Dear God.....

[blakeish]

So what I did, was I took what information I got from mightymite.com (cheap-ass pickups which will work for now....) and guitarelectronics.com (les paul wiring, independent volumes)

so it's obviously a 2HB, 2Vol, and 2 Tone with a three way switch from stewmac.

I drew up my own mock diagram, with some questions, and also the toggle is drawn pretty spot on....as far as what i can solder to.

SOOOOOO anyone wanna check my plan?

I would SEVERELY APPRECIATE IT.

thanks.

if you've looked at it and think "this guy doenst know his ass from his ear as far as guitar wiring....." then you just might be dead-on.

Edited November 21, 2005 by blakeish

[GodBlessTexas]

Looks ok, though it is a bit hard to follow. As far as grounding, ground everything to one point, which is generally a pot or maybe two pots for cavity cleanliness sake.

Remember the Alamo, and God Bless Texas...

[blakeish]

Thanks Tex (if i may call you that?) that was alot simpler a reply that what I expected from anyone, althoug what i expected was a "dont touch your guitars wiring, for gods sake! save yourself AHHHHH!"

yeah, i apologize for all the lines and whatnots, I've seen old LP's with the ground point being something metal in the middle of the control cavity, so maybe I'll try that, who knows?

[GregP]

Actually, that's the best idea, blakeish. I use an "O" terminal. It can be anything, though, really, like a steel washer, or even just connect'em all up with one of those screw-cap thingies, whatever they're called.

Assuming that your cavities are all shielded with copper foil or whatnot, the pots will actually touch the foil and therefore add themselves to this continuous 'ground' circuit. Braided cables (which you don't have one of) that don't use the braid as an actual conductor are also soldered to somewhere on the cavity... it doesn't matter where. Consequently, the wires running ground from pot-to-pot can and SHOULD be desoldered, too, with only ONE ground wire going from a pot (or other location-- stay tuned for below) to the star.

In the end, you should have:

1. A continuous ground "cavity". The copper/aluminum-lined control cavities and pickup cavities are all electrically continuous, and when the pots and switch are screwed in and the chassis touch the copper/aluminum foil, they become a 'part' of this one continuous ground. With a multimeter, you should be able to touch one end to a pickup cavity and the other to a potentiometer's 'shell' and get a circuit.

2. ONE ground wire that connects this "cavity shield" to your final ground. I use the back of a pot, but guitarnuts.com recommends to solder a 400V, 33uf capacitor (a big red one!) to an O-terminal (yes, a second one, not the 'star' one) and then put the O terminal onto the potentiometer shaft, on the inside of the cavity. (ie. between the pot and the guitar itself) This replaces a "wire" that would ground your cavity to the star. Therefore, this capacitor now gets soldered to star.

3. The rest of your grounds now go to the star as well.

4. The output jack's ground also gets soldered to star, and is now the only 'path' for the electrons to get grounded to. That done, wrap some electrical tape around teh whole 'star' so that it doesn't accidentally touch the conductive cavity. Now you don't have any ground loops, which can cause hum!

Sorry if that was too involved. I could either draw a picture, or you could head over to guitarnuts.com and check out their shielding (Quieting the Beast) section. It's far more useful for single-coil-equipped guitars, but it certainly can't hurt a humbucker-equipped one, either, if for no other reason than removing potential ground loops.

Greg

[blakeish]

thank you greg, although i still have to keep constantly re-reading that because im a complete novice about wiring, its still impartial information explained in a way that is far easier to understand (i think) than any 'understanding wiring and curcuits' site that ive read through.

thanks again!

i'll let you know if i dont die or explode!

[GregP]

Now, if you're not shielding your cavities with copper foil, it's a bit easier to explain:

Ground all of your pickups and pots to one spot, including the ground to the jack.

When shielding the cavities, it's best to keep anything that could be considered part of the "shield surface" (ie. non-conductive braids, pickup covers when possible, {sometimes they're already wired to the pickup's ground which is fine, too!}, pot shells) as one part, which is why they're all wired to each other instead of to the central spot. That's the main difference between the shielded-cavity and non-shielded-cavity approach.

Greg