am i screwed?

[littleredguitars2]

above is my situation. its my stockholm p90 that came with my prewired pickguard. i didnt realize they cut the lead so short. plus i'm used to working with 4conducter wiring. i want to just use the single volume knob and the p90 thats it. is this cut too short? and it was soldered originally to the pot at the metal part of the wire. not the black part. so what do i do in this situation

thank you everyone in advance.

[FELINEGUITARS]

No - easy to fix
Solder an earth wire to the braided section and solder that wire to back of pot
If the central wire is too short then solder a short length to that wire and attach to tag of pot
You might want to put some tape or heat shrink over that join to prevent short circuits

[littleredguitars2]

Is the goal to have the braided part soldered to the back of the pot and have the black part soldered to the empty tag?

[King Zog of Albania]

Is the goal to have the braided part soldered to the back of the pot and have the black part soldered to the empty tag?

Yes. Although the braid doesn't necessarily have to be soldered directly to the pot, as long as there's an electrical connection then the circuit will work.

[littleredguitars2]

ok thats good to know.

and what exactly is an "earth wire"

[pagan7]

It would also be a good idea to tease out some of the braid and roll the ends between finger and thumb to provide  a tag to solder the earth wire to , otherwise the heat of the iron might melt through the insulation on the internal wire and cause a short circuit .

[littleredguitars2]

It would also be a good idea to tease out some of the braid and roll the ends between finger and thumb to provide  a tag to solder the earth wire to , otherwise the heat of the iron might melt through the insulation on the internal wire and cause a short circuit .

thanks for the tip. as soon as i figure out what an earth wire is i should be good to go haha

[Kiichi]

Earth wire is the ground, plain and simple. One wire caries the signal, one grounds the whole thing, closes the circuit properly. Thats why all PUs have at least 2 wires.

[pagan7]

The earth wire is exactly as it sounds , it earths the case of the pup and the back of the pot the the output socket and the braided screen of the cable to the amp so there's no humming or  crackle  , oh , and the bridge should be earthed too.

[littleredguitars2]

so is it anything special or is it just a term for the job its doing? i have some 22 (maybe 24) gauge stranded wire lying around. can i just use that?

[38thBeatle]

In UK we say Earth, in USA you say Ground.

[pagan7]

any insulated wire will do . idealy with a core between 1 and 2 mm , and regards earthing , remember back to the days when some guitarist were actually electricuted by dodgy amps with no proper earthing , you should be able to trace the earth from the guitar to the amp to the power supply of your house , which is physically earthed to the , err , earth , by and thick copper wire to an even thicker copper rod driven into the ground.

[littleredguitars2]

In UK we say Earth, in USA you say Ground.

i started to figure that with what everyone was saying haha. but now that makes much more sense.

thanks for everything everyone. you guys are always a ton of help

[Dave Sloven]

What happened to all the braided outer layer?  Did you pull it off?  I would have expected there to a length of shielding with solder in it that had been soldered to the back of your pot, roughly from where your braid ends to where that fuzzy bit is, something like this:

[littleredguitars2]

What happened to all the braided outer layer?  Did you pull it off?  I would have expected there to a length of shielding with solder in it that had been soldered to the back of your pot, roughly from where your braid ends to where that fuzzy bit is, something like this:

surprisingly, thats exactly how it came when it was prewired to the pickguard by BKP. but i made it work thanks to everyones help