Vintage Pup Wiring Question

[B3Guy]

https://flickr.com/photos/68917223@N05/sets/72157670361811383

So, I am at the point in my project where I am working on wiring up the guitar  :blob7:

First logical step seems to be to replace these old, worn out pickup wires, as they're both too short for my purposes and unshielded.

I know basics, but I'm not at all confident wiring these up. There are two wires coming off the bobbin, one to the white wire, one to the black. The black is soldered to the metal pickup housing.

My shielded wire is white/blue, and obviously I just use those two wires, but what about the shielding? Can I also wire that to the housing to ground it? (I am assuming that the shielding gets wires to "ground" much like the copper shielding lining the cavities, and the bridge etc. correct?).

 

[Cagey]

Right. If black is grounded in the pickup, then I'd make blue and the sheild the ground in your new cable. Then, white in the pickup can be white in the new cable, which will be hot.

 

[B3Guy]

Cool. Just needed a second opinion  :headbang:

Ended up doing basically what you suggested. I secured the wire's shielding to the copper foil that lines the cavity. I could go back and solder it to the pickup housing as well, but it all will be ground anyway, and the housing touches the foil all over the place.

Probably overkill, and probably won't make much difference, but I bought a little kit for a few bucks, and it had the sticky back copper foil, the shielded wire, and a few other doo-dads. May as well use it all as best I can.

Looks neat and tidy. Hopefully it sounds that way too!

https://flic.kr/p/LA9Ta3