Learn The Basics of Guitar Wiring | Guitar Tech Tips | Ep. 64 | Thomann
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- Опубліковано 1 чер 2024
- If you have to fix some wiring issues or even rewire a whole guitar, you have to know what you need for the job and you have to understand the basics. Let’s talk about all of that in today’s video.
Enjoy Guitar Tech Tips!
How to find the issue in the electronics episode:
• How to fix Ground Nois...
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Gear used: tho.mn/8q8lw
We use Triad-Orbit stands for our cameras, lights and mics: tho.mn/triad
Recorded and mixed with Universal Audio: tho.mn/uadx1
Monitors optimised through Sonarworks: tho.mn/sonar
Interesting bits and pieces:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 The basics | Soldering and wires
1:42 Potentiometer
2:10 Capacitors
2:38 How does the signal flow in a guitar?
3:24 A list of tools you need for wiring a guitar
4:22 There's one more thing...
4:55 Time for a test ride
5:44 Outtakes
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Go get'em Chris. I applaud him for having the courage to try to teach this stuff. Wait a second? Did he say the hot wire goes to the switch or the jack first? Why is my bridge getting so hot? He forgot to mention, always keep a fire extinguisher close by. 😃
I think Chris is excellent at what he does but I wouldn't want to attempt it. He's got the knowledge and experience to do it right the first time. I have a couple friends who tried to change the pickups on their Gretsch guitars from "passive" to "active." Those pickups are active all right. Now, every time they crank up the volume on their guitars, they start smoking and the only thing that's "activated" is the smoke alarm. There's actually burn marks in the wood on the back of the guitars. Now they're trying to sell the guitars as Heavy Relic.
lmao
I mean, hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
At least ya tried :)
Kinda sounds "metal" 🤘🏻
Ok, so what I did was install a Seymour Duncan heavy metal Live wire in the bridge position, and a Seymour Duncan JB in the neck, now this is in an original Kramer Nightswan from 1989. It's on a 500 volume pot which is a push/pull. That's my selector switch. I pull out for the neck and pushed in for the bridge. The neck has a coil spit switch. This gives an insane amount of options, from mild to wild. Still my favorite guitar. LoL
I know a guy who bought a Appetite Burst Slash Signature guitar. He didn't like the Burst Bucker pickups and tried to install his own Seymour Duncans. But he also wanted to make the Seymour Duncan's "active." He took a chisel and a small hammer and chiseled out a chamber in the back of that beautiful guitar (to fit a 9-volt battery). Not only does the guitar look like shit, he screwed up the wiring so bad, that after a few minutes of playing, the strings heat up and the pic melt while he's playing it. So now he's got melted pic plastic all over that beautiful AAA Maple top. The strings heat up so bad, they've left burn marks in the wood. The good news is, if he lays the guitar on it's back, it can double as a waffle iron. In fact, the strings heated up so bad the tuning keys got hot and warped the headstock. As you can guess, that beautiful mahogany neck also warped so that the guitar looks more like a bow than a guitar. So now he uses the guitar during hunting season.
Not sure how much of this is a true story, but it was entertaining to read. :) Also, the morals of the story: don't mess with the wiring concept of passives and actives, unless you're an electric engineer. Haha! Cheers //Kris
Very clear explanations, thanks!
Nice jamming Chris. Love that Burst. 🤘
Chris has that funny laugh while he's explaining this. It makes me think he's seen many people mess up some very nice guitars because they were too cheap to take them to a professional. 😄😃😀
Yeah it’s easy and pleasant to work on electronics when you understand what’s going on haha That’s why schematics, layout diagrams, and bill of materials (parts lists) were invented.. Guitar wiring is simple enough and guarded by builders, so those things generally aren’t always available outside the shop of origin. A similar scenario typically applies to speaker crossovers. The mystique of what caps, etc. in sought after designs, tends to drive enthusiasts nuts! 🤪
Thanks Chris, so informative….keep it up 👍
That’s a huge pair of resistors at 3:12 !!
I also recommend along with this vid, google guitar wiring diagram images so the layout is clear and you can look at it as long as you need to look at it.
QUESTION: Is there a super geil trick to solder shield weave to pot cases? i cringe putting so much heat into a component. I have a nice adjustable weller iron so even temp setting trick might help.
i devalued my les paul by drilling a tiny hole in the replaceable plastic backplate to run an RCA jack out hanging from a thin shielded wire. I direct wired the neck PUP to the 1/4" jack and the bridge PUP to the RCA jack and completely disconnected the pickup selector and that garbage wiring. it put an extra level of quiet on the whole guitar. it also upped my ambient guitar game by having 2 signal paths. FWIW, i did a live 4 (3 guitar+1 vocoder) channel ad-lib jam to test the rig. 12step->VT4 , 2 guitar channels+ mel9 mellotron wet channel. i was rebuilding my keyboard stand so i had no keyboard. ua-cam.com/video/FOo1SW0zSR0/v-deo.html
DIY layout creator is an awesome way to check guitar wiring and test different ideas.
"Hello...911? I think my ground wire is touching my hot wire. Please send the fire department over as soon as you can." 😄
For HH set with split pickup’s with 1 tone and 1 volume knob. Do I need 2 pots with push/pull feature or I just need 1 pots with push/pull feature for tone knob?
Great video Kris. Cheers.
Thanks a lot Mauricio!! //Kris
Hey there Chris, just recently experienced issues with my firebird vii 1963 re- issue. She is a gem. Thought this would be a good opportunity to try and fix myself and would like to ask what you would check if your bridge pickup was still producing sound, but is almost impossible to hear unless you turn the amp up to full volume? Great video btw
question - would you know where I could find the wiring schematic for an Ibanez RG421?
Its 2 humbuckers and a 5-way switch, passive pickups. I tried Ibanez directly and no such luck!
Hey, what kind of wire do you recommend to solder output jack to pots? thanks
Hello, thank you for the detailed explanation. What are the pot and capacitor values for P90 pickups? Thank you!
In most cases you'll find a 500k pot for volume and 500k OR 250k pot for tone in a guitar with P90 pickups. But if you want a warmer sound, you can also use a 250k volume pot. Cheers //Kris
Hallo zusammen, vielen Dank für die guten Videos. Eine Frage: Mir sind die Batterien in meiner Westerngitarre ausgelaufen. Eine ziemliche Sauerei. Wie löst ihr das? Gibt es eine Marke, die weniger dazu neigt auszulaufen, oder wechselt ihr die Batterien öfters? Falls letzteres: Wie lange lasst ihr die Batterien drin? Ich muss zugeben: Ich habe da geschlampt und die Batterien waren sicher "ewig" in der Gitarre. (Ich nutze nur den Tuner und fast nie den Preamp, deshalb halten die Batterien so lange).
Loving the Waluigi in the background!
The bridge on my SC450 P90 GT does not appear to be earthed (grounded) will retro fitting an earth wire help to reduce the buzz from the guitar?
What guage wire is the best to use? I have 14 guage automotive wire but dont know if it would work…
Using your tone knob as a wah-wah...way cool, man.
hello, mine stopped working and i tried to fix it but failed, i dont know how to do it, seems really difficult for me, there are 3 wires coming from each pickup (red, black, green) and a yellow cable that goes to the plug; to make it simpler, could i connect those directly to the plug without the tone and volume knots and it would work? thanks a lot
Kris,
Super informative tech tips. I'm still terrified to attempt repair on my guitars as they are like family..lol. Thanks again for your expertise. Great show.
Thanks Joe! Don't worry about it, this is as much about understanding it, as about doing it yourself. I don't try to repair my car, but I definitely want to understand what is going on in there. Do you know what I mean? I think it's just good to understand things. :) Thanks so much for all the comments, we really appreciate them! Cheers //Kris
I’ll have to watch this about a dozen times. I might understand by then, lol
Speaking of wiring .. I have a couple basses that have started buzzing and making noise until I touch the strings. Seems like a ground issue? What should I look for/do to fix this?
That's basically normal, since your skin is grounding the strings. If you don't touch them, the ground circle is not full. A certain amount of buzz when not touching the strings is normal as long as it goes away if you touch them. Cheers buddy! //Kris
Hi kris, do you reccomend a 250k or 500k pot for a Seymour Duncan JB, I read somewhere that they can be really bright with 500k?
The brightness of the JB doesn't only come from it's voicing, but also from it's crazy output. I think I'd try to lower the pickup and stick to 500k, maybe 300K pots. Even though those are harder to find than 500k or 250k. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses OK, cheers Kris
Why is there a big jump in volume when i decrease my gibson les paul volume from 10 to 8. At 5 almost no sound is coming out. How do i fix this?
Sounds like a problem with a potentiometer. Read about deoxit and pots.
By the way, I love Ibanez autosplit function
Idk if anyone can help but, I want a specific wiring and just need some guidance.
Looking for the following setup:
Position 1: Bridge
Position 2: Middle
Position 3: Middle and Neck
Position 4: All 3 Pickups on
Position 5: Neck
I have a super switch and I almost got it working but, the only thing I can’t get right is position 1. For some reason position one is Bridge & Middle in parallel…
I put a set of 1987 Gibson HBL humbuckers in my LP. If my bradded wires touch the wood or any wires touch wood will it make a muddy sound? I cant hear clear tones and it just sounds weak? In bridges has less power that neck, baffles me? I can find good sounds but its a job.
I have Ibanez GIO and the humming buzz sound is making me nuts, ground wire is messed up. I opened and soldered it looking UA-cam video but I think I messed up my wiring when I put my hand on strings it stops but still there is noise but when I leave my hand from the strings it's so loud lol.. I have to do it again
Does the wiring affect the sound? Like will it have a hum if you do it incorrectly or use a bad quality wire/ electronics?
Probably
There's a hilarious video by Mike Bradley where he tries to put this new fancy Bridge on a really expensive "Parts Caster" he just bought. He wound up drilling SIX holes THROUGH the back end of the guitar. What's so funny about it is that you can tell he's extremely angry and yet he tries to keep his composure for the video.
While I think Chris is sincere, he's got kind of a funny smile on his face while he's explaining this (almost as if he knows ahead of time 90% of the people out there are going to f--k it up). 😄🙂😂
Hey man, I always have this smile on my face (except for when my guitar's electronics catch fire. :D Just kidding. I talk about these subjects to make it easier for those who want to understand these things. Of course as always: be clever, practice on really cheap / old / unplayable guitars and gather some experience. It's really not that hard, guitars are not spaceships. Just respect the rules of simple electronics and as told, practice. It's a lot of fun to know what makes a great guitar a great guitar.
And yes, you should definitely not modify valuable guitars, especially not, if you plan on selling them at any point. :) Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses
It's a good, contagious smile--a smile from the heart. It shows that you're happy doing what you do. That's a blessing. Don't ever lose it.
Where do I get that long piece of grounding wire that is connected to all four pots? No one EVER mentions this!
got picked up a jackson loaded with emg s no ground wire hooked up in the trem cavity what wire goes to the ground (what wire is the ground?
Hey Jeff, active EMG pickups don't need string grounding, so don't worry about it. :) If you want to figure out which are the ground wires in your Jackson, take a look at the backside of the volume pot. Everything that's connected to it is part of the guitar's ground. You can use a multimeter with the continuity function as well to do that. Cheers //Kris
Great video for someone who's starting. Practice and patience are essential!
Could you do Guitar Tech Tips about using audio vs linear pots? I know you did one for your channel but it kinda makes my head hurt. It's great to know that they both have it's place but having on screen graphic illustration of what's going on inside and sonically with added handy dandy chart "use X if you want Y" would be amazing
I could treat that video as a lecture and take notes until I get it but god knows I was terrible at it while studying
Thanks in advance Kris, You're my fave professor!
Ok that helps. Now how do I put a sustainiac pick up in my HB SC custom Fr???
Hey Poo, 1. replace the pickup with the Sustainiac 2. rout the cavity for the extra battery for the sustainer 3. find place and install the 1 or 2 mini toggle switches(depends on the model) 4. replace the mono jack and use a stereo one for the active circuitry 5. connect the sustainiac to the guitar's electronics 6. rock out and enjoy the sustain until the battery dies 7. change the battery and keep on rocking :D :D //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses So I’ll swap the mini toggles for a tri color illuminated one to visually know if I’m in harmonic or standard and a push button on/off (also illuminated) cause flashy lights are cool.
Now where’s that pile of Cash… what I bought food again 😖?! maybe Christmas will add some sustainiac to my holidays???🤣
Save save save 👍🏽
My pickups have a white wire and a braided wire and my wiring harness has 2 knobs and a switch and I can't find anything on how to wire it up.
Wired a strat today. From scratch. Took me 4 hours. I think its a stressfull job. Practice indeed. Following a diagram but still had to troubleshoot because the middle pickup didn’t work.
Congrats! Next time it will only take half as long.👏 Cheers //Kris
I think I recognize that coy smile.
This brother hit a fatty to stay calm for this vid. Nothing I haven't done for the last 50 years. Its legal where I live, and I'll be dead before I'll leave Cali. You can notice a sleepy look from the eyes... yep, brothers buzzed !
For God sake, we're guitar players. At least he can talk & pick. Go to the dispensery, Captain Jacks, buy some primo,
and you won't even know the dude is lit. But you'll enjoy yourself just fine. 😁😁😁😁
What if you were going to avoid all the switches and knobs in the guitar and just rely on your pedal board?
Sure, why not. Many do that. Truth be told, it's much cheaper having a volume pot on a guitar than a volume pedal. Same for a tone knob compared to a pedal substitute. Also, you can't really "fake" a good bridge or neck pickup tone with EQ pedals and such. So I think I'll stick to a simple "standard" guitar wiring and do the rest with pedals / amps. Cheers //Kris
Every guitar and bass should just use EMG's solderless quick connect system and call it a day. Wiring guitars and swapping pickups would be so much easier. Though alot of guitar techs would lose their revenue lol
YES! Or the quick connect used by Epiphone. Or Gibson's connector system. Or the connection system used by Guitar Fetish. There are several different connectors out there - it'd be swell if the industry would pick one and standardize, but I think guitar makers see this as a way to keep people in their ecosystem. Gibson is the worst, because they use a board for the pots. To replace the pickups, you need to either buy Gibson pickups, or replace the board with real pots. Which I did.
I put Duncan Liberators in all my guitars.
One time soldering job, and then you can easily swap pickups moving from then on.
Okay, so on modern guitars, sure, why not. Makes things easier. But on like a reissue Fender or Gibson? Absolutely no way! Haha! That sounds like the worst thing that could happen to those guitars. :D Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Ah yes, modern I mean
@@rasmusolesen5307 should come stock on more guitars
Sorry for the negative coment but this video did not clarify much. It needs diagrams, double the length and animations.
I find the video rushed and confusing even though I did some modest work around adding pickup split switch, push pull to turn off preamp, replaced pickup blend with MN pot and a full Agguilar 3eq+pickup installation on Cort.
Hey Tomislav, thanks for the comment, negative, or not. It's appreciated! This is really just the basics of guitar electronics, it's not a "this is how you wire your 2013 Les Paul Classic model" or anything like that. That's exactly the problem: if I put diagrams in a video, which exact guitar should be shown? Just 1? That only helps those, who have that exact model. 3-4? That still doesn't help most of the viewers? It's absolutely insane, how many versions are existing, even if we are only talking about one specific brand's one specific model (like Teles, Strats, Jackson Soloist, Les Paul, etc). So the way I see it: in a general wiring basics video you should explain the absolute basics (5-6 minutes video) or show the wiring for every single guitar that's somehow relevant (5 hours video). UA-cam is definitely not the place, were people will spend 5 hours on one video. That makes sense somehow, right? Cheers //Kris
Tell me about that Les Paul??
I might have the perfect video for you: ua-cam.com/video/l8I1oiFZVos/v-deo.html :)
cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses Thanks I'll check it out! One of my favorite videos was a few years back of you talking about your new Mesa Boogie head. I was restoring an '86 Mk3-Blue Stripe at the time. It was great to watch.
The problem is: you need time for soldering. 2. the place in the Body is often very tight. 3. you saved the money for the pickups and have to buy pots and so on. 4. you Need More Tools you thought at first.
All of that is true. It's a little challenging. I love challenges. Haha! To be honest, most imagine this being more complicated, than it actually is. It's not a big deal with a little experience. :) Key is a proper soldering iron. Cheers //Kris
Thanks Kris
So I don’t cut the Red or the blue wire lol
Or in my case reverse them 🤪🤪🤪
Which one was it? Red? Or blue? Damn...
...
...
...
BAAAAM
:D //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses yeah cut the red .. blue to bits👍
With all respect, just saying practicing your soldering is not telling people how to solder correctly. If i got a dime for every lousy solder joint i've seen inside electric guitars i could easily afford youtube premium and wouldn't of had to sit through commercials while watching this video.
De BAZICKS of guitar wiring
I just realized that Kris is almost a younger Michael Poulsen (Volbeat)
Haha! You think so? I think it's just the beard and the... khm.. hair line :D //Kris
It sounds very simple. If you want to ruin the value of your guitar (assuming it even has any) don't go to a guitar shop and pay a professional, rewire it yourself. As he said, make sure you get practice before you ruin your own guitar. Try to convince a friend or a family member to let you rewire their guitars first. Then, after you've ruined their guitars you can proceed to ruin your own.
You sound like you need a hug. Bad day?
@@maker78
How often does a person have to rewire something? Did the stores really charge that much? Unless you're a pro at it, if you take it to the store and anything is wrong, they have to fix it. I've heard so many examples of "TMS Syndrome (Too Much Soder). Even the pros mess up. Did you see that Mike Bradley video where he tries to put a new bridge on his Parts- Caster? He accidentally drills six holes through the back end of his guitar. And we're talking a really expensive stratocaster. 😃😆🙂
DIY (Damage it yourself). 😀😄😃
I've seen examples where somebody tries to rewire an expensive guitar and it turns into a wood burning kit. 😂🙂😄
@@maker78 I know your comment is 2 years old, but this guy left TWELVE comments about ruining guitars by screwing up the wiring, and even one where he claims the strings get so hot that the pick melted while playing. Seriously one of the weirdest things I've ever seen on the internet, can't wrap my head around it 😂
@@TheWolverine7 I guess he gets his guitar wiring diagrams from Mehdi Sadaghdar.
@@maker78 LMAO that's too good
This video would really benefit from text overlays!
Do you mean translation? You do know, that UA-cam has subtitles in quite a few languages? It works really well too actually. Cheers
Four conductor wire? looks like 5 to me lol Geraldine. how many names will i give you (all wrong of course)
Haha! I've been misspelled a few times in my life. But Geraldine? That's a whole new level. :D
That's 4 wire + bare (=ground). That usually doesn't count as an extra wire, but as a necessary connection (without ground, you'll not have too much fun with your guitar).
//Kris
My favorite part was when he showed nothing about how to wire a guitar.
why are guitar wires so thin?
Ohms law! V=IR. Voltage equal current times resistance.
Sorry, this knucklehead was trained on military aircraft electronic systems.
Sounds like you have a fret nicks… or a couple of them.
Tone pot, ton pot, tuna pot, pot and pans........... lol Kris (sorry meant Pauline!)
I was totally struggling with that sentence, hahaha! Thanks for the comment! //Pauline
The explanation of tone capacitors was... Well, not really an explanation. I assume it's important to not use polarized capacitors, but I bet lots of other people don't know about that. Also, the wiring configuration seems like an important detail.
Hey Keith, please try to understand, that this general wiring basics video is for people who are new to guitar wirings. If I go in too deep, I confuse everyone, except those, who know these things already (just like yourself).
You don't find polarised capacitors in guitar stores like Thomann, nor in guitar parts / luthier stores (stewmac, etc). Those are the only kind of places I'd recommend buying guitar parts from, especially if someone is not a professional luthier that knows which non guitar parts will fit guitars.
The amount of info on capacitors in this video will help many people already: do you know how many Thomann customers buy the wrong value for their guitars and ask us afterwards, why the tone pot doesn't change the tone at all... (having a treble bleed cap soldered on the tone pot)
About the wiring configuration: which wiring should have ended up in the video? Strat? Les Paul? Which Strat? Current MIM wiring? American Standard? American Pro? American Pro II? American Elite? Custom Shop? All are different and I'm still only talking about strats... Do you see where I'm going here? There is no such thing as a "standard strat wiring" anymore, because most production strats are not wired in the traditional "standard" way and that for a long time. Showing just one of them only confuse those, who don't have that strat model. I explained the basic signal flow for a few beloved guitar types instead. I hope all of that makes any sense to you. Cheers //Kris
English translation?
"Sodder" or "solder"? I thought it was just the US that said it like that?
Hey, I learned english in the US when I was a kid, so there's that. :) To be honest, I didn't over exaggerate the L but I can clearly hear it in there. haha! Thanks for watching the video Martin! Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses I thought maybe I just hadn't noticed some European countries pronouncing it like that. We'll get back to teasing you and Jim next video :)
aaaahhhh… wire…
Let's say you've invested in a nice guitar. Unless you're a professional who has done this for a living, do you really want to take a chance of rewiring your own guitar? I know so many guys who have ruined the value of nice guitars because videos like this make you think it's really easy to do, (all you need is the right tools). And that's a good thing to remember. Don't ruin your own guitar without having the proper tools to ruin it with. They actually now make mini fire extinguishers which fit in the back of the guitar. You push a button and it'll put out the fire from the bad wiring.
Hey, thanks for sharing your opinion, I understand your concerns. Those, who modify their instruments will do it anyways, no matter if they find valid info on the internet, or not. That's exactly why we started this series. I try to explain everything, so that people KNOW what they are doing before they grab a drill or a soldering iron. I surely didn't want to suggest it's all super simple. Otherwise I wouldn't have said it explicitly that you need practice before you start swapping parts on your beloved instrument. Cheers //Kris
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses
No, it's an excellent video. And you did take the time to explain everything quite thoroughly. Personally? If I wanted something rewired, I would rather bring it to an expert like you before I got into it. I know one guy who tried to rewire his guitar and he turned a beautiful Gibson Les Paul Standard into a wood burning kit. 😄🙂😂
@@ThomannsGuitarsBasses
Not everybody has the money to pay a professional to do it so it's good that you're giving this instruction with plenty of warnings up front. I know a guy who tried to rewire a Duesenberg Star Player with new pickups. Now, whenever he raises the volume above six or seven on the guitar, there's this huge POP coming out of his amp. 😂🙂😄
If you're not comfortable rewiring your guitar, there's no shame in taking it to someone else. But, you're not going to "ruin" the value of a nice guitar by simply rewiring it. It can always be corrected. Following instructions will help you get the job done!
@@L4u84S
Wait a second. Rewiring it myself is one thing. You want me to actually read the directions? 😉😃😆
Ups ... there seems to be a misunderstanding:
- guitars need to be stringed ... not wired!
- wires do sound quite sloppy and ugly on a guitar!
Ahh damn, I knew it... That explains everything, thanks! :D :D //Kris