AES-1 Special

[DarkMark]

That’s a good idea Simon. I hadn’t thought of that.

[DarkMark]

Electronics are on their way. Would someone please confirm or help correct my wiring diagram. Note I have two wires from the pickup, the black wire is thicker than the red wire. I assume the black wire ends at the back of the volume pot and the red wire joins at the tab. (The back of the pot to tab join doesn’t seem relevant to my pickup). Output earth to back of one of the pots…any suggestions?

[Simon Barden]

The thick 'black' wire looks like it's probably another wire like the the red one (in thickness) but wound with a braided ground wire, soldered at the end and then covered in heat shrink. So basically a two signal wire + screen cable. This allows you to easily change the pickup output polarity if needed (maybe for compatibility with another manufacturer's pickup or to create an 'out of phase' pickup mix). All irrelevant if you only have the one pickup.

So yes, black to the back of the volume pot, red to the input tab of the pot. Just don't link the input tab to the back of the pot as you've show or you'll get sweet silence.

I'd put heatshrink on the two legs of the capacitor. Assuming you are using braided screen wire for the output connection, it will prevent any risk of the braid contacting the cap leads and shorting the signal (either silence or full tone roll-off). Alternatively use heatshrink on the braided wire. Or both to be doubly sure.

[DarkMark]

👍 Thanks Simon. As I expected but always nice to have confirmation on the esoteric steps. Yes, going the full ‘Christo’ with heat shrink was my thought too.

https://youtu.be/ge8uBsvAKmw

[DarkMark]

Does this make sense?

[DarkMark]

Oops, should I do back of the volume pot to tailpiece instead like my humbucker plans?

[Simon Barden]

See my reply in 'Hum'. Best not to ask in two different threads as it gets confusing. I thought my reply (which I made in 'Hum') had gone missing!

[DarkMark]

Sorry Simon. Braided wire is new to me and I thought I could apply something I’d learnt from the humbucker diagram to this diagram. You’ve been helping me out a lot. I have a lot of respect for the time and help you give me and everyone else.

[Simon Barden]

Ah yes, my fault, I'm getting very confused (not uncommon these days). Exactly the same principles on both the ES-3 and this one. To go 100% with the star grounding scheme, I'd connect the tailpiece ground on the back of the volume pot.

[DarkMark]

Three hours later I have a wiring harness, minus the earth to tailpiece wire. Plugged into the amp for the tap test it worked but with a god awful buzz. Turned off the soldering iron which was plugged into the same PowerPoint outlet and the buzz stopped 🤷. Must remember not to solder between guitar solo’s.

Did I forget to cover the shielded wire one solder too late? Absolutely!