Newbie wiring help

[Reisgar42]

I'm in the midst of building my first build, but I've hit a wall on my wiring, for a couple reasons:

Firstly, my pickups are HSH, but it just occurred to me that my middle pickup is actually a single-coil sized humbucker and I want to do it with one volume, one tone, and a 5-way switch.  I believe this wiring diagram would work, even though the two on the ends are full-sized humbuckers.

http://www.seymourduncan.com/pdfs/support/schematics/3lh_1v_1t_5w.pdf

The pickups are, in order:

Seymour Duncan SH-2N Jazz model - Neck
DiMarzio Chopper - Middle
Seymour Duncan JB model - Bridge

Secondly (and this may be better suited to the building tips section, but it's about pots), when I mount my pots to my pick guard and put my knobs on, there's about a 5mm gap between the pick guard and the bottom of the knob.  I've looked at my other guitars though, and they all seem to be at about the same height when the knobs are off.  Should I try another style of knob to see if the hole for the shaft is too shallow, or should I get a shorter shafted pot?  I've been looking around, and short-shaft pots seem too uncommon for this to be the case, but it would probably solve my problem.

Thank you very much for helping.

 

[tfarny]

That diagram will work just fine. SC-sized humbuckers are just humbuckers, nothing special about wiring them up.

If the pots stick out too far, screw an additional washer (or two) on the backside of the pot, so it can't stick up as far, till you're happy. Just personal preference really.

 

[drewfx]

Note that SD and DiMarzio wire color schemes are different, so make sure you account for that.

drewfx

 

[Reisgar42]

That diagram will work just fine. SC-sized humbuckers are just humbuckers, nothing special about wiring them up.

If the pots stick out too far, screw an additional washer (or two) on the backside of the pot, so it can't stick up as far, till you're happy. Just personal preference really.

That's what I thought, I just wanted to make sure I had the right idea since I'm new to wiring.

That sounds like a good idea. I'll take one of the nuts into a hardware store and have someone match me up.  Thanks a lot, you've saved me countless hours!

 

[Superbeast520]

Heres your color codes.....

http://www.guitarelectronics.com/category/wiringresources.wiring_faqs.pickup_color_codes/

 

[Reisgar42]

Thanks to all of you, this project went off without a hitch.

Well, almost.

I followed the wiring diagram linked in the first post, but I'm having a bit of a grounding issue.  It said to ground to the jack, but I thought it was a bit suspicious because everywhere else said to ground to the bridge.  I just thought there was some exception to the rule, but I'm not too sure anymore.  Sadly, I already strung it up and did everything, and I don't have another set of strings lying around.  Is there any way to ground somewhere else that I can get to or do I have to completely disassemble the bridge?

If it matters at all, the bridge is a standard Jazzmaster.

 

[tfarny]

I'll try to make this really clear: . "Ground" means "to the sleeve of the guitar cable". Bridge, pickup -, pots, etc., need to trace a path to the "ground". You "ground the bridge" by making an electrical connection from the bridge to the output jack. You ground a pickup by making an electrical connection from the pickup to the output jack. etc. You don't "ground your jack" - your jack "sleeve" connection is the thing to which everything "ground" eventually connects.

 

[Reisgar42]

I'll try to make this really clear: . "Ground" means "to the sleeve of the guitar cable". Bridge, pickup -, pots, etc., need to trace a path to the "ground". You "ground the bridge" by making an electrical connection from the bridge to the output jack. You ground a pickup by making an electrical connection from the pickup to the output jack. etc. You don't "ground your jack" - your jack "sleeve" connection is the thing to which everything "ground" eventually connects.

I'll be honest, that didn't really make much clear. Are you saying that I need to run a wire from the ground on the back of my pot with all my green and bare wires to my ground position on the jack sleeve and then to the bridge?  What EXACTLY should I do?

 

[tfarny]

OK. Think of the electricity within your guitar as running in a line, and it needs an "out" on both ends. One end, we call "+" or "hot", the other end we call "-" or "ground". In fact the electricity runs in both directions back and forth, which is why it's called "alternating current". So, the pickup is like in the middle. You need to be able to trace a path, ie follow the wires, from the + output on your jack, through the pots, through the switch, through the pickups, and then back out to the - output on the jack, all in a single line. Sometimes the electrical signal might get split, like running two pickups at once, but at the other side it reconnects. Everything goes in the + and out the -, or vice versa depending on how you like to think about it.  IN ADDITION, the bridge needs a connection to the - end of the output jack. Technically, it doesn't "need" it, but your guitar will be noisier if you don't have it.

Short version: everything that says "ground" needs to go to the ground on your output jack. Otherwise no workie guitar.

 

[tfarny]

Oh, I just re-read the question. The answer to your question is "yes, that's one way to put it" but it's still helpful to understand the very most basics of how the circuit works so that you can troubleshoot or play around with wiring.

 

[Reisgar42]

Alright, thanks.  I'll get right on it.