Alternate wiring circuit for 2 hum, 2 vol, 3-way toggle.

[GerardL]

Hi folk,

I just finished a build and wanted to share my rough wiring diagram, just incase it is of use to someone struggling here.
Although the build I completed was my first, im not new to wiring pickups in my other guitars.

My build was a EXA-1, but of course this circuit will suit any guitar with the same configuration, two pickups, two pots and a 3 way toggle switch.

I also noticed that my preferred circuit was quite different to what is shared here on the 'official' page, so perhaps my simple diagram may offer an alternate way to hook things up for you.

My rationale: I rarely use a Tone control (other than on my Les Pauls) and so on my guitars (Where im typically playing Hard Rock style music) the tone is usually left turned on full. So when presented with only two pots on a two pickup guitar I always prefer to use both pots to give each pickup its own volume control.

Another reason I usually don't wire up a tone pot, is what experienced folk may know already, is that Tone controls on a guitar don't 'increase' or boost your pickups tone, instead, when you roll the knob they remove frequencies. So in effect they subtract tone.
On many guitars even with the tone turned on full the pot still negatively impacts the signal (with most pots, its not a true bypass) and in my opinion this can have an undesirable effect on your pickups full potential.

Opting instead to use both pots for volume controls you can obtain some good sounds blending your neck and bridge pickups, or turn one off completely and use the toggle switch to create kill switch effects, or keep your neck pickup at a lower volume for rhythm sections and switch to your bridge pickup for solos. All useful and obvious stuff.

Anyway here is my rough diagram.
It assumes the pickups are either 2 connector wire, or a 4 connector pickup with two of the wires hooked up and removed from the circuit (i.e. no coil tap or splitting.. which would really require push pull pots anyway).

If your pickup has an outer braid or internal unshielded wire, then please consider this a ground, possibly to be joined together with another wire from your pickup. Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan etc all have their own colour scheme and polarity, so look up which colours wires they state as being ground etc. That info is usually in the pickup box or is always available on their websites.

Hope this helps and doesn't further confuse anyone

Cheers,
G.

PS.. remember to gently sand an area on the back of your pots before soldering. This will give you a better ground/earth.
PPS .. what isn't shown here is that there is a ground wire from the tailpiece stud that is soldered into the earth circuit (Just solder it to the back of either of the pots).