guitar wiring
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Incredulou
First let me preface this by saying that I have been a guitar player for 30 years, and anyone who has ever played a guitar for this long of a time at some point or another begins considering the idea of building his or her own electric guitar. I now have the time to do this, so I am embarking on a new journey for me.
First, I don't have a lot of money, but I want to be exacting when it comes to building the fretboard. Also, the schematics for electric guitar wiring is lost on me because although negative and positive, the schematics use symbols I don't understand. Isn't there an easy way to figure out the wiring? As in, "positive here, negative there". And when I refinish guitars I have to remove the wiring, and since I don't know the wiring, I have to take photos to make sure I match up the original wiring. I don't want to do this; I want to be able to know what wiring is applicable, regardless of the situation or type of guitar.
Any ideas? Thanks.
Answer
Search the web for "guitar" schematics. There are all sorts of the for various models and pickup configurations.
But they are somewhat simple. The pickups for the most part have a shield wire and a + and - wire. or just a + wire. In the case of a two wire pickup, you need to know which is + and - to get the phasing correct.
Pots are simple. The outside terminals are a resistor, the inside terminal is wiper that moves between the two, along the resistor.
The Volume pot sweeps the output signal between signal source (high) and ground (low).
Tone basically adds or decreases resistance in an RC circuit, the more resistance (higher) the less high frequency is absorbed by the RC circuit, the less resistance (low), the more highs are absorbed. Usually one side of the pot resistor is grounded, the wiper goes to the cap, which goes to the volume control signal.
See what guitars use for their values, or even pinch them from junkers. I will say you almost always will use an audio taper type pot.
The Ground symbol should be obvious. It is the upside down triangle with the lines, or a horizontal line with diagonal lines off of it.
Pickup switching can be complicated, or simple if you know how switches and phasing work.
One way to figure it out is experimenting. Build a guitar with an open back you can use as a test bed.
You won't hurt anything with a passive system.
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