Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

Damn Deal Done

New member
Hello,

I devised this wiring scheme for my Super-sonic.

The Squier Super-Sonic does not have a tone control so I wanted to upgrade the guitar in a way that would add versatility with the option of going back to stock-ish.

2 x Pearly Gates
3 x 500k Dimarzio/CTS push pull pots
3 x Washer ground lugs
1 x Switchcraft Gibson short 3 way switch
1 x Switchcraft jack

I want to try ground the pots and jack through the metal plate and the switch through the shielding material. I understand that some believe mechanical connections should not be used for grounding as they are unreliable compared to a soldered connection. But I want to try it this way to experiment and learn from experience.

Can someone please take a look at this circuit and tell me if there is anything inherently wrong with it.

Will the tone pot pull to bypass the tone?
Will the vol pots pull to single coil slugs?
Will the switch function correctly selecting 1 Neck, 2 Neck/Bridge, 3 Bridge
If I were to solder in the ground connections, what would be the most efficient place for these?


I am very new to this.
Kind regards

Squier Super-Sonic-Mods.jpg
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

Will the tone pot pull to bypass the tone?

Yes

Will the vol pots pull to single coil slugs?

You are showing yellow+red wires in the drawing, but assuming you intend to wire white+red, yes, it will split to single coil.

Will the switch function correctly selecting 1 Neck, 2 Neck/Bridge, 3 Bridge

Yes.

If I were to solder in the ground connections, what would be the most efficient place for these?

You've got the easiest path in the world across the back of those pots over to the jack. Typically the switch is grounded also - I don't see that connection in the drawing.

The plate isn't grounded (it's a shield, but not a ground), so you can't just tighten everything down and expect you've got a grounded circuit. You've have to physically connect and solder the plate to the jack ground first before you can even think about using it as a ground plane.
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please


Will the tone pot pull to bypass the tone?
Will the vol pots pull to single coil slugs?

If you're following the same orientation on all three pp's, (assuming the right side is the "top), then the tone switch will pull to disengage the tone control, but the splits's will be pushed to make single coil mode. I'd move the ground jumper on those two to the "top" terminal. (Right-hand terminal, in your drawing.)
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

Thanks for the replies.

Ok I do not know what orientation the switch is in. But will find out. I do in fact want the default to be Humbucker and tone control. Pull knobs for tone bypass and coil split. So whatever the orientation I guess the coil split and the tone bypass will be opposite, so my diagram is wrong.

Regarding grounding.

Is grounding the switch necessary? Stratocasters don't have a grounded switch unless you consider the grounding plate in some strats. Would I put one long wire from the 1st volume pot to the switch lug?

I will go do a lot more reading on grounds. But many thanks for the help so far.
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

I Fixed an Extremely famous , dead person's Mustang that was like that ( sounded Wayy better after
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

the 1/4" mono jack is missing the comm./Ground in Diagram

Hello.

Isn't the outer part of the jack connected to ground through the grounding plate? I got this information from a guitar electronics book I bought.

Can someone tell me the score on this? is there really a difference between using the grounding plate and using wires? Won't they just do the same thing?

Many thanks
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

If any of the pots come loose for some reason (this has happened to me), you can lose the ground connection, or go crazy trying to figure out what is wrong. I always use wire, even with a plate there.
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

If any of the pots come loose for some reason (this has happened to me), you can lose the ground connection, or go crazy trying to figure out what is wrong. I always use wire, even with a plate there.


I will do the soldered wire connections, but I'm not crazy thinking it will work like this am I? The outerside of the jack is connected to the ground lug?

Thanks
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

If any of the pots come loose for some reason (this has happened to me), you can lose the ground connection, or go crazy trying to figure out what is wrong. I always use wire, even with a plate there.

It's Exactly what Mincer says right here , D D D <-- for those of us who wire guitar circuits Regularly ~ It's the way we do things
 
Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

3 D's , You're just stating back to us the Obvious (We know these things Prior ) our recommendations are to Avoid Future Trouble or we wouldn't bother mentioning them . We're just telling You how to wire it better than the Hourly production folks , since You have it Apart / Opened-up
 
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Re: Circuit / Pickup Wiring Help Please

3 D's , You're just stating back to us the Obvious (We know these things Prior ) our recommendations are to Avoid Future Trouble or we wouldn't bother mentioning them . We're just telling You how to wire it better than the Hourly production folks , since You have it Apart / Opened-up

As stated in previous post, I will make the ground connections as suggested. But I am just trying to understand without blindly following suggestions. The 'why' is the essence of all knowledge.

Many thanks to Mincer, ArtieToo and beaubrummels for the help.
 
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