How to wire a guitar WITHOUT soldering to pots

[stubhead]

I noticed that a lot of people have trouble soldering to pots, and there's really no reason that you have to - ground is just, ground. Here's one way to wire up a jazz bass (lots of pictures):
http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=159191

The 1st and 4th color pictures are the pertinent ones, notice the GROUND LUG idea. Here is another (smaller!) diagram, notice NO pot grounding:
http://guitar-mod.com/wiring/5way_tele.gif

I used this diagram and a Superswitch to wire up a Lawrence L500XL for ALL possible coil combinations on my Warmoth Tele, and I used the ground lug idea - I had like, 13 ground wires so I sunk a little eyebolt in the side of the cavity and ran them all to it, then zapped the puppy with a 100-watt gun.  :headbang1:
It makes re-wire jobs a lot easier too, because you haven't been heating and reheating pots so you don't have to replace them. :hello2:

 

[nathan a]

I am totally doing this when I wire up my dad's LP. (For those of you who remember, yup, it's here and it's awesome)

 

[-CB-]

A fix for a problem that does not exist.  BTW, its far easier to toast a lug on the pot than to toast the pot by soldering to the case.

 

[dbw]

I used a lug on my Warmoth... it just made sense to do it that way.  Why mess around with soldering random spots on a metal surface?  The lug cost me like $.03 at DigiKey.  Of course I was a bit smashed when I was soldering it up (don't try that at home), so it looks like a mess.  But it's quiet and I didn't have to put solder on the pots

Oh, and don't be such a grouch, -CB-  :laughing7: :icon_jokercolor: :laughing7: :icon_jokercolor: :laughing7:

 

[ognolman]

A fix for a problem that does not exist.  BTW, its far easier to toast a lug on the pot than to toast the pot by soldering to the case.

I totally appreciate that link, stubhead, but I'll have to agree with -CB- on this.  The guy did an amazing job of wiring up that Jazz, and I will probably give it a try sometime, just for the heck of it.  If I can ever get away from using active preamps, anyway.

Which reminds me, I had a Bartolini preamp with all the pots already soldered up.  They got around the problem by using a star washer for each pot.  Each washer was soldered to a loop of wire and then dropped down over the pot's post just prior to installing the pot.  The loop was then connected to the ground.  So the star washer was pinned between the copper tape shielding and the pot and the wire loop connected it all together.  The drawback was that it was a bit clunky to deal with during installation.

JBD

 

[stubhead]

I solder to pots sometimes, depending - it doesn't seem hard to me. All-metal pots are grounded through the shielding tape themselves, IF YOU GROUND THE TAPE. An awful lot of the home wiring I've seen has redundant grounding, like people have combined every single ground off of every single diagram. :laughing3: However, some people seem to have a problem with pots, and I do find that an independent ground lug makes for easier resoldering, if you're trying out different pickups, caps, and pot values on a mad-scientist basis. Heck, I wired up my Tele straight through with a 100 watt gun once I had the caps on and the Superswitch all fiddled-together, but I don't recommend it for the shy....  I prefer a 40 watt chisel-tip for most things, fast on and fast off has less danger of frying stuff IMO. Trying to solder to a pot with a 25-watt pencil just pisses me off, though they're handy for the dreaded miniswitch.

 

[ognolman]

An awful lot of the home wiring I've seen has redundant grounding, like people have combined every single ground off of every single diagram. :laughing3:

But by golly, it is GROUNDED!!  :laughing7:

I prefer a 40 watt chisel-tip for most things, fast on and fast off has less danger of frying stuff IMO. Trying to solder to a pot with a 25-watt pencil just pisses me off, though they're handy for the dreaded miniswitch.

I don't know that I've ever fried anything, but I'm probably bound to eventually.  I use the 25-watt pencil for everything, these days.  But it is a hassle waiting for things to heat-up.  I guess that's why I've not fried anything, though...

JBD

 

[line6man]

Very nice work!

but why is it such a big deal to solder pots???
all i had to do to get the solder to stick was scratch the pot with my dremel drill sander bit...
worked just fine.

 

[DiMitriR33]

i never felt soldering to the pot was a problem but i have to admit that job looked clean and professional.

 

[SrDeMaFp]

i never felt soldering to the pot was a problem but i have to admit that job looked clean and professional.

+1.