Vintage Noiseless and the Jerry Donahue Wiring

[Butch Snyder]

I have a Jerry Donahue wiring assembly (switch, pots, and all wiring) from 920D Custom Shop. Their drawing show to ground the neck pickup cover. Makes sense, but what about with the Vintage Noiseless pickups? Still ground the cover, or is it not necessary?

 

[PFDarkside]

Re: Vintage Noiseless and the Jerry Donahue Wiring

How many wires does the vintage noiseless have and is the ground soldered to the neck cover as well? If it’s 2 and it is soldered, you’ll have to add a third wire per the schematic. I’m assuming this wiring puts the neck and bridge in series? That would make the cover hot if you don’t separately ground it and cause noise.

 

[NegativeEase]

Re: Vintage Noiseless and the Jerry Donahue Wiring

I would make one modification to the Jerry D diagram.

Homerun both pickups shield to the 1/4" jack lug -don't use the casing of the 250k pot as a ground junction point for the pickups.

It's reducing potential for noise in the system even further.

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Vintage Noiseless and the Jerry Donahue Wiring

Went ahead and used the Vintage Noiseless Strat pickup instead of the Tele neck pickup. Also, had to remember that I have to exchange the 250k pots for 1M. That's what the Vintage Noiseless pickups use. Also had to wrap the switch in electrical tape due to the nonconductive paint in the control cavity.

 

[Chistopher]

Re: Vintage Noiseless and the Jerry Donahue Wiring

So how is it? I assume by JD wiring you are referring to the same one used on the Peavey Omniac?

 

[Butch Snyder]

Re: Vintage Noiseless and the Jerry Donahue Wiring

So how is it? I assume by JD wiring you are referring to the same one used on the Peavey Omniac?

It's good, but not astounding. It's the wiring that's used on the Fender CS Jerry Donahue Telecaster. That wiring is different than the Peavey Omniac. The main difference is in the #4 and #5 positions. In #4 on the Fender, it's the neck pickup wired to the tone pot. In the Omniac, Fret King, and Vintage models, there is a capacitor that actually thickens up to tone and makes the neck pickup sound like a PAF. In pos 5, in the Fender, the neck pickup bypasses the tone pot, giving a really bright, clear tone. In the Omniac, Fret King, and Vintage models, the neck pickup is wired normally.

It's a cool, but complicated system. It's unique and I like that. I have owned two of the Vintage V58-JD models and they are very nice.