Please check my wiring diagram

[Mnemoflame]

Will I run into any issues if I twist the bare wires from the pickups together before soldering them to the pot?  I was thinking of doing that and looping them through the third lug on the volume pot for a solid connection.

 

[line6man]

Will I run into any issues if I twist the bare wires from the pickups together before soldering them to the pot?  I was thinking of doing that and looping them through the third lug on the volume pot for a solid connection.

DON'T loop them around the lug, you will never be able to desolder them.

 

[Mnemoflame]

Will I run into any issues if I twist the bare wires from the pickups together before soldering them to the pot?  I was thinking of doing that and looping them through the third lug on the volume pot for a solid connection.

DON'T loop them around the lug, you will never be able to desolder them.

Right.  Thanks much.  I should be able to handle the Tele rewire now; wish me luck, this is my practice run before the Strat.

 

[Cagey]

Will I run into any issues if I twist the bare wires from the pickups together before soldering them to the pot?  

No. It's a good idea, except for the "soldering them to the pot" part. You should use tie-point lugs, lest you wreck your pots by overheating them. And the secret to a good solder joint is a good mechanical joint. The solder is just there to improve the connection, not for structural reasons. So, any time you can loop wires around lugs (or whatever), you should. Otherwise, you're liable to end up with a "cold" solder joint, or one that eventually cracks and lets go due to the poor mechanical qualities of a lead/tin alloy. Don't worry about taking it apart later, make sure it's going to stay together now and well into the future.

 

[Mnemoflame]

Will I run into any issues if I twist the bare wires from the pickups together before soldering them to the pot?  

No. It's a good idea, except for the "soldering them to the pot" part. You should use tie-point lugs, lest you wreck your pots by overheating them. And the secret to a good solder joint is a good mechanical joint. The solder is just there to improve the connection, not for structural reasons. So, any time you can loop wires around lugs (or whatever), you should. Otherwise, you're liable to end up with a "cold" solder joint, or one that eventually cracks and lets go due to the poor mechanical qualities of a lead/tin alloy. Don't worry about taking it apart later, make sure it's going to stay together now and well into the future.

My thanks for the support of this decision; I had decided to go this route anyway because it's easier to solder that way.

Cagey, I need your expertise:  in the above diagram, there is a bare wire from each pickup running to the volume pot and a ground running from each switch; why does this not produce a ground loop?

 

[line6man]

Cagey, I need your expertise:  in the above diagram, there is a bare wire from each pickup running to the volume pot and a ground running from each switch; why does this not produce a ground loop?

I'm not Cagey, but I can answer the question. You have only one ground on a guitar, and everything that connects to it is like inches apart. The ground loops that form in a guitar are so ridiculously insignificant that it's safe to say there is no ground loop at all.

 

[Cagey]

I've always wondered where anyone got the idea that there could be a "ground loop" in a guitar. Must've been somebody heard the term from their self-appointed "genius" brother-in-law and started repeating it all over the place until it became part of guitar lore.

I say we start blaming spurious noise problems on Illudium-235 Transient Interspace Modulators, which wouldn't exist if it weren't for Rockwell's Retro-Encabulators

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXJKdh1KZ0w[/youtube]

 

[Mnemoflame]

So, now that I've done my first experiments with solder, failed, and ruined a set of pots and switches, I'm wondering about the use of soldering lugs.  They're grounding to the pot bushing, no?  Is that safe?  Do I solder the third volume lug and the tone cap to those or to the pot body per usual?

 

[Cagey]

...I'm wondering about the use of soldering lugs.  They're grounding to the pot bushing, no?  Is that safe?  Do I solder the third volume lug and the tone cap to those or to the pot body per usual?

Technically, you're not grounding TO the pot bushing, you're grounding the pot bushing. This has the effect of grounding the whole pot body, so it shields the resistor strip inside from external signals. The ground originates at the sleeve connection of the 1/4" output jack. And yes, you use those as tie points for the volume and tone controls. I don't have as many pictures of that whole scheme as I'd like, but here are some examples...

Volume pot ground side connection​

Note that it's not grounded yet; that bus wire is going to end up going to ground.

Tone pot cap to ground connection tab​

Again, not grounded yet, just ready for it.

Completed circuit​

It's difficult to see what's going on in that picture. You can barely make out the bus running down the far side (nearest the pickups) of the switches, but that's what that is. It's tied to the ground lugs on the pots, and then to the actual ground line from the output jack.

The common along the near side is the "hot" lead from each pickup coming through the switch. Incidentally, that bus wire is just 24ga. solid-core bell wire that's had the insulation pulled off.

 

[Mnemoflame]

Thank you so much for that!  The pictures really help to put in perspective actual sizes of things.

Now, this question is apt to make you crazy but I want to ask just to satisfy my own meticulous tendencies.  Ignoring whether ground loops in a guitar are a real problem or not, I'd like to eliminate their existence in my wiring; is the apparent ground loop in the diagram DiMarzio gave me (the bare wire ground from pickups and the grounds from the three-way switches) really a loop or is it a technically sound circuit to ground the switches?  If it's the latter, would it be reasonable to put a soldering lug on their bushings or better to just send all grounds to the volume pot's terminal, through the tone pot terminal, and to the jack?

 

[Cagey]

To make a long story short, you're free to pick targets of opportunity.

As long as everything that should be grounded gets grounded, you're golden. There are no monsters, dragons, evil monkeys or ground loops under your bed or in your closet, or more importantly, in your guitar <grin>