Stefan Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 Beeing new to wiring guitar pickups I just bought a Gibson ´57 classic pickup. The pickup doesnt have the four wires (you know, red,green, white and so on). The instruction says to solder the one wire to volume pot och selector switch and the metal binding to ground. Q: What is "ground" and where do I solder the wire? The guitar is a Jackson SLSMG Love to hear from you Stefan Sweden Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southpa Posted September 17, 2006 Report Share Posted September 17, 2006 (edited) The wire has a braided metal shield wrapped around it, thats the ground wire. Peel back the braided wire and give it a twist and solder it to the volume pot casing. The inside "hot' wire is then soldered to the volume pot lug. "Grounding" also called "earthing" by Europeans is hard to describe. In your guitar its used to stabilize voltage potentials between the metal components (bridge, switches, pots etc). When you have such potentials you will get hum and excess noise coming from the guitar. Grounding is essential in any electrical circuit, not only for stabilizing voltage potentials but also for safely providing a path away from the circuit in the event of a surge in voltage from a source outside of the electrical circuit, eg. lightning. In your home not only electrical circuits are grounded but also metal components such as your plumbing to prevent electrical shock. Steel water pipes have a heavy copper wire attached to them which , in turn, leads to a heavy steel rod that is sunk deep into the ground. In the event of a lightning strike on your house the excess electricity will follow the path of least resistance and will be attracted to your grounding system. If you did NOT have this safety feature, and happened to be touching your kitchen faucet at the same time a bolt of lightning hits your house YOU would be the path of least resistance to ground. You can read more here : http://catalinaguitars.com/electrical_hum.htm Edited September 17, 2006 by Southpa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Posted September 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2006 Great answer! Just what I needed. Warming up my soldering iron and getting ready to go! Thanks for all the help! Stefan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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