TL-1 Wiring Confusion

[jameswhittaker]

I am currently working on my first build (TL-1)

I got on fine (although very messy) soldering the pick up wires to the switch and the pots but now I've come to wire up the jack and am facing some confusion.

I watched the video on soldering a TL-1 and they said there should be two wires, one which is split with a coated and a bare wire. I have three wires (2 black and one yellow) None of which appear to be split. I tried looking up standard tele wiring diagrams and tried different combinations of the wires and tested for a signal. None of this worked so I am at a loss for what to do.

Here is a picture.

[Simon Barden]

Hi and welcome.

The yellow wire is the signal wire that goes to the tip connection of the output jack. The two black wires are both ground wires. One will go to the ground/sleeve connection of the output jack and the other should be used to ground the bridge plate.

There should be a hole that comes up under where the bridge sits. When you are about to fit the bridge, first push the wire through, then bare a little of the end and splay the wires out. Catch the bare wires under the bridge and screw the bridge down, trapping the wires underneath. If there isn't a hole, you can either just trap the wire under the bridge at the rear-end of the pickup rout, or solder a small washer on to the end of the wire and use it on a pickup mounting screw, so that the spring holds it against the bridge plate.

[McCreed]

Simon got this one covered (again) but this is the third "2 black wires and 1 yellow wire" thread in the past month.

I wonder if Adam or someone could post a sticky about the wire colour discrepancy between the (old) how-to videos and the actual kit wire colours.
I know they're subject to change with different kit manufacturers, but it could still aid in lessening some confusion for first-timers.

[Simon Barden]

I've asked Brendan if he can modify the wiring diagram with an appropriate note (based on where the wires are connected to, rather than actual colour, as that may keep changing).