Multi-wire single coil pickups #2

[GlennGP]

Hey all, just want to get some reassurance about a wiring issue.

I have the Bill Lawrence Keystone Tele set for the Red Menace (see http://wildepickups.com/Wiring___Tech_Info.html). They each have a white wire (hot), a blue wire (ground) and a black wire (also ground).

So I'm thinking that I should run each of the black wires to the back of the volume pot and, instead of running a ground wire back to each cavity from the back of the volume pot, I just connect the other (blue) ground wire from each pickup to the cavity - at the neck, to a lug in the shielding, and in the bridge, up and under the bridge in the normal fashion.

Can anyone see a problem with this approach?

[lawry]

Hi Glenn. Your approach will work as long as all your cavity shielding is grounded. However, for the best hum rejection, in an ideal world, you should always take ALL grounds to the one central point. This eliminates the possibility of any induced ground loops with your wiring. The difference may be undetectable compared to you approach, but as I said, that is the ideal.
Cheers

[Fretworn]

His instructions are a bit unclear, but it looks like white is hot, black is ground and blue is like the shielding wire. That's the way he seems to be wiring it anyway.

[GlennGP]

Hmm, thanks guys. What about if I just splice blue to black and run the black to the vol pot? Seems like the same result, just fewer wires in the tunnels. I would also bring a ground back from the pot to the shielding.

[WeirdBits]

Three wire single coils pups, particularly for Teles, will usually have a hot/cold pair (or hot/ground, start/finish, +/-, however you like to think of them) for the coil and a separate shield wire (or cover/casing ground wire). This allows alternate wiring configurations like with a Tele 4-way switch with a bridge + neck in series setting, which needs the coil to be separate from the shield/ground. If your neck pup has a nickel cover look at it carefully and you should see that one of the 'ground' wires, black or blue, is connected to one of the lugs on the pup cover. The other wires should be the coil pair, with white being the 'hot'. Or, just use a multimeter to determine which wires are which.

If you are not going to be doing any fancy series wiring you can just connect the two ground wires together (black and blue), as Lawry said, at a central ground point (usually the back of a pot, which then has a single ground wire to the jack). Having the ground links for your cavity shielding separate from the pups will mean easier maintenance and problem solving. It is also better to leave the pup leads intact, where possible, so that you don't limit your options for potential future upgrades/mods.

[GlennGP]

Excellent, thanks Weirdbits, and Lawry, I believe I will keep it orthodox and take all grounds to the volume pot and ground the cavity shielding separately. I've learned something, so it's been a good day!