Which wire to use

[JimBeed]

Well with my parts i bought a pack of the wires from warmoth http://www.warmoth.com/Wiring-Kit-1-ft-ea-of-Black-Red-White-Wire-3-ft-of-Coaxial-Wire-P136C64.aspx
Now i wanted to ask which wire i should use for the bridge to control cavity ground wire.
and whats the coaxial wire best suited for? im guessing thats ground wire, but wasn't sure

 

[Cagey]

The unshielded wires can be used for grounding your bridge/strings, or making little jumpers where needed. Everything else should be wired with the shielded cable. Doing that precludes the need to "shield" your pickup/control cavities, which is nearly impossible to do effectively and does little good anyway.

 

[BigBeard]

The unshielded wires can be used for grounding your bridge/strings, or making little jumpers where needed. Everything else should be wired with the shielded cable. Doing that precludes the need to "shield" your pickup/control cavities, which is nearly impossible to do effectively and does little good anyway.

+1,000,000,000,000,000,000

Shielded wire is the way to go for all your signal (hot) wires

I honestly think that the whole process of shielding a guitar with foil is a waste of money.  If you ground everything properly and wire everything properly, you should keep the dreaded hum monsters from infecting your guitar.


My WGD is not shielded and it's quiter than most factory built guitars..... even through the in-guitar effects loop that I put into it!

 

[NQbass7]

The unshielded wires can be used for grounding your bridge/strings, or making little jumpers where needed. Everything else should be wired with the shielded cable. Doing that precludes the need to "shield" your pickup/control cavities, which is nearly impossible to do effectively and does little good anyway.

So are most wires coming out of pickups shielded then?  Or should you use shielded cable where you can for the pickups too?

 

[Cagey]

So are most wires coming out of pickups shielded then?  Or should you use shielded cable where you can for the pickups too?

It depends on the manufacturer. Some still use that miserable braided cloth wire because there are still a lot of people who don't know any better that demand it. "It's vintage!" they cry, as if that's a Good Thing. But, if you're really not interested in hearing any 60hz hum, you need to shield the pickup wires as well.

That braided cloth wiring is a hangover from the '50s. Back then, rubber was still in very short supply due to it being rationed during World War II, and plastic wasn't very common. Nylon hadn't even been invented yet. So, most wire had cloth insulation. It was inexpensive, reasonably effective, and best of all, available. But, none of those things are true any more. It's expensive and scarce because nobody uses it since is has few redeeming qualities beyond being better than nothing. Rubber, plastic, and nylon are all better insulators that cost less, are more effective, smaller, easier to work with, have better physical qualities and are as common as dirt.

 

[Alfang]

Unshielded wire in short lengths as in a controll cavity will work just fine,  anybody using shielded cable, great more power to you, It's not helping as much as you think.  But, theres nothing wrong with using it.

When you compare the length of your pickup windings, which is a great antenna, the few jumpers here and there don't even come close to the noise gathering potential of your pups.

I don't use any shielding or special wire, and I have NO noise problems, well except for the noise I impart onto the strings when playing.

I love that clothe covered "Push-Back" wire, stew mac sells it in 50 foot rolls for a fair price

 

[Cagey]

The assembly/test area for guitars here is the woodshop, where there are 12 4' dual-lamp florescent light fixtures (yes, it's like daylight in there <grin>). On the opposite side of the wall are the 2 house servers and a workstation, and just above the shop there are two client machines. There are also 4 exhaust fans. As far as EMI/RFI, this all makes the shop a sort of "trial by fire" for noise-sensitive gear like guitars. If they're ever going to hiss or hum, that's where it'll happen.

Single coil pickups are all but useless in there. No amount of shielding does any good. No surprise there - as has been pointed out, the approximately 1 mile of wire in a single coil is a pretty effective antenna, especially for the high impedance inputs on guitar amplifiers. Where it does get surprising is with humbuckers.  Simply being "humbucking" works wonders, but some buck better than others. Also, cavity shielding has little or no effect, while lead shielding is critical. Just the 3" or 4" run from the volume pot to the output jack can pick up a boatload of noise if it's not shielded, as can the runs from pickups to the pots.

So, who makes the quietest pickups? I can't say for certain, not having tested all eleventy bajillion of them, and I've never tried to quantify it anyway. But I can say Seymour Duncan's "Area" series pickups are the quietest I've ever had through here. This is especially sweet since they sound the most like single coils of any I've had through here, too.

 

[JimBeed]

Cheers for all the advice ill use the shielded wire for the hot connections then,
and as for the shielding being not needed then bit annoying i already put copper foil shielding in the control cavity, but guess it cant hurt having it in there then

 

[Cagey]

No, it certainly doesn't hurt anything. It's just not necessary.

 

[JimBeed]

Well dont need to worry about having foil showing next to the pickups anymore then

 

[Superlizard]

That braided cloth wiring is a hangover from the '50s. Back then, rubber was still in very short supply due to it being rationed during World War II, and plastic wasn't very common. Nylon hadn't even been invented yet. So, most wire had cloth insulation. It was inexpensive, reasonably effective, and best of all, available. But, none of those things are true any more. It's expensive and scarce because nobody uses it since is has few redeeming qualities beyond being better than nothing.

Ah, but cloth push-back hookup wire has one major asset the others don't:

No need to strip the wire; just push back the cloth to expose the wire.

 

[Cagey]

Ah, but cloth push-back hookup wire has one major asset the others don't:

No need to strip the wire; just push back the cloth to expose the wire.

That's true, but weak. I would argue that if you don't have a set of wire strippers, you probably ought not be doing any wiring. Trying to do a proper job without the proper tools is a recipe for failure. Of course, I've been known to work on guitars using teeth, fingernails, Bic lighters, pocket knives, eating utensils, cuss words and who remembers what else, so I'm no one to talk <grin>

 

[JimBeed]

Ok just discovered slight problem, the wire cutters i have well which i was sure were bought as wire cutters, are having trouble getting through the coaxial wire, i did a test cut of it on the very end, well a bit of it, so i didnt waste much, but it seemed to not strip, just cut, even though i tried to strip it and didnt apply more pressure, any suggestions?

 

[Cagey]

Trying to strip wire with wire cutters is often an exercise in futility, especially shielded or multi-conductor cable. Cutters aren't designed for variable-depth cutting, or for protecting layers beyond the reach of their jaws. What you want are wire strippers. If you don't have any, they're not expensive. A set of Ideal strippers like these...

Are typically about $15.

 

[JimBeed]

Ah yeah meant to say thought i had a set which were wire strippers, but they're obviously just cutters then! well im going to the local diy tonight to get some smaller screw drivers, from a good make here in england and super glue so ill get some wire strippers aswell. Cheers again

 

[Cagey]

Be sure to get something that'll go down to small gauge wire, in the 24-28ga. range, or you'll have trouble with some of the smaller wires used for pickup hookup, or inside multi-conductor cables.

 

[Superlizard]

Be sure to get something that'll go down to small gauge wire, in the 24-28ga. range, or you'll have trouble with some of the smaller wires used for pickup hookup, or inside multi-conductor cables.

I use my choppers to strip those.  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Cagey]

<sigh> You dress 'em up, buy 'em books, send 'em to school and what do they do? Eat the teacher <grin>

 

[pabloman]

Your switches aren't shielded neither is the output jack or the plug on your cable usually.

 

[JimBeed]

Well did an attempted wiring job today, i say attempted cause found out needed a long shaft push pull pot, even though i was sure it fit through the body enough before.
And when i was putting the wiring i could into the body some of the wires snapped off the pots it seemed
So its likely being taken to a luthier
and wont be entirely my own work thats assembled it  ???