Ha Im not the only one that was reminded of Bob Ross….and now we will solder all these happy little wires
Hey, that was me, but I figured most of it out now.