johnchrise Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Hey. It's new guy again. Been awhile. Anyway, I have a first project here. Solid body alder, no binding or top layers, etc. I have routed the neck pocket to fit a fender type neck. Looks good. I'm stuck now. I have the template marked out for pickup pockets now, using measurements from my Tele on the wall just for reference. My question is this: I'm ready to route the pickup cavaties. When finished, do I secure the pickups to the wood at the bottom of my cavaties? I have 2 single coils, a three way blade selector switch and the bridge is fixed to the top of body (top load, not back load). Question 2: I have two pots, both 250k, is this kosher? Does one HAVE to go to the tone and one to the volume? Are they both the same? That is, if I accidentally put one for the volume would it hurt anything? should the volume pot be 500k? I have a wiring schematic I got online, little confused. Some call for a capacitor (spelling?) to take the muddiness off the sound when your volume is low. Is this a must? Also a blending valve or something like that. Otherwise, I have no experience reading a wiring schematic, but from what I can tell I need to ground my connections. One referenced gounding everything to the bridge?! Am I grounding to the pots? Do the pickups get soldered to each other and then wired to blade switch then pots? The jack input is another area of confusion. I'm afraid I won't line it up right and won't be able to access it thru the control cavity. Yikes, feel like I'm building a 747 here... Sorry for the heavy questions, but I have been enjoying this site and looking at the projects and LOVE guitar! This is my first and I don't want to shank it, but I do expect to have trouble at first. Thanks for any help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalhead28 Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 If you're not using a pickguard, you'd generally use mounting rings to hold your pickups, but you can mount them directly if you want to. 250k pots are generally used for single coils, 500k for humbuckers. There is no difference between a volume and a tone pot. A cap for treble bleed is not a must. I don't use em. You want your bridge connected to ground, which would generally be on the back of the volume pot. Some people do that differently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalhead28 Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 As for the output jack, you probably want to solder the connections before you install it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnchrise Posted March 24, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Ok, thanks. How would I ground the bridge? as I said, it's a fixed bridge, top feed. Should I drill a small hole horizontally leading to the mounting screws from the Bridge? come to think of it, the bridge has a cutout just like a tele to fit the bridge pickup...could this be my "window" to ground it? I guess a good idea would be to open my tele and see what's what. I don't want to copy too much though..I've seen two parts for output jacks. One is like a deep well, and the other has threads. I'm pretty sure that I want to use the deep type since it will be installed like a tele, is it one piece or is there another piece to thread on and make the connections? Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC Ross Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 ...There is no difference between a volume and a tone pot. That's not necessarily true. While they can be interchanged, there are two different tapers: audio and linear. Grizzly does a good job of describing the difference: "The audio type pot reaches almost 75% capacity with half a turn while the linear type is strictly incremental. Due to the way the curves work, the linear type is normally used for Volume and the audio type for the Tone, although some prefer audio type for both Tone and Volume." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalhead28 Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 I use an audio taper for both. I have heard that some people use a linear taper for tone, but I've never heard it the other way around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalhead28 Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Ok, thanks. How would I ground the bridge? as I said, it's a fixed bridge, top feed. Should I drill a small hole horizontally leading to the mounting screws from the Bridge? come to think of it, the bridge has a cutout just like a tele to fit the bridge pickup...could this be my "window" to ground it? I guess a good idea would be to open my tele and see what's what. I don't want to copy too much though..I've seen two parts for output jacks. One is like a deep well, and the other has threads. I'm pretty sure that I want to use the deep type since it will be installed like a tele, is it one piece or is there another piece to thread on and make the connections? Thanks again. I usually drill an angled hole under the bridge into the electronics cavity. Feed a wire through and leave an exposed end there so when you screw the bridge down it makes contact. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wood is good Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 If you're not using a pickguard, you'd generally use mounting rings to hold your pickups, but you can mount them directly if you want to. 250k pots are generally used for single coils, 500k for humbuckers. There is no difference between a volume and a tone pot. A cap for treble bleed is not a must. I don't use em. You want your bridge connected to ground, which would generally be on the back of the volume pot. Some people do that differently. This may be a little confusing to him. It sounds like he doesnt know what a capacitor is, and you say you dont need one. But he obviously doesnt know that a cap is what makes a tone pot a tone pot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wood is good Posted March 24, 2009 Report Share Posted March 24, 2009 Am I grounding to the pots? Do the pickups get soldered to each other and then wired to blade switch then pots? The jack input is another area of confusion. I'm afraid I won't line it up right and won't be able to access it thru the control cavity. Yikes, feel like I'm building a 747 here... Everything gets grounded. Im not sure what your speaking of about the jack. There is nothing to line up????? You wire the jack then install the plate and screw it down. Your asking questions about where your wires go, but you also say you have a schematic. This isnt possible to say both. If you have the schematic, then it shows where your wires go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metalhead28 Posted March 25, 2009 Report Share Posted March 25, 2009 This may be a little confusing to him. It sounds like he doesnt know what a capacitor is, and you say you dont need one. But he obviously doesnt know that a cap is what makes a tone pot a tone pot. He asked specifically about using a capacitor to avoid treble loss when the volume was turned down. I assumed he had seen a schematic with a capacitor on the volume pot and I just wanted to tell him that no, it's not a must. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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