[MerlinTKD]

Okay, every time I think I'm ready to wire my new switch and pots, I find there's something else I don't know.

Is there someplace that has some basic switch wiring info? The diagrams I have show some info, but other things are taken for granted (for example... the diagrams show what wires go to ground, but what exactly do I do with them? Where the diagram shows connections between switch poles, how exactly do I do that?).

I'd appreciate some help, 'cause I'm lost!

[Alpo]

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll try to help. Ground wires go to the volume pot casing, and a wire from there goes goes to the bridge. When you need to connect two switch poles, you need to solder a short wire between them.

[MerlinTKD]

Originally Posted by Alpo

I'm not an expert by any means, but I'll try to help. Ground wires go to the volume pot casing, and a wire from there goes goes to the bridge. When you need to connect two switch poles, you need to solder a short wire between them.

That helps a lot, thanks!

[stubhead]

Ground wires go to the volume pot casing

I'd amend that slightly. Ground is just... GROUND, it doesn't have a particular order. Pot casings need to be grounded, and some switch terminals need to be grounded, but they don't necessarily have to be grounded to each other in a specific order.

This is particularly important when you're using something like a Superswitch & adapting parts of one diagram to another. Potentiometers can fry up pretty easily from the heat, and if you tried to connect ALL the grounds to the pot casings as shown in a particular diagram, you could kill 'em easily. Unsoldering wires from a pot to swap pickups or change a switch has the same effect.

I've wired guitars with Superswitches where you had 13, even 17 separate ground wires, and the easiest thing to do was to sink a little eyebolt in the side of the cavity and wire all the grounds to it. There's a guy over on the Warmoth forum who swears by "terminal strips" - something like this, though there are hundreds of kinds at Mouser Electronics & elsewhere.


Though I don't change pickups as often as some near-psychotic friends of mine with shoeboxes full, each of which they've tried for 2 hours, it does seem like it'd be easier when everything just unscrews.

P.S. There's diagrams everywhere, but the two places I look first are Stewart-McDonald & Seymour Duncan.

Free information, Understanding Guitar Wiring at Stewart-MacDonald

Wiring Diagrams - Seymour Duncan/Basslines

Sometimes you have to take a diagram from Duncan and use the Stew-Mac site to refigure the wiring code for a different brand of pickup:
Stewart-MacDonald: Free information - go to "Electronics, Pickups"

or you can go here and get all the wiring codes:
Guitarelectronics.com Inc. Color Codes

[arnoroth661]

Originally Posted by stubhead

I've wired guitars with Superswitches where you had 13, even 17 separate ground wires, and the easiest thing to do was to sink a little eyebolt in the side of the cavity and wire all the grounds to it. There's a guy over on the Warmoth forum who swears by "terminal strips" - something like this, though there are hundreds of kinds at Mouser Electronics & elsewhere.


Though I don't change pickups as often as some near-psychotic friends of mine with shoeboxes full, each of which they've tried for 2 hours, it does seem like it'd be easier when everything just unscrews.

Great idea.

[8string]

Originally Posted by stubhead

Free information, Understanding Guitar Wiring at Stewart-MacDonald

Great read, thx

[MerlinTKD]

Wow... in some ways, I think I'm more confused than ever!

Great info though, thanks!

[ibznorange]

lol i wouldnt worry about frying your pot. provided you dont ground everything at once. clearly, you shoudl not sit there for 20 minutes with your soldering iron on your pot attaching wire after wire, but do it slowly and youll be fine, never had an issue before.