Drew's ES-5V first (ish) build

[Simon Barden]

I've obviously got two days sleep to catch up on, so I won't care.

[DarkMark]

I’m thankful for your detailed wiring posts. I’ll be revisiting this section when the time comes to wire mine. Good luck with the soldering.

[blinddrew]

Cheers DarkMark, all done and tested. I used the StewMac diagram plus the additional earth wire that Simon described. Plugged into an amp and slid the pickup under the strings on my hofner, all working and a good range of tone.
Hardest bit is getting the solder to stick to the back of the pots!

[Simon Barden]

Yes, I'm a bit concerned about your pot solder joints after looking at the pics more closely.

I always sand the back of the pot first to remove any oxidised metal, then run solder on the back of the pot. It needs to be got hot enough so that the solder melts and spreads out over the back of the pot. Then tin the wire for the connection, and then make the joint. Again, it needs to be got hot enough so that the solder melts properly and spreads out, and doesn't remain a blob that's lightly tacked to the surface as it's likely to come off in the future.

[WeirdBits]

Oops, missed that (lack of) ground, thanks Simon... post then drink, not drink then post

[Simon Barden]

It's easy enough to miss when you've done a lot of harnesses as you know that wire has to be there and you'd add it as a matter of course. But if you're new to it, and follow the diagram religiously, then it does need to be 100% right.

[DarkMark]

Cheers DarkMark, all done and tested. I used the StewMac diagram plus the additional earth wire that Simon described. Plugged into an amp and slid the pickup under the strings on my hofner, all working and a good range of tone.
Hardest bit is getting the solder to stick to the back of the pots!

I believe you had to drill wider holes to fit your standard sized pots. Did you use the linear taper pot for your tone control?

[blinddrew]

Might start again for the pots then. Everything is testing ok, and i did score the back of the pots first, but i'll give it all a nudge with the pliers and see if anything moves.

[blinddrew]

Hi DM (quote function isn't working on this phone), yep I had to widen the holes to 10mm. I went with an audio taper on both pots because it was fractionally cheaper and i have no frame of reference to determine if one is better than the other.

[Simon Barden]

It helps if you can clip something as a heatsink to the side of the pot you're soldering to reduce the heat transferring to the innards. I often use a pair of mole grips.