TL-1TB Build

[Simon Barden]

Yes, a common modification, though sometimes you may have to extend the neck pickup lead length with some after-market pickups, as annoyingly some can be just a few mm too short to reach the reversed switch position.

Personally, I always stick the grounds on the volume pot, not the tone pot. Grounding of the pickup signal and it's connection to the output ground is the most important ground connection you make.

The back of the tone pot doesn’t have to be grounded (though it’s nice to have) if you aren’t wiring the tone circuit ground to the back of the tone pot.

You've done what I like to do and use the cap leg to connect to the volume pot ground tag and the back of the pot. But you are currently reliant on the control plate providing the ground connection. All it takes is for the volume pot nut to come loose, or for corrosion to build-up on the surfaces of the nuts, and you get a higher resistance connection, with a drop off in signal quality and increased noise pickup. Too loose and the signal becomes intermittent.

So I always ensure there's a soldered ground connection to the volume pot. If you use that as the main ground point, you can't go wrong, especially wiring the tone control the way you have. The tone pot casing then only acts as a shield for the track and wiper inside and shielding still works with high resistances to ground, so if the tone pot is a little loose it doesn't matter.

Of course it all works fine as long as everything's tight, but I do prefer to prepare for the worst case.

I've now taken to soldering tinned copper wire to the back of the volume pot and wrapping that around the ends of the pickup and output grounds before soldering those ends to the wire. It's easier to solder one fairly thin bit of wire to a pot and then the wire to the ground leads than it is to solder three or four ground wires to the back of the volume pot with attendant risk of heat damage. There are many ways to solder up these harnesses, and any way that works is perfectly valid, but some ways are a bit easier to do and maintain than others.

[fender3x]

I've now taken to soldering tinned copper wire to the back of the volume pot and wrapping that around the ends of the pickup and output grounds before soldering those ends to the wire. It's easier to solder one fairly thin bit of wire to a pot and then the wire to the ground leads than it is to solder three or four ground wires to the back of the volume pot with attendant risk of heat damage. There are many ways to solder up these harnesses, and any way that works is perfectly valid, but some ways are a bit easier to do and maintain than others.

I literally just did this on a build for my daughter. I had not thought it through the way Simon has, but I run the thin tinned wire from the leg of the V pot to the back, and then hand the other connections off the tinned wire. It's a very good tip. Feels almost like cheating.