Learn The Basics of Guitar Wiring | Guitar Tech Tips | Ep. 64 | Thomann

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:

All Guitar Tech Tips episodes:

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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[lamontprospect]

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. 😃

[FingalPersson]

I learned how to solder in school in 2005. 🙂 I swapped pots yesterday, and have swapped all 3 single coil pickups (easiest to install due to only one hot one ground ) I use single coil sized humbuckers, have 1 bare ground, one insulated ground, and one hot, then two more if you want to wire wire a split function which I soldered together and insulated since I'm not using them. I use my teeth to strip the insulation of the thin wires. In my guitar there was 1 capacitor shared over two pots, I soldered 1 cap per tone pot 🙂 It was a great success

[lamontprospect]

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.

[lamontprospect]

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.

[charlesb]

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

[strange_jason]

DIY layout creator is an awesome way to check guitar wiring and test different ideas.

[shipsahoy]

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! 🤪

[jjrusy]

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.

[lamontprospect]

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. 😄😃😀

[fahronnigafyan]

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?

[lamontprospect]

"Hello...911? I think my ground wire is touching my hot wire. Please send the fire department over as soon as you can." 😄

[NicleT]

That’s a huge pair of resistors at 3:12 !!

[lamontprospect]

Nice jamming Chris. Love that Burst. 🤘

[stevenaustin]

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!

[TerrapinCreations]

I’ll have to watch this about a dozen times. I might understand by then, lol

[inyourfaceguitar]

Using your tone knob as a wah-wah...way cool, man.

[tunizra]

Cool video I learned nothing on how to write my guitar

[jimfbailey]

I just purchased a Harley Benton RB-612-BK. I was struggling to get the plastic off the pick guard. It didn't tear nicely from under each pick guard screw. So I decided to take the screws out of the pick guard which worked. But when I decided to look at the wiring I ended up with a black and a white wire apparently breaking off from a solder joint. These two wires come out of the same hole in the guitar. I assume they go to the jack?? If so where do they connect. There are not any clues of Broken wires on any device. Please help. Thanks

[markus]

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).

[goernil]

By the way, I love Ibanez autosplit function