Hum

[DarkMark]

Is this what you mean, Simon?
Also (stupid question time)…” So the output wire braid is soldered to the back of the volume pot…”
You are talking about the wire inside the braided cable?

[McCreed]

Do you have single, or 2 core shielded wire?
Is it metal braid outside, or is the braid inside a PCV insulator? (with 2 conductors)

I think Simon's referring to this type of wire:



This is "single core" but the braided portion is conductive (metal) and acts as both shield and/or ground wire connection.
Often called "vintage" shielded wire or similar.

[Simon Barden]

As above. You push back the braid a bit, solder the central wire to the relevant pot tab and solder the braid to the back of the pot with it still surrounding the inner wire.

[Simon Barden]

With the output jack you just need one piece of braided wire. At the jack end, you cut/break out the braiding so you've got enough of it to wind together to make a wire you can solder to the jack for the ground connection, with the central wire making the signal connection.

[OliSam]

the magic smoke out I pay for it so will wait until after warranty is up.

ive never heard of this before.....

[OliSam]

A) No risk of damage at all by earthing the guitar lead's ground connection.

B) The ES-3 is a fully hollow-body kit with no control cavities. Even if one were able to get inside and screen the entire body, the two F-holes would still let in a lot of RFI. A Faraday cage is only as effective as its largest gap (which obviously should be very small or non-existent). The length of the F-holes precludes any real shielding. It would have some effect for noise from the rear and sides, but maybe almost none for RFI hitting the front of the guitar. So apart from impracticality, it simply wouldn't be that effective.

The wiring harness in the ES-3 is pretty small, so the only real length of wire that would benefit from braided cable is the output jack connection.

If it were me, I'd probably start again with new pots, and use the volume pot as the 'star' grounding point. So the output wire braid is soldered to the back of the volume pot, the pickup grounds are connected to the back of the volume pot (as they are at present), and the trapeze ground and tone pot ground are also taken from the back of the volume pot. Star-wiring the ground is the best way of wiring up a harness for minimum noise, but it's only really practical on a simple arrangement like you have.

brilliant suggestion

[McCreed]

ive never heard of this before.....

So you didn't know that all electronics has smoke in it?

The trick is to never let it out!

[Rabbit]

So you didn't know that all electronics has smoke in it?

The trick is to never let it out!

The electronics manufacturers are now charging extra for the smoke as part of the lowering of carbon footprint...

[DarkMark]

Ok, I think I understand. I’ll redraw it tomorrow to tidy up the diagram and for confirmation.

[DarkMark]

Does this make sense?