I posted this in a separate thread asking for help in fixing a problem with a neck pickup output. However, that discussion has led to me having some basic confusion about my pickup wiring, separate from the issue of whatever's wrong with the neck pup. So I thought I'd raise those issues in a separate thread.
Basically, here's my questions (note, I'm a wiring noob, but have looked at a few diagrams and youtube videos):
First, the guitar is an HSS / fat strat type with 1 vol, 1 tone, 5-way switch, and a coil split push-pull on the tone knob. I think it's wired so the 5 positions are simply 1=neck, 2= neck & middle, 3= middle, 4= middle and bridge, 5= bridge.
Anyway, I've attached a diagram I did of the wiring. A couple issues with the diagram - first I may be showing the 5-way switch upside down (in which case the connections to 1st through 4th prongs would actually be to 5th through 8th prongs), second I show a black wire to ground coming from each of the single coil pickups BUT I have taken out these pups and I see that those two ground wires are coming from screws that are screwed into the back of the middle and neck cavities.
So my questions / confusion:
(1) What's up with a ground wire going from back of the neck & middle pup cavities to ground (back of volume pot)? I've never heard of grounding a pickup cavity.
(2) From the humbucker, I have exactly one bare wire (to ground) and three covered wires, but from the diagrams I'm looking at, I see humbuckers having FOUR sheathed wires in addition to a bare ground. Why is my humbucker missing a wire?
(3) Are there a lot of redundant ground wires here, because I see more than in any of the diagrams I'm looking at. Like there's a wire from the volume pot prong 1 (well, would be prong 3 looking at the pot from top, I diagrammed it from back view) to tone pot prong 2, and that wire splits TWICE to do to ground. So it is a wire from the volume pot that splits into two wires one of which goes to the back of the volume pot (ground) and the other goes over toward the tone pot but before it connects it splits again into two wires, one of which goes to the side of the tone pot (ground) and the other to the middle / 2nd prong. WTF? That's just one example, you can see others on the diagram. So am I missing something, is there a reason for so many ground wires on this set up?
Any other observations on this set up appreciated.
Thanks,
Ken
Basically, here's my questions (note, I'm a wiring noob, but have looked at a few diagrams and youtube videos):
First, the guitar is an HSS / fat strat type with 1 vol, 1 tone, 5-way switch, and a coil split push-pull on the tone knob. I think it's wired so the 5 positions are simply 1=neck, 2= neck & middle, 3= middle, 4= middle and bridge, 5= bridge.
Anyway, I've attached a diagram I did of the wiring. A couple issues with the diagram - first I may be showing the 5-way switch upside down (in which case the connections to 1st through 4th prongs would actually be to 5th through 8th prongs), second I show a black wire to ground coming from each of the single coil pickups BUT I have taken out these pups and I see that those two ground wires are coming from screws that are screwed into the back of the middle and neck cavities.
So my questions / confusion:
(1) What's up with a ground wire going from back of the neck & middle pup cavities to ground (back of volume pot)? I've never heard of grounding a pickup cavity.
(2) From the humbucker, I have exactly one bare wire (to ground) and three covered wires, but from the diagrams I'm looking at, I see humbuckers having FOUR sheathed wires in addition to a bare ground. Why is my humbucker missing a wire?
(3) Are there a lot of redundant ground wires here, because I see more than in any of the diagrams I'm looking at. Like there's a wire from the volume pot prong 1 (well, would be prong 3 looking at the pot from top, I diagrammed it from back view) to tone pot prong 2, and that wire splits TWICE to do to ground. So it is a wire from the volume pot that splits into two wires one of which goes to the back of the volume pot (ground) and the other goes over toward the tone pot but before it connects it splits again into two wires, one of which goes to the side of the tone pot (ground) and the other to the middle / 2nd prong. WTF? That's just one example, you can see others on the diagram. So am I missing something, is there a reason for so many ground wires on this set up?
Any other observations on this set up appreciated.
Thanks,
Ken
