FV-1 Wiring Diagram

Not sure the correct place to post this, so I may cross-post in a couple of spots (sorry).

I got my FV-1 kist a few months back and have finally finished the painting etc, so I decided that today was a good day to sit down and wire it up. Went looking for a wiring diagram and can't seem to find the correct one. This kit has two humbuckers, 1 volume and 2 tone pots and a 3-way switch. I can see wiring diagrams for 2H, 2V, 2T and 3-way switch, 2H, 2 Pots and a 3-way switch, but can't find anything that matches this kit. Anyone know where I might find something? Was hoping to have this all ready to go today. I know I should have looked into this when I got the kit months ago but I don't think that far ahead :-p

Not sure the correct place to post this, so I may cross-post in a couple of spots (sorry).

I got my FV-1 kist a few months back and have finally finished the painting etc, so I decided that today was a good day to sit down and wire it up. Went looking for a wiring diagram and can't seem to find the correct one. This kit has two humbuckers, 1 volume and 2 tone pots and a 3-way switch. I can see wiring diagrams for 2H, 2V, 2T and 3-way switch, 2H, 2 Pots and a 3-way switch, but can't find anything that matches this kit. Anyone know where I might find something? Was hoping to have this all ready to go today. I know I should have looked into this when I got the kit months ago but I don't think that far ahead :-p

Hi m0j0.

Try this one:
https://guitarelectronics.com/2-humbuckers-3-way-toggle-switch-1-volume-2-tones

Cool, thanks. I'd actually just grabbed that and printed it out but I'm more confident now that you've given me the same.

Now to work out how to wire this bloody thing up. Never done one like this before with all the pickups and knobs mounted on the pickguard but still needing to route the wiring through drill holes in the body. Makes for a very awkward soldering job because I need to balance the pickguard near the body while doing all the soldering so I don't have a crapload of cable to bundle back into the cavities. As much as I hate the idea, might be worth doing this with plug-in connectors so I can solder it all and route cables through, then just connect the plugs just before I mount the pick-guard.

If I were doing this, I wouldn't mount the pickups to the pickguard until everything was soldered.

Just lay the pickups in their respective routes; run the wires through to the control cavity to be soldered to the pots; use the pickguard to make a small template of the pot/switch holes out of cardboard. Use the cardboard to hold the pots while you're soldering. This way you're not wrestling the a giant cumbersome piece of plastic.

Once everything is soldered, pop the pots/switch out of the cardboard and into the pickguard, mount the pickups. Done.

edited to add:
Whilst you're soldering, lay an old towel or something similar over the body to protect the finish from any molten solder.
You don't want to melt little craters into the brand new paint that you've laboured so hard to get right.

But a real Flying V should have two volume and one tone pot. If you can take some pictures of the wiring components we can see what you've got. The kit picture seems to show just one capacitor in the kit. It could be a descriptive error in the kit explanation.

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Originally Posted by Simon Barden

But a real Flying V should have two volume and one tone pot. If you can take some pictures of the wiring components we can see what you've got. The kit picture seems to show just one capacitor in the kit. It could be a descriptive error in the kit explanation.

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I've already got it assembled, but can tell you that it did come with two caps and I've wired it as two tone knobs. That said, I'm probably going to have to pull it apart again as I seem to have a bit of a buzz/hum which may be some sort of grounding issue. Weird thing is that I don't have it all the time. I get it all the time when using the bridge pickup, but if I flick the switch to both pickups, and turn the tone pot to minimum treble, the hum goes away - but it comes back if I adjust the tone pot with more treble. It's a strange one. Possibly grounding issue on one of the tone pots but I'm guessing. I don't believe I have a ground loop but I'm going to have to draw out my wiring because I can't remember exactly how I did it. I've definitely got grounding from the bridge to the jack, so it's something else.

Here's a photo I took just before I finished putting it all together, but it doesn't show the kind of detail you're after.

Attachment 34267

Think I may see the problem (or at least one problem). Haven't pulled it apart yet, but zooming in on the original HD version of that last pic and I think I may have forgotten the earth on the switch. Hopefully that's all it is. Should be an easy fix, but couldn't be bothered tonight. Time for beer.

The tone pot simply sends all the higher frequencies to ground, and as the noise is mainy higher frequency noise, that's why it seems to disappear. If it was mains induced 50/100 Hz (or 60/120Hz) noise, it would be too low a frequency to be affected by the tone pot so you'd still hear it. I doubt it' s just down to the switch not being grounded.

Have you grounded the bridge or tailpiece? I can't see a ground wire in the picture (unless it's that long black wire running from the jack socket to the bridge pickup cavity)?

Otherwise the main culprit is getting the connections swapped over on the output jack.

I don't see a wire that looks like it comes from the bridge. This would usually be from one of the posts. Easy to check without opening up the control cavity. Plug in a short cable, and put a test lead from an ohm meter on the shaft of shaft of the jack that is not plugged in. Put the other test lead on a string. If the meter jumps your bridge is grounded. If it doesn't jump, then try putting the lead on the tip. If it jumps the bridge is grounded but the jack is reversed. Since your pickup covers are metal you can use the same test to make sure each pickup shield is grounded.

Also, you might add some shielding. Even with humbuckers you can get noise when unshielded.

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Originally Posted by fender3x

I don't see a wire that looks like it comes from the bridge. This would usually be from one of the posts. Easy to check without opening up the control cavity. Plug in a short cable, and put a test lead from an ohm meter on the shaft of shaft of the jack that is not plugged in. Put the other test lead on a string. If the meter jumps your bridge is grounded. If it doesn't jump, then try putting the lead on the tip. If it jumps the bridge is grounded but the jack is reversed. Since your pickup covers are metal you can use the same test to make sure each pickup shield is grounded.

Also, you might add some shielding. Even with humbuckers you can get noise when unshielded.

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Thanks Fender,

It is grounded, it's the black shielded cable that runs right through to the jack. Tested with multimeter and that's all fine. It did occur to me that I hadn't shielded the pickup cavities which I'll try to do today as I do have a roll from the last build where I also forgot about shielding those cavities :-D
That, plus fixing the switch grounding and moving the bridge grounding connection to the back of one of the pots and hopefully it will be sounding better soon.

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Otherwise the main culprit is getting the connections swapped over on the output jack.

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I think Simon is onto it there.

What/where is that turquoise wire going to after it comes out of the hole to the jack?
It disappears behind the pickguard in the photo.

You have 3 wires coming out of that hole as well. Generally speaking there's usually just 2, the positive and the ground.
I'm guessing you have 2 grounds going to the jack? (1 from bridge, 1 from a pot?)

Found the issue and fixed it. I didn't read the wiring diagram closely enough and missed the grounding of the outside of the volume pot. Fixed that and shielded all the cavities while I had it open. Moved the bridge grounding to the back of one of the tone pots and all good.

Thanks for your help, guys. Love this community. Now with isolation at hand, I think it's time to order another kit.

Excellent result m0j0! Great to hear.

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Now with isolation at hand, I think it's time to order another kit.

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Yep, I have two (non-kit) builds on the go at the moment. Should keep me out of trouble for a while :o