Wiring Library

[Twofox]

Well it's done! Took a bit to cram everything in there but the new Calig PU's sound great. Used a super pot from rsguitarworks, along with a cts 500k taper tone pot and a .022 rs guitarcap. Included a tusq nut. Nice project (my first). Used the 50's mod for the tone cap.

One thing is strange though, and that is when on the treble side of the switch, the tone turns the volume down. The switch is still original, has some static, and did that before the upgrades.... bad switch?

Before:


And after:


New strings: (Epiphone SG Special)


I picked this up off of craigslist for $45 with a non-working PU. The tech at the guitarshop ungrounded that for free, but I wanted to upgrade it anyway. Now it sounds great!

 

[Twofox]

Well it's done! Took a bit to cram everything in there but the new Calig PU's sound great. Used a super pot from rsguitarworks, along with a cts 500k taper tone pot and a .022 rs guitarcap. Included a tusq nut. Nice project (my first). Used the 50's mod for the tone cap.

One thing is strange though, and that is when on the treble side of the switch, the tone turns the volume down. The switch is still original, has some static, and did that before the upgrades.... bad switch?

Before:
View attachment 138004

And after:
View attachment 138005

New strings: (Epiphone SG Special)
View attachment 138006

I picked this up off of craigslist for $45 with a non-working PU. The tech at the guitarshop ungrounded that for free, but I wanted to upgrade it anyway. Now it sounds great!

The more I look at it, I suspect not grounding the tone pot to anything other than itself may be the issue?

 

[jonesy]

The more I look at it, I suspect not grounding the tone pot to anything other than itself may be the issue?

Yeah the tone pot needs to be grounded to work properly.

 

[Twofox]

Yeah the tone pot needs to be grounded to work properly.

Sweet, thanks. I noticed it wasn't grounded before either.

 

[ry_]

I have some wiring questions about my 3-PU custom. I want to upgrade my caps and pots from stock as well as switch to 50's wiring. I should mention I have been mostly happy with the wiring configuration of the guitar and have flipped the magnet in my bridge PU in order for it to be out of phase when selected with the middle PU. My only real complaint (besides the unavoidable out of phase volume loss) is that I notice some muddiness when rolling back the volume. I think this could be cured by the pot/cap upgrades and 50's wiring, and I want to try and maintain my current configuration and avoid and push/pull pots and 3PU specific harnesses.

Currently the controls are as follows:

rhythm toggle= neck PU with neck volume and neck tone.
middle toggle= middle PU and bridge PU (together magnetically out of phase) with bridge volume and bridge tone controlling both.
treble toggle= bridge PU with bridge volume and bridge tone.

Looking in the control cavity it seems to me the pots are wired in the modern style similar to the way a 2PU guitar would be, with the exception that the middle PU lead is connected to the same pot and lug as the bridge PU.

Would installing in a normal 2-vol, 2-tone harness allow me to leave my toggle switch and jack untouched, connect my PU's in the same configuration they are now to the new pots (with the neck PU to neck vol and the mid and bridge PU's to bridge vol) and the only difference being switching the lugs from modern to 50's style? If it is possible to do this, I am leaning towards some .022 NOS sprague vitamin-q's in a harness from one of the mlp vendors.

The pic at the bottom is upside down. Keep in mind this is for a left handed guitar. the bridge volume is at the top and it is a hard to see due to my bad picture but the two PU leads connect to the outside lug. the neck volume is at the bottom. I assume the yellow insulated wires are the grounds, with the neck tone grounding the tailpiece post. Thanks for the help!

 

[jonesy]

Would installing in a normal 2-vol, 2-tone harness allow me to leave my toggle switch and jack untouched, connect my PU's in the same configuration they are now to the new pots (with the neck PU to neck vol and the mid and bridge PU's to bridge vol) and the only difference being switching the lugs from modern to 50's style? If it is possible to do this, I am leaning towards some .022 NOS sprague vitamin-q's in a harness from one of the mlp vendors.

No. The 3 pickup LPs have a specially designed switch that is not the same as a regular stock 3 way LP switch.

 

[ry_]

No. The 3 pickup LPs have a specially designed switch that is not the same as a regular stock 3 way LP switch.

Thanks jonesy. So I would still need to buy a 3PU harness even if I left I my stock 3PU toggle switch in the guitar? What I am having trouble wrapping my head around is this: Say hypothetically I needed to replace a pot, I could just swap in a new one for the old one. Now say I needed to replace all pots. To me it seems as if I could just straight up switch the pots one by one and wire everything back in the same way. So far so good, right? What is the difference between doing this and just buying a complete 50s harness? The only changes I can see to the wiring would be swapping the lugs to 50s style. Is that alone going to cause wiring issues? Sorry for my ignorance if I am missing something obvious but I am having a hard time understanding why I cannot install a 50s style harness instead of 4 separate pots and 2 caps. I was under the impression that the harness didn't come with a new 2PU specific toggle switch and I could reuse my 3PU switch with the new 50s harness. Your thoughts?

 

[ry_]

Also, since I currently have my bridge magnet flipped, if I got a 3PU harness I would need to flip this magnet back to normal to avoid neck+bridge being out of phase when used together. I could then flip my middle PU magnet to get out of phase tone when neck or bridge are used with it.

A 3PU harness and switch would be wired something like this...
(With bridge tone push/pull NOT active)
Rhythm= neck
Mid= neck + bridge
Treble= bridge
Will my vol and tone controls still work as normal?

Bridge tone control would be a push/pull turning on middle pickup, so when active I would have
Rhythm= neck + mid (out of phase)
Mid =neck + bridge + mid (out of phase)
Treble= Bridge + mid (outof phase)

If I do this would I still have use of my volume and tone controls when the mid PU is selected?

For reference, if I choose a 3PU harness, this is the one I am considering: Prewired Les Paul® Custom 3 Pickup Wiring Harness – Martin Six String Customs

(My Apologies jonesy, I realize mssc is a competing vendor. Hope you are not offended. You both offer stellar products and have great reputations. I am only leaning towards his harness because I want some other parts as well that so far I have only found on his site)

 

[mux164]

hi there, i rarely frequent here but i have a question, i have a 96 ibanez rg270 with the usual deal, its a hsh guitar, i had it all wired up using a diagram from Ibanez.com | Wiring Diagrams
anywho i wired it up following this diagram, tested it out and then when i was locking the pots into place volume pot spun around and took off the ground wires off the back of the pot,

long story short i found 2 stray wires that i think came off the switch, i dont know what to do with them, does/would anyone be able to do up a full schematic including all the wires that come off the switch?

thanks in advance, if not i will get it done but a pro

 

[mux164]

okay this is what i am working with, i ended up cutting the wires off, i will clean up the solder and hopefully start again if someone could show me where the wires go on the switch before the pickups are connected

URL=http://s1328.photobucket.com/user/mux164/media/ibanez/IMAG1302_zpsncjtrhwc.jpg.html]

[/URL]

 

[Big John]

Don't know if this layout has been posted here or not, so here you go. It'll work for any 3-pickup electric instrument. This is what I did on my Warmoth JPJ bass, but you can use it for anything with 3 pups...

 

[skrumian]

I have 2013 Traditional Pro II which has 3 push-push pots (that is, 2 volume with push/push each for coil-splitting; 1 tone with push/push connected to 9v battery to activate 10db boost) Can you make it into 50s wiring but still retaining boost and coil splitting functions? I always wanted how 50s wiring cleans up using volume.

This is the gut shot of my Trad Pro II:

 

[ScottMarlowe]

I have 2013 Traditional Pro II which has 3 push-push pots (that is, 2 volume with push/push each for coil-splitting; 1 tone with push/push connected to 9v battery to activate 10db boost) Can you make it into 50s wiring but still retaining boost and coil splitting functions? I always wanted how 50s wiring cleans up using volume.

This is the gut shot of my Trad Pro II:

Yes, in this case you want to move the wire that goes from the tone to the volume pots from the outside lug on the volume pot where the pickup connects, to the inside lug of the volume pot where the wire goes out to the switch. This moves the capacitor to be further away from the pickup, electronically, as the volume is turned down. In this picture that is, I believe, the brown wires.

 

[skrumian]

Yes, in this case you want to move the wire that goes from the tone to the volume pots from the outside lug where the pickup connects, to the inside lug where the wire goes out to the switch. This moves the capacitor to be further away from the pickup, electronically, as the volume is turned down. In this picture that is, I believe, the brown wires.

Hey man, thanks. How about if I totally remove that blue capacitor, then remove brown wire in Vol and put it on ground. then solder 0.022 capacitor in Vol middle lug and Tone outer lug? (Just like the 50s wiring.) But not sure if coil splitting and boost will still work?

 

[ScottMarlowe]

Hey man, thanks. How about if I totally remove that blue capacitor, then remove brown wire in Vol and put it on ground. then solder 0.022 capacitor in Vol middle lug and Tone outer lug? (Just like the 50s wiring.) But not sure if coil splitting and boost will still work?

Electronically they're the same thing. Some folks like the cap going from the tone pot to the vol pot, some folks like a wire. The electrons won't know the difference. OTOH, changing cap values definitely will.

 

[notjoeaverage]

I checked all 42 pages nobody had what I was looking for naturally.

Anybody have a wiring diagram for a Master volume NV BV and Master tone 2 pup configuration with an inline switch not a toggle and 50's setup.

Epi Kats or some Gretsch

 

[drew365]

I've been searching for a diagram, but can't seem to find exactly what I had in mind for my Strat.
Neck: Fat 50 Single, Mid: Fat 50 Single, Bridge: SD Pearly Gates HB
One Volume, two tone, 5 way switch
Tone one controls neck and mid
Tone two controls bridge
Bridge coil split with a push / pull pot on tone two, or coil split on position 2 of the 5 way.
Also, should I use a 500k pot for tone 2, and should I have a cap on both tone pots? If so, should I use .047 for tone 1 and .022 for tone 2?
Thanks for any help. I've been trying to do all my mods myself, but I like to have an accurate diagram whenever possible so I'm not guessing too much.

 

[Cantaffor59Lespaul]

Here are some images I fixed up to show the various wirings that I've noodled around with. Thanks to the various Les Paul forums for all the info I've pulled from the past posts and to Black Rose Customs for including a diagram of their kit wiring on their website.

Here is a way to get a master volume control without having to mess around with removing or running any wires in your guitar. It's pretty simple and can be reversed easily. With the master tone option, you can use the 50s wiring if you want. With two tone controls though, 50s wiring isn't an option because the tone controls have to come before the switch and volume control. Your pots will need to be grounded, of course.

​

Here is a wiring that gives you Master Volume and Master Tone after your regular individual pickup volume controls. You can modify this to include 50s style wiring on the master volume and tone controls. You can also modify it for independent separate volume controls ala the diagrams above in this thread. NOTE that users have reported that best results are attained by ungrounding the main volume pots. This idea is not detailed in the images below.

​

Here is stock wiring with only one Tone control. This is essentially 50s style wiring because the cap is connected to the switch instead of the pickups. To complete the 50s style you would switch the Tone control's ground and cap wires.

The capacitor can be attached to the jack along with the switch wire for easy setup.

​

​

Here are some small MP3s that demonstrate the difference between Parallel and Series wiring. You will first hear the neck and bridge pickups in parallel, then the neck and bridge pickups in series. No settings were changed for each part of the recordings except to switch from parallel to series coupling of the pickups. More info here...

Les Paul middle positoin
Strat neck and middle position


Les Paul (2-pickup) Style Guitar
Series/Parallel Wiring


Strat (3-pickup) Style Guitar
Series/Parallel Wiring

Ultimate Strat (3-pickup) Style Guitar
Series/Parallel Wiring


​

50s style wiring diagram
Modern style wiring diagram
Standard style wiring diagram
50s wiring diagram
Modern wiring diagram
Standard wiring diagram
Les Paul wiring diagram
Stock wiring diagram
Series Parallel dual pickup
Armstrong super strat

Thanks a million for listing these diagrams. I had them but lost them so Thanks Manny

 

[the drew]

awesome cool

 

[skrumian]

50s wiring of my 2013 Gibson LP Traditional Pro 2 using 0.015uf & 0.22uf K40Y-9 caps.

Question: Does the direction of the caps matter in the wiring? I had "reversed" the neck cap.