Tidalwavetiburon Posted March 1, 2006 Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 Alright I just searched many pages and found similar scenerios, but nothing that fully answers my questions. Ok I have to ground my single coil pickups, but I don't want to solder anything to the back of the pots, instead I drilled a hole in the body of the guitar that leads directly to the back where the Tremolo Claw is. Now can I run all the grounding wires to the Tremolo Claw and ground them together at that one point? In searching I read a post that you can run a wire from the grounding point on the back of the pots to the claw, but I would much rather run ALL the wires there and ground them out at that one point, but Im not sure if that can be done or not without any problems such as bad buzz, shocking or anything of that nature. Now my other question is there there is only one wire with a braided shielding on it, the other wires from the pickups have no braid shielding, what is the shield wire? Im not sure if I have to solder the shielding or not. Now on to my last pickup question, how can you tell which spot on the 5 way selector switch is for what? On the switch there is just a straight line of connectors and Im not sure which is which? Sorry about all the newbie questions, but this is my first time doing anything like this, so Im learning as doing. Here is a run down of what I have 3 500K pots, 2 .22 uf caps, 3 single coil pickups and a 5 way selector. Now all of this was given to me for an old style Strat that Im redoing and giving to my little brother for a first guitar. So Im looking for the best way to get a deeper sound out of the pickups without buying new pickups. I know I can change the pots to 250k, but I think the .22 cap should give me what Im looking for. Thanks in advance for the help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted March 1, 2006 Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 1. You won't get "shocked" by running all the grounds to the trem claw separately, but you'll most likely induce noise into the system from the rat's nest wiring. Run everything to a star ground in the main cavity, then run a single wire to the trem claw. 2. 250k pots sound better with single-coils, and you'll have to either find a diagram for your switch or use a multimeter with a continuity check to figure out the pole pattern. 3. The shield is the ground connection, too. The other pickups don't have a shield, but chances are the black wires are the ground connection on those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidalwavetiburon Posted March 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 1. You won't get "shocked" by running all the grounds to the trem claw separately, but you'll most likely induce noise into the system from the rat's nest wiring. Run everything to a star ground in the main cavity, then run a single wire to the trem claw. 2. 250k pots sound better with single-coils, and you'll have to either find a diagram for your switch or use a multimeter with a continuity check to figure out the pole pattern. 3. The shield is the ground connection, too. The other pickups don't have a shield, but chances are the black wires are the ground connection on those. Now the wire with shielding im assuming goes to the output jack, correct? I would like to put 250K pots on there, but there is no places around me that sell them and honestly I really dont want to wait for them so I cant order them. The highest output Pot I can get locally is 100K. I wonder if there is a way I can put a resistor on them and get 250k out? HMMM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psiico Posted March 1, 2006 Report Share Posted March 1, 2006 I'm a total newb at this but I thought I read somewhere the other day that you can put a resistor across the outer lugs of a 500k pot and make it like a 250k. I forget which value though, someone who knows more can chime in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted March 3, 2006 Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 If you can find a 400k Ohm resistor, you could put that across the terminals of the pot and get 250k, but most likely you find a 470k at your local RadioShack, so that'll wind up being 285k. I'd wait for a good CTS 250k pot all week...do it right the first time and you'll never have a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidalwavetiburon Posted March 3, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 If you can find a 400k Ohm resistor, you could put that across the terminals of the pot and get 250k, but most likely you find a 470k at your local RadioShack, so that'll wind up being 285k. I'd wait for a good CTS 250k pot all week...do it right the first time and you'll never have a problem. Ha ha Radioshack, sell parts HA HA HA HA. No go there, they are getting rid of all their parts in the next 1-2 years. They are going the BIG BOX route. I started working there 6 years ago and I cant wait to get a new job When you say a good CTS pot, what do you mean by good? What is the differecnce from one pot to the next? Sorry if its a stupid question Im just not sure? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovekraft Posted March 3, 2006 Report Share Posted March 3, 2006 CTS is a manufacturer, most well known from their long association with Fender, the assumption being that Fender uses the best quality parts - you may or may not share that view. Pretty much any pot sold for use in guitars will suit your purposes admirably, so use whatever you can access easily and afford. If you can't find something locally, Brian carries a wide variety of affordable stuff (including some CTS, IINM) over at the Universal Jems site, and there's also StewMac, WD, Guitar Electronics and a few other online vendors, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding something - my local Radio shack actually still has a few 250K audio pots on hand, so you might just want to check the parts bins. I recently found a couple of transformers in there that Da Shak discontinued back in 2003 - nobody knew what they were, much less that they had 'em! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted March 4, 2006 Report Share Posted March 4, 2006 If you can find a 400k Ohm resistor, you could put that across the terminals of the pot and get 250k, but most likely you find a 470k at your local RadioShack, so that'll wind up being 285k. I'd wait for a good CTS 250k pot all week...do it right the first time and you'll never have a problem. Ha ha Radioshack, sell parts HA HA HA HA. No go there, they are getting rid of all their parts in the next 1-2 years. They are going the BIG BOX route. I started working there 6 years ago and I cant wait to get a new job When you say a good CTS pot, what do you mean by good? What is the differecnce from one pot to the next? Sorry if its a stupid question Im just not sure? Hmmm...I worked for Radio Shack about 9 years ago for a couple of months. First and only job I ever got fired from, too. I told my manager to stuff it because I'd been working for 15 hours straight on the monthly "inventory" and I was going home. Didn't care much because I was moving 500 miles away to college a couple weeks later. Anyway, I noticed that the Shack has installed new parts drawers, ala Lowes, for holding what parts they have left. I can't really imagine them going totally BigBox considering all I ever sold there was phones. I think the last real part I bought from them was a green LED about three years ago. But I like buying phones there. I won't ever buy another Sprint phone from a Sprint Store, but I'll buy one from RadioShack any day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidalwavetiburon Posted March 6, 2006 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 CTS is a manufacturer, most well known from their long association with Fender, the assumption being that Fender uses the best quality parts - you may or may not share that view. Pretty much any pot sold for use in guitars will suit your purposes admirably, so use whatever you can access easily and afford. If you can't find something locally, Brian carries a wide variety of affordable stuff (including some CTS, IINM) over at the Universal Jems site, and there's also StewMac, WD, Guitar Electronics and a few other online vendors, so you shouldn't have any trouble finding something - my local Radio shack actually still has a few 250K audio pots on hand, so you might just want to check the parts bins. I recently found a couple of transformers in there that Da Shak discontinued back in 2003 - nobody knew what they were, much less that they had 'em! Hey you don't by chance know the sku number for the 250k pot do you? It would be 271-xxxx If you can find a 400k Ohm resistor, you could put that across the terminals of the pot and get 250k, but most likely you find a 470k at your local RadioShack, so that'll wind up being 285k. I'd wait for a good CTS 250k pot all week...do it right the first time and you'll never have a problem. Ha ha Radioshack, sell parts HA HA HA HA. No go there, they are getting rid of all their parts in the next 1-2 years. They are going the BIG BOX route. I started working there 6 years ago and I cant wait to get a new job When you say a good CTS pot, what do you mean by good? What is the differecnce from one pot to the next? Sorry if its a stupid question Im just not sure? Hmmm...I worked for Radio Shack about 9 years ago for a couple of months. First and only job I ever got fired from, too. I told my manager to stuff it because I'd been working for 15 hours straight on the monthly "inventory" and I was going home. Didn't care much because I was moving 500 miles away to college a couple weeks later. Anyway, I noticed that the Shack has installed new parts drawers, ala Lowes, for holding what parts they have left. I can't really imagine them going totally BigBox considering all I ever sold there was phones. I think the last real part I bought from them was a green LED about three years ago. But I like buying phones there. I won't ever buy another Sprint phone from a Sprint Store, but I'll buy one from RadioShack any day. AH gotta love the unorginized inventories that NEVER come out right Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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