So, I bought a couple kits a few years back and I've had my ES-3 sitting waiting for wiring for over a year now. Finally decided to get back to finish it off and now I'm confused about what wiring that was included in the kit is for what connections.
I bought some better quality braided wire when I bought the kit but have totally forgotten why
So, I'm hoping someone can take pity on me and help me decode the wires I've got and how they should be used (following the wiring diagram found on the website). Here's what I've got:
The wire on the bottom is just braided shielding (for ground?)? The braided wire on the left has a single multi-strand wire.
Here's the wiring diagram I am trying to use:
Unfortunately the Pit Bull wiring diagram isn't really the best one to use for this sort of wiring where you are running quite long distances. You really need to draw your own one up after you've decided which sort of wire runs between which component.
Basically you want to run the short distances in the single coil wire (break a piece off from the rest of the ribbon) and the longer distances in the braided wire. You can use the centre wire for the signal and the outer brain to carry the ground, whilst acting as a shield for the signal cable. So basically the three wires going to the switch and I'd also use it for the output jack wire.
Use the ground connection on the 3-way switch as a common point for connecting the braid wire screens. Using a separate piece of wire to do this as per this video helps a lot here. And using heat shrink to insulate the braids an signal cables is highly recommended. It may take slightly longer to do, but you don't want to have dodgy wiring inside a hollow body guitar and keep having to take the harness out.
I recommend watching these two videos to get an idea of the techniques used.
Use a piece of cardboard as a template to fit the pots into when wiring up the pot part of the harness. Mark on the position of the F-hole as you'll want to run the wires around the outside of it so you don't have them showing.
Thanks Simon,
That helps clear things up quite a bit. I've watched the 335 harness video (very neat work) and noticed a couple differences from the wiring diagram that perhaps you could comment on.
1) in the video they solder the capacitor between the middle lug of the volume pot and left hand lug (with lugs pointing up) on the tone pot as opposed to putting it between the 2nd lug of the tone pot and the case of the tone pot. Are these equivalent methods? Is one better than the other?
2) at the end of the video (wiring is said to be complete) it appears that the right hand lug of the volume is not being used but in the wiring diagram it shows the right hand lug of the volume pot connected to the left hand lug of the tone pot. Is that wire not needed because they put the capacitor between the volume and tone pots?
Just to clarify my question #2... I know that the hot wire from the pickup gets soldered onto the right hand lug but I'm unclear if the wire to the tone pot is only required if the capacitor isn't installed between volume and tone pots.
1) Equivalent methods. With a tone circuit you've got a connection to the guitar signal at one end, a capacitor and a variable resistor (the tone pot) wired in series in the middle and a connection to ground at the other end.
It doesn't matter if the capacitor is first or the resistor is first. Because you are using the pot as a variable resistor, and not a potential divider, it doesn't matter which of the two tabs you go in on and come out of, you still get the same variable resistance between the two tabs.
The variable resistor's job is to control the amount of high and mid frequency sound passing through the resistor to ground. With the pot set at 10, you have maximum resistance, so almost no HF roll-off. With the pot at 0 (or 1 if it's a Strat), you've got no resistance so all the HF and a lot of the mids pass through to ground, giving you a bassy sound.
2) Two things here:
a) He's building a wiring harness for a 335, but because it's a 335, the pickups have to be fitted in the body and their output leads pulled through the lower F-hole, and then wired to the harness whilst it's just outside the body. Once the pickups are wired in, the harness can be pushed through the F-hole and the pots pulled into place with rubber/plastic tubing or string etc.
b) He's wiring the harness in the 'vintage way' i.e. with the tone pot connected to the output of the volume pot. This reduces the treble roll-off when you turn the volume down, so there's no need to fit a treble bleed circuit, but it does make the volume and tone controls quite 'interactive' so adjusting the tone also adjusts the volume a bit.
The wiring diagram shows the 'modern way' (i.e. since the late 60s) with the tone connected to the input of the volume pot, so it's always working on the full signal strength from the pickups. This stops any volume interaction but you do lose treble as you turn the volume down.
Note that on the ES-3, you can wire up the pickups as part of the harness, and feed everything through one of the pickup holes (one of the pickups has to be fed into the body and out the other pickup hole). It makes it a lot easier and you can do basic tap tests of the whole harness to make sure it's all working before you put it in.
Reply With Quote
