ES-3 Wiring confusion

[markaroni]

Hello! I am beginning to work on the wiring for my ES-3 while I let the poly cure. I am making a wiring diagram that is more accurate for the ES-3 in terms of the placement of the parts, but I’m a bit confused about some of the connections on the PitBull diagram. Am I correct in saying that the switch is grounded to the neck tone pot, the jack and bridge wire are both grounded to the bridge volume pot, and both pickups are grounded to the neck volume pot? Also, does the diagram want you to ground the jack and bridge wire to the bridge volume using separate wires? Can I ground wires to different pots in order to avoid overcrowding, or does it matter which pots the wires are grounded to? Anything helps!!

[Simon Barden]

You can use any pot to ground wires, as long as all the backs of the pots are connected together and grounded. The only thing you want to try and avoid doing is creating a ring with the ground wires. I'd definitely ground the bridge pickup on the bridge volume pot and the neck pickup on the neck volume pot.

I agree that the wiring diagram isn't optimised for an ES-3 and the way it's wires run. It was probably one of the first diagrams done and whilst technically it works, it's not very ergonomic!

Definitely make up a cardboard template when wiring the pots together, and mark on the position of the F-hole so you can arrange the wires to run around the outside of the F-hole. You may find that taping or cable tying some wires together is necessary to keep everything neat. Also consider how the pickup wires will run to avoid being seen.

Draw it out, and post a photo of it if you want it checked or commented on.

[markaroni]

here is a picture of the template I made to try make sure all the wires are long enough

[markaroni]

You can use any pot to ground wires, as long as all the backs of the pots are connected together and grounded. The only thing you want to try and avoid doing is creating a ring with the ground wires. I'd definitely ground the bridge pickup on the bridge volume pot and the neck pickup on the neck volume pot.

I agree that the wiring diagram isn't optimised for an ES-3 and the way it's wires run. It was probably one of the first diagrams done and whilst technically it works, it's not very ergonomic!

Definitely make up a cardboard template when wiring the pots together, and mark on the position of the F-hole so you can arrange the wires to run around the outside of the F-hole. You may find that taping or cable tying some wires together is necessary to keep everything neat. Also consider how the pickup wires will run to avoid being seen.

Draw it out, and post a photo of it if you want it checked or commented on.

Here is a picture of the diagram that I made. Does everything seem okay?

[Simon Barden]

Yes, that looks fine.

[markaroni]

When soldering wires, is it okay to hook the end of a wire in order to stay on the prongs of the pots? Or should I only feed it straight through the hole?

[Simon Barden]

Fine to hook it. It makes it a more sturdy joint but a little harder to take apart if you ever need to unsolder it.

[markaroni]

When installing the switch, are there any issues with installing the switch sideways so that it goes left to right, so long as the wires run cleanly to the controls?

[Simon Barden]

Switch orientation is up to you, so no problems. Just work out which way round the switch has to go so that forwards selects the neck pickup and back selects the bridge pickup (presuming that's how you'd like it). Depending on the resulting switch orientation, you may need slightly longer wires to it one way rather than the other way.

I may have said this before, but unlike on a 335-style, with a full hollow body guitar like the ES-1, you can make up the full harness including the pickups, outside the guitar. I fed mine in through the neck pickup hole. You just have to feed the bridge pickup through the hole and then back out through the bridge pickup hole, which is a bit easier to do if you fit the pickup ring afterwards.

[markaroni]

This is the wiring that I came up with. Pickups work well when tapping with a screw driver. The bridge tone pot is a bit off, meaning there’s only a great change in tone when going towards either extreme (1-2 and 8-10). But this is probably because of the pots not being top of the line, which I don’t mind at all since this is my first build and I just want a working guitar that plays nicely haha.