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| First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please http://mowrystrings.luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10123&t=35392 |
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| Author: | Neil Gardiner [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 8:41 am ] |
| Post subject: | First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
Working on my first electric build. And I've done the wiring, but no signal coming through. Obviously I've done something wrong but can't figure it out. It's a 2 humbucker with one volume pot and one tone pot setup. Here's a couple pictures and also the diagram I am following. I appreciate the help. Thanks Neil   
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| Author: | John Coloccia [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:09 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
It looks like you've reversed output and ground on the switch. You have the signal going to the back of the volume pot, and the input to the tone going to the grounding lug. I haven't traced the entire thing out, but just at first glance that's a problem. |
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| Author: | MikeH [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 1:56 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
John Coloccia wrote: It looks like you've reversed output and ground on the switch. You have the signal going to the back of the volume pot, and the input to the tone going to the grounding lug. I haven't traced the entire thing out, but just at first glance that's a problem. I noticed the same thing; that lug on the back of the switch is to ground the frame of the switch (not actually necessary to do, but not a bad idea). The two tabs that are connected is the switch "output". |
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| Author: | Stuart Gort [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
Personally, I'd start over from scratch and eliminate all shielded wiring inside the cavity. Just use simple, single conductor hookup wire. If you feel the need to shield your hots then shield the whole cavity and ground it. I'd have a hard time myself...if I had to ground all those sheilds. Way too easy to accidently ground a hot doing it this way. But yeah....it looks like the center terminal on the switch is going to ground....hard to see from the photo. If it is, it's certainly wrong. Looking again....you've definitely switched center terminals on the selector switch. The white wire goes on the other end of the switch and the black wire in the center terminal goes to the back of the switch... Those wires are reversed as is. Here's a trick: Redraw the entire schematic on a piece of paper but have the components match YOUR layout. Then...on your schematic....NUMBER each connection. Go over your drawing a number of times...checking it to the Seymour Duncan schematic....make sure your schematic is correct. Then ...when you solder up your assembly just run a seperate checklist of the number of connections...crossing off the numbers as you solder. I haven't made a mistake since I started doing this. 
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| Author: | John Coloccia [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 2:36 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
Stuart makes a good point. There are way too many wires in there. There are good uses for shield wires. For example, you can run a shielded wire from the output jack to the volume pot. No need to pigtail it. Solder the shield right to the lugs, and bend that volume pot lug to touch the volume put case. That gets rid of 3 wires just on that run one run. Since you're not doing coil splitting, take the wires directly from the pickups and right onto the switch. Ground them right at the switch grounding lug, and then one wire from the grounding lug to the back of the tone pot. Ground the bridge wherever is most convenient. Then just one wire from the back of the tone pot to the back of the volume pot. The goal with wiring is 0 wires It looks like you're trying to do a star topology, but there's really no need to in this case. There's no difference having 5 inches of wire straight to a pot, or having 2 inches to the back of one pot and 3 inches to the back of another pot. Unless you did something crazy, it would be difficult to construct a ground loop of any consequence in a wiring cavity. And buy some good heatshrink (not radio shack heat shrink...in fact, don't ever buy any electronic supplies from Radio Shack). If you're using humbuckers, take the two inner wires (white and red), solder them together, bend it back over the pickup cable and heat shrink the whole thing for a neat look. If you want an even neater look, take the bare and green wires, leaving the bare wire long, and solder the green very close to the base of the insulation for the pickup bundle. Bend THAT back over the cable again, leaving plenty of bare showing, and heat shrink it again. Now you have a pickup cable with just a black wire and a bare wire...very neat.
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| Author: | EWC&Son [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 8:22 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
I would concur with the group about your problem: reversed wires at the switch. As for wiring in general, most people make the mistake of just trying to follow a schematic, which often, for the sake of illustration, shows more connections than are necessary. Like John says, I try to keep my wires to a minimum. Part of that process is just understanding one simple fact about wiring--they often call the "ground" (black wire, in most cases) the "common" for a reason. There is no need to "wire" between every ground connection. Run ONE wire between each pot, and then connect any necessary ground to the pot. Bending the tab (as was also suggested) and soldering it to the case also eleminates a wire. If you shield your cavity with copper tape (I sometimes do) you don't even need wires between the pots or between other components. |
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| Author: | alan stassforth [ Tue Feb 14, 2012 9:06 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
What Stuart said. You don't need those braided shielded wires in a solid body, with a shielded cavity. Those wires are meant for a hollow body electric, where the signal wires need to be shielded, because they are just out in mid air. Good luck! Sometimes wiring can become psychedelic!    
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| Author: | Neil Gardiner [ Wed Feb 15, 2012 8:20 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: First Try at Wiring - Need some help Please |
Hey all Thanks for all the help and the tips. Got it working. I appreciate it. Neil |
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