Bare Knuckle Pickups Forum
Forum Ringside => Tech => Topic started by: AdamB on November 12, 2007, 05:23:33 PM
-
So, my friend messed up his thinline tele when he tried to take out the neck pickup.
He just wants a sole bridge pickup, with just a volume control
So, i'm armed with my soldering iron and solder.
The bridge pickup has 2 black wires and one yellow
The input jack has a thick grey wire soldered to the back of one of the pots with a little white wire going to the middle "hub" of the pot, i'm guessing it's the tone pot.
So, i've got a loose volume pot
i can unsolder everything from the tone pot and start a fresh on this, can someone talk me through what goes where please?
Thanks
-
Here's a diagram for a single pickup plus volume, with no other controls. It's a humbucker, but a single-coil will be basically the same.
http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=1hum_1vol
Not 100% sure why the Tele pickup has 3 wires - presumably it has a metal baseplate and one of the wires (black?) is a separate ground wire for the baseplate. So basically you'll solder 2 wires (probably the 2 black ones) to the back of the volume pot, and the other (yellow) to the first tag on the pot.
The wires from the jack will connect to the volume pot as you've already described. That's it.
-
Thanks Phil :D
-
Could one of the black wires be from the bridge as a ground?
Does that go to the jack as a ground or to the back of the pot?
-
The grey wire you mentioned at the top of the thread should be used as the ground from the pot to the jack.
If one of the 3 pickup wires is connected to the metal baseplate as I guessed, then you can use either of the other 2 wires as ground.
So the wire from the baseplate, plus one other wire, go to the back of the pot. The other wire (the hot wire) goes to the first tag on the vol pot.
Is it a Fender pickup, by the way?
-
Yeah, it's the stock pickup
I'll post a picture tomorrow morning to see if i've done it properly
I'll need to wait til tomorrow to even hear if it's right because it's an effort dragging my cab out and getting my head out of the flightcase
-
Does this look right?
Can't try it til tonight
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v206/adammato/SG/IMG_0654.jpg)
-
Is that pot the one furthest away from the switch? If so, it's really the tone control pot, but you can use it as a volume.
I'm guessing the two black wires are coming from the pickup, which looks OK. The yellow wire should be connected to the other tag, the one at the top of the picture.
The tag which the yellow wire is currently connected to should be bent so it's touching the back of the pot, then soldered there (or you could use a little piece of bare wire to connect the tag to the back of the pot).
-
Thanks Phil :D
-
It keeps cutting out then losing volume, then coming back on. Any suggestions?
-
Sounds like a knackered pot. Check all your connections though, no shorting or dry solder joints.
-
Ok that problem's sorted, now it's buzzing like it's not being earthed, but it is....
-
Does the buzzing stop when you touch the strings or metal parts?
-
No, it's keeps buzzing...
-
Sounds like there's no connection grounding the bridge/strings. Although the metal baseplate on the pickup should take care of that (it has got a metal baseplate, hasn't it?).
Could you take a pic of the back of the pickup?
Oh, and what happened to the other pot and the switch? Did you take them out, or are they still in there?
-
I haven't taken the pickup out, i've just assumed it was connected ok.
The other pot is on my table, the switch, my mate has got
There's solder everywhere!!!!! i can't seem to get the old solder off!!!
Nightmare! Might get a new volume pot and start over
-
I haven't taken the pickup out, i've just assumed it was connected ok.
Ah, OK! In that case, it's probable that one of the 3 wires coming "from the pickup" is actually a wire connecting the bridge to ground. And perhaps there's a dry joint on that ground connection.
Then the pickup would have the more usual 2 wires, and may - or may not - have a baseplate. If there's no baseplate, it doesn't matter which wire is hot and which is ground. If there is a baseplate, then the ground wire grounds both the pickup coil and the plate. It's possible the yellow wire should be the ground wire (although that seems unlikely, yellow is normally used for a hot wire).
You might need to take the bridge off to figure out which wire is which.
Sorry, I'm running out of ideas... :?
(EDIT: Do you know the exact model of the guitar? It might be possible to find a Fender wiring diagram to see how everything was originally connected.)
-
There are a couple of ways to clean up blobs of solder. The first is to buy a solder sucker, which is basically a tube about 6 inches long with a spring loaded piston inside, you push the piston down till the lock clicks on to hold it in place, melt the solder with your iron and hold the tip of the sucker to the solder and press the release button. The spring pushes the piston up the tube and the vacuum created sucks the molten solder into the tube. You can do 20 -30 desolderings before you will need to unscrew the tube tip and tap out the little balls of solder inside.
The second method is to buy some desoldeing braid which is copper braid about 4mm wide on a roll. Put the end of the braid over the blob of solder and apply the soldering iron to the braid. As the solder melts it gets sucked into the braid. Pull the braid away before the solder hardens again and simply cut off the length of braid that has the solder in it and you're ready to use it again. Maplins and similar soldering supplies shops sell both of these.
Cheers
-
Phil, thank you so much for your help mate!
Just spoke to my friend though, and it turns out he's ordering a BKP in like 2 weeks, so i can start a fresh then and know where everything goes etc etc
I'll get a new volume pot :)
-
Just spoke to my friend though, and it turns out he's ordering a BKP in like 2 weeks, so i can start a fresh then and know where everything goes etc etc
I'll get a new volume pot :)
Sounds good! :D
Then you can ignore the old wiring, get a good clear diagram and start from scratch. I think it's best to take time to get really well prepared and know exactly what you're going to do (I'm the slowest person in the world!) - but when you actually solder the connections, take them one at a time and do them quickly and cleanly. That way nothing melts or gets over-heated and you end up with a nice tidy job.
Sorry, I sound like someone's dad. :wink:
-
Thanks again Phil, you've been a great help :D
Pagan7, i'll get some off that copper braid! Thanks mate