Wiring for 2 Hum, 1 Vol, 1 Tone, 3 Way Switch

[wyattriot]

I'm building a telecaster with 2 humbuckers and otherwise standard hardware (1 volume, 1 tone, and 3-way switch) but the wiring schematics don't really cover this. I'm fairly sure I've figured it out, but I just want to double check so I don't mess it all up.

I'll be basing my wiring on the standard 1 hum 1 single Telecaster schematic but with 2 humbuckers I'll need to separate out the white and green wires on each, right? So it'll be black & bare to ground, red to the switch (one to top left and one to bottom right), and white and green soldered together and taped up?

Also, if I'm planning on modern wiring, I'll need to connect the bottom volume to the middle tone through the capacitor and ground the bottom tone to the back of the pot?

[Frank]

Uncle Seymour has it covered

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=2h_1v_1t_3w

See also:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=3ws_trans

and this

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php?schematic=color_codes

[wyattriot]

Okay, I'm good on the wiring between the humbucker and switch and Volume pot—being able to compare North Start/Finish and South Start/Finish helped, thank you!—but I'm still not 100% sure on the wiring between the Volume and Tone pots.

In all of the schematics above, there's a Volume pot terminal wired to the Tone pot terminal directly opposite and the capacitor goes between the middle Tone terminal and the back (ground). I believe that's what makes it vintage wiring.

But if I were to wire the Volume and Tone pots like the 2 Hum, 2 Vol, 2 Tone, 3-Way Switch schematic (like an LP or SG), with the outside Volume terminal connected via capacitor to the middle Tone terminal, that would give me modern wiring, correct?

That—modern wiring, I mean—is what I did on my Les Paul Junior and it's what I'm going after here, I just want to confirm that this will work in my build. I'm assuming it will, but my understanding of electronics is still rather foggy and there may be some problem that I'm not seeing.

[Frank]

The two wiring methods are identical. Calling one "vintage" and the other "modern" just means someone did it one way in the past and the other way on a newer guitar.

From the point of view of the electrons whizzing round your pickups and guitar cables, there's no difference between a Capacitor-Resistor network and a Resistor-Capacitor network.

[wyattriot]

But they do change how the volume and tone is rolled off, though, right?

"Modern" wiring: as the Volume is rolled off, it will lose brightness (tone) slightly; as the Tone is rolled off, the volume will remain the same.

"Vintage" wiring: as the Volume is rolled off, the brightness (tone) remains the same; as the Tone is rolled off, the volume will decrease slightly.

At least that's my understanding—which, admittedly, could be totally wrong—about the differences between the two wiring schemes.

[Frank]

You know, I've been thinking about this one and there should be no difference ... but I may have to knock up a test with a pot and a cap just to satisfy my curiosity. I've always done what you call "vintage" wiring, cap to the back of the pot and middle tag.

If I were an electron I'd insist the two schemes were identical. Unfortunately I'm a musician and we musicians are very good at hearing differences that mere electrons are immune to.

But ask yourself this ... replace the capacitor with a light bulb, would one circuit give any difference in brightness?

[wyattriot]

Apparently, when both Volume and Tone knobs are at 10 or 0, they're the same, it's just about how they interact when one or both are rolled off. A Google search shows tons of results, with the typical "the difference is HUGE!" and "there's NO difference!" arguments, but I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle: that there IS a different but it's not all that important.

At this point, I'm more concerned that a particular wiring style will WORK, hahaha!

[Frank]

You should post a poll. I vote no difference.