Wiring up the Jack
This is part 5 of the video series on wiring up guitar electronics.
In this video, I show how to wire up the jack. I’m replacing the original Epiphone jack with a Switchcraft L12A. The L in the part number indicates a longer 3/8” bushing, which is just a bit longer than the Epi jack. I’m hoping this well allow me to fit a lock washer in addition to the regular washer and nut, so the jack will stay tightly in place rather than falling into the body of the guitar so much (as I showed in my Don’t Know Jack video).
I also demonstrate how to use a multi-meter to identify which lug should be ground, and which should be signal. My meter is a Mastech MS8229. If your meter doesn’t have continuity mode (beeps whenever a connection is made), you can just use resistance mode and look for 0 resistance to indicate a connection. Note the L12A has a third, middle shunt lug, which you can just ignore.
Tagged with: Electronics • Epiphone Riviera P93 • Jack • Video
Filed under: Guitar
Wow, is mine really Different…..My jack gets a seperate free wire that runs from a solder puddle on the Bridge Pot to the Sleeve/ground connector. And my Tip or HOT Output gets a free seperate wire that leads from the middle connecton of the 3 Way Switch, thats actually two posts on the 3 way pushed together to the Output Jack connector and thats all. DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE TO YOU???? Im reading from the Seymour Duncan Diagram in their Slash PUs I purchased and that doesnt work too well
hey i am in the middle of building a guitar and i have the pickups in place, i attached the fretboard, and the tuning nobs
all i have left is to wire up the rest of it and put in the volume knobs and ect.
problem is im only 16 and i have 0 experiance soldering or using wires. is this something i can figure out by watching youtube videos and following them or should i just pay 50$ to have someone wire it for me?
would you by any chance have a list of all the supplies needed to do this?? i already have all the wires.
sorry for the inconvenience. your videos make it seem so much easier! i hope mine turns out well. also do you end up putting the cardboard in the guitar?
You’re sure right about epiphone jacks falling in, it happened to my Epi Dot and it was a nightmare to get out. Thanks for the video, it helped a lot
Dear lord, how do/ where did you learn how to do all this stuff? My brain is frying just looking at all this stuff! Your tutorials are very good though.
thank you sir well done and informative I’ve learned thaNKS AGAin
so my ground cable got disconnected on my jack there still alot of solder on the jack its self, should i dis solder or can i heat it and run the cable through, never have solder/dis soldered before also my jacks kinda lose would you recommend replacing it all together and if so what jack? thanks in advance
@Nelson123n – it’s generally a good idea to remove the solder on the lug using a solder sucker, so you can clean off any stray wires from your broken connection. If you don’t have a solder sucker, you can try heating it up and pushing your new wire through, but it can be hard to see what you’re doing and line up the wire properly. For a loose jack, try adding an inner-tooth lock washer between the nut and the regular washer.
@johnplanetz thank you for the advice
Your videos are a life saver.
Your brilliant
The internet is fantastic but you, sir, are the one that makes it so! Freaking awesome!
Do you have to have the shielded wire to run from the jack to the pot? Could I just use two regular hook up wires?
@dashizzler – regular wire should be fine for short cable runs. Shielded wire becomes more important for long runs, to avoid picking up noise.
why do you attach the jack wire to the tone pot? why not the volume pots
@Berserkaroid – in this circuit, one side of the middle volume pot is connected to the tone pot. The lug on the tone pot here is electrically identical to the lug on the middle volume pot. and the tone pot is closer to the jack, so that’s the better place to hook it up. For this guitar’s wiring diagram, see my planetz blog post “Riviera P93 Circuit Wiring” on 9/21/2009.
im so confused! im thinking of wiring my first strat together and im confused as to where the ground wire goes? i know one goes to the tremolo claw on the back of the guitar but where do others go such as pickup ground and tone pot grounds? anyone? thanks!
@GuitarBoyA7X most basses ive owned and im sure it will be the same for guitars have had a ground wire running from the bridge to one of the pots, the pots then grounded onto each other and the pickups grounded onto the pots i am no expert but so i maybe wrong hopefully someone else will have more info
my guitar wires come out somehow and i dont know which goes to which part of the jack and i dont have a reader thing, how can i tell which wire to attach without that device?
@sedohrable – try to find a wiring diagram that matches your pickups/volume/tone configuration. See the FAQ at my blog at planetz for some links and resources.
Is there a video for how to connect the the rest of the wires to the pickup selector switch?
@JonsBrain – i connect up the switch in “Wiring Up Guitar Electronics 3, Organizing Wire, Connecting Volume Pots and Switch”
Do any of the GROUND wires need to be Shielded?? doesnt Just the hot leads need to be sheilded??? can someone plz answer this
@97warlock – right. you can think of the shield as another wire- used to carry the ground/return. So for a pickup, the shield of the signal wire is used for the pickup’s ground connection. If you have a ground wire- like to your bridge, it doesn’t need to be a shielded wire.
on a different note:On a solid state amp …….if theres loud HISS when its cranked ………guitar volume down ….and unplug the guitar & still loud hiss, then unplug the cord from the amp & have dead silence…….what does that mean?
@97warlock – some hiss is typical at high gain. The amount depends on the amp. The input jack is probably switched, which is why the amp completely cuts out when you have nothing plugged in.
so on a hollowbody with no way to access the inside beside the f hole what do you do if you need to replace more than just the input? im hoping that i wont have to, just wondering…
@DoctorSess – you have to remove the electronics through the f-hole. It’s not fun
See the other videos in my channel for how to do that, and how to get them back in- also not fun!
@DoctorSess I recommend using either string to tie to the pots, or aquarium pump tubing that fits around the pot shaft snugly. It’s a little bit more difficult, but not bad if you know that trick.
BY FAR the BEST video on YouTube explaining this! All the other ones are complete garbage
thanks for the help brother, it was the multi-meter advice that helped me most… rock on!
Thank you SO much for these videos, I’m starting to do my own electronics mods and I had no idea what I was doing, now I feel comfortable enough to dive in without ruining my guitars. Thanks again!
there are a few diffrent kinds of jack normaly open normaly closed and mono or stereo most guitars are mono the one in video is and its normaly closed its more used for power amps what that dose is ground audio hot to ground to shut up the hiss or hum u get from most amps when its inserted it disconects the ground from audio hot and alows the signal to flow into preamp stage of an amp
the wire attached to the input on my epiphone sg has become severed from the jack. is there anyway of fixing this without having to bring it into a shop?
Easy. An SG has a backplate. Unscrew it for access to the electronics and resolder the wire to the jack. And be thankful it’s not a hollowbody!
nice video u got there. i have a problem. hope u can solve it. im still new in soldering components. what happens is i just solder the jack connector without knowing which one is ground wire and which one is for the signal. Im using a strat guitar and the problem is my guitar has lot of noise especially the 2nd and 4th switch… is that the reason why my guitar has lot of noise?
There’s no point in guessing the wire identity- you should buy an inexpensive multimeter (like $5) so you can learn which wire is which.
Just a pointer. You don’t melt the solder to the iron to apply to the component. You heat the component with the iron and apply solder to the hot component. 1 this ensures that the item is hot enough for the solder to bond, avoiding a cold solder (bad connection). 2 solder will flow in the direction of the heat. This makes the solder flow in and around wires to make better connection.
hello i am about to start crafting my own guitar and i was planning on doing the wiring my self but all i have is 22 and 24 gage wire is that a problem and if not which one should i use?
Either one is fine. 22 gauge stranded is probably the most common.
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I noticed the same thing about the epiphone jack, it’s so short!! Nice upgrade, thanks for the video!
Stupid question, but i know the ground goes to the bridge stud but where is the other end go? (2-Humbuckers, 1 vol 1 tone) Please help!
Thanks
The bridge stud should be connected to a ground point- e.g. the back of a pot or one of the pot lugs, etc. Ultimately all grounds must be connected to the lug of the jack that connects to the sleeve of the guitar cable.
See the guitar wiring diagram archive at guitarelectronics . com
Can i Email you a diagram to see if i have correctly wired my guitar?
Darren,Uk
Please start by comparing your circuit layout with a good wiring diagram.
See the guitar wiring diagram archive at guitarelectronics . com
Here’s a great pictorial on jacks and plugs that should help explain:
http://gaussmarkov.net/wordpress/parts/connectors/14-phone-jacks-and-plugs/