Wiring 2 buckers to 3-way switch and then directly to jack?

[Philly Q]

Ok thanks, before proceeding, are there any alternatives to drilling?

All you need is a little screw hole, 1/4" or so deep, somewhere in the side of the cavity, away from the thin top and all the existing holes.  It won't harm anything, it'll just be somewhere to anchor all the ground points.  You could try to just twist all the ground wires together and just solder them in a big lump... but it'll be a mess.

Anyhow, i wonder one other thing, there are 2 lugs on the jack, which one is for the ground, and which one for the switch:/? Is there any way to tell them apart, or do they function the same?

The lug which connects to the long, springy part of the jack is the hot connection (which goes to the switch).  The lug which connects to the threaded cylindrical bit (where you plug in the lead) is the ground.

[WezV]

Ok thanks, before proceeding, are there any alternatives to drilling? Anyhow, i wonder one other thing, there are 2 lugs on the jack, which one is for the ground, and which one for the switch:/? Is there any way to tell them apart, or do they function the same?

no,  1 lug connects to the sleeve of the socket and 1 to the tip.  have a close look at the socket and you should be able to trace the lugs to the sleeve and tip easily.

hot (from the switch) goes to the tip, ground goes to the sleeve

[Madiac]

Uhm, since i dont have those lugs to use as a ground, would if i just screwed in one of the pots and grounded everything to the back of it? Or will the pot not work as a ground even if screwed towards the grounding spray thingie?

[Philly Q]

Yep, you could use a pot as the ground point.  Just don't have any wires connecting to the three lugs on the pot, then it'll have no effect on the sound.

[Madiac]

Oh god, i feel like an asshole, should never have messed with this guitar since it sounded fine from the start,  but i always try to tweak since there just "might be a tonal improvement"...

I did wire it up, and well, somethings really wrong, theres sound from the guitar, but it sounds very wrong. Very low volume and output, the distortion level is very weak, and the sound is simply terrible especially on the treble strings. So what did i do, wire something wrong? Burn the volume pot that i used as aground? Cold solder joints?

I wish i had an inexpensive guitar to practice on, cr@p.
Jonathan, if youre reading you really have my apologizes, i feel like a jerk, i should have listened to you when you said "but if the tone is cool then all is well!". It all started with one of the tone pots not working. Jonathan gave me instructions on how to fix it, but i never understood them (i do it now, EASILY, they were really simple) on how to fix it, and besides i didnt have any spare wire. So then i disconnected the both tone pots, and later i got someone to change them for 2 switches without redrilling the holes + 2 1 meg volumes instead. Then i got tired of the switches (series,parallel,split), i prefered the standard humbucker sound, and now i ended up with the whole straight to jack cr@p that i no longer want anyway, so i might just rewire the hole shebang with 2 volumes and 2 tones as meant to be, SIGH... thats the whole story.

Atleast i learned alot, but not sure it should have been on this guitar damnit! But cant learn what you want and dont want without trying...

[Philly Q]

No idea what's gone wrong, I'm afraid.  Even if you have fried the pot it shouldn't make any difference since it's only being used as a grounding point.

Oh well, at least, like you said, you learned something!  And hopefully without any damage to the guitar itself, since you didn't drill any holes or anything(?).

It's not cheap, but if you're sick of messing about you could always get a nice prewired kit:

http://www.rsguitarworks.net/rsstore/product_info.php?cPath=47_62&products_id=153

[WezV]

you will get it right with a bit of patience.  if you want to then take a phot we can look at for you

these things are rarely irreversible

[Madiac]

Yeah i guess. Nothing has been drilled, however when the guy put in the miniswitches he either pulled them so hard that they went into the wood a slight bit, so theres a square mark with no grounding spray on two of the holes, so im not sure a pot will work on those two holes that i used a miniswitch for.

Do i need to insulate the bare wire? Maybe its picking upp intereference? i made sure ofcourse that it didnt touch anything while i was playing... but anyway, ill try to make some cleaner joints today and then take pictures. Im kind of embarassed to show my butcherjob:( Anyhow, that pre-wired kit seems nice, but not sure if i can afford it right now..
 


The good news is that i now know that i like to have my 4 little pots there even if only use them rarely, but for those moments theyre sweet. Besides, on monday im gonna pick up a cheap old worn out sg copy for 5 bucks from a guy i know who just wanted to get rid of it. Its missing a tuner and possibly more stuff, but for 5 bucks i can use it as a test object:)

[Madiac]

Hm, one thing, the scheme show the rightmost lug on the volumepot to ground... should i maybe bend it up towards the back of the pot and solder like it was before? could that be it?

[Philly Q]

Hm, one thing, the scheme show the rightmost lug on the volumepot to ground... should i maybe bend it up towards the back of the pot and solder like it was before? could that be it?

I don't think it'll make any difference because the pot isn't active - it's only there as a "metal thing" for soldering ground wires onto.  But on the other hand, it won't do any harm either.

[Madiac]

Yeah, okay, this far, i soldered the white and green together (wether it means anyhing or not) and bended up the lug and soldered it, and then movede the pot to another hole. Then i plugged it in, and i dont know if its just my ears, but it sounds alot better than last night, but still sounds muffled, almost like the woman tone... The tone is acceptable but it does feel like something is "wrong", muffled, lower distortion than usually, the "grind" is gone, no chuggachugga...
Ill post some pics in a moment. One perhaps crucial thing, while i had it plugged in i tried lifting the pot(ground point) away from the cavity so it didnt contact any of the metal spray and it still sounded the same as i heard!
What is the meaning of that?!

What could be even more scary is that if its really working as it should and my memory of the tone was just wrong?

[hunter]

Yeah, okay, this far, i soldered the white and green together (wether it means anyhing or not) and bended up the lug and soldered it, and then movede the pot to another hole. Then i plugged it in, and i dont know if its just my ears, but it sounds alot better than last night, but still sounds muffled, almost like the woman tone... The tone is acceptable but it does feel like something is "wrong", muffled, lower distortion than usually, the "grind" is gone, no chuggachugga...
Ill post some pics in a moment. One perhaps crucial thing, while i had it plugged in i tried lifting the pot(ground point) away from the cavity so it didnt contact any of the metal spray and it still sounded the same as i heard!
What is the meaning of that?!

What could be even more scary is that if its really working as it should and my memory of the tone was just wrong?

Dude, can you take the finger out of that nose? It's very irritating ...

[Madiac]

The avatar? Otherwise i dont get you, sorry  :?. Here comes the pics, the solder joints on the back of the pot are pretty bad and messy, so i will probably redo them.






Unless the solder joints are really bad and worsening the tone i dont know, the scheme seems right, but its really weird that the pot needs no contact with the guitar to sound..

[Philly Q]

One perhaps crucial thing, while i had it plugged in i tried lifting the pot(ground point) away from the cavity so it didnt contact any of the metal spray and it still sounded the same as i heard!
What is the meaning of that?!

I don't think that's an issue - all the grounds are connected to one point (the pot) and the shielding paint is just something else that connects to the same ground. 

If you lift the pot away from the shielding paint, then the shielding is no longer doing anything but the circuit should still function - as it did.

[Madiac]

Okay, im not to good on electronics but im learning...
So then its probably working as it should? :?