The Jazz Guitar Chord Dictionary
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  1. #1

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    Got myself a lovely jazz guitar kit for xmas (girlfriend got me a heated seat cushion, which I assure you I do not need).

    But it comes with non standard wiring and no diagram to set it up.

    Can you guys help me solve the wiring of this ES-335 copy?-wiring-diagram-photo-jpg

    If I post the photos I am hoping someone with global experience can help me finish this off.

    1. The tone pots have the caps on the third lug, I will show photos...I don't think this is "wrong" but it's non standard. They are soldered to the pot case, and grounded, and the input wire to lug two has it's stranding grounded as well.

    2. I can't tell which of the wires goes to the positions of the 3 position switch.

    If you guys can help me solve this, I'd appreciate it.

    Can you guys help me solve the wiring of this ES-335 copy?-tone-pot-jpg

    Can you guys help me solve the wiring of this ES-335 copy?-wiring-diagram-photo-jpg

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  3. #2

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    This is a guide as the wire colours will likely vary.

    Can you guys help me solve the wiring of this ES-335 copy?-screen-shot-2022-01-05-4-55-28-pm-png


    I'm assuming you have 2 humbuckers? Could you please post a pic of the pickups showing the ends of the pickup wires.

    Who made/distributes the kit?
    Have you contacted them for help?

  4. #3

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    Are you after50s or modern wiring? There a a few ‘standards’
    coil split?

    merry Xmass! Hope your ass is warmer this year!

  5. #4

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    How about plugging it in and putting a screwdriver against a pole piece. Then you know which pickup relates to which switch position.
    Or putting a pickup under a string and checking that the tone works.
    I suppose that’s all you need to know.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  6. #5

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    The pickups are soldered to one of the outer lugs of the volume pot, this is your “in” (the other outer lug is grounded to the pot’s casing).

    In your picture there are white wires from the middle lugs of the volume pots. This is your “out” and they go the 3-way switch.

    Which way the tone pots are connected depends on which type of wiring is followed (modern wiring vs 50ies wiring) and doesn’t really matter although there are subtle differences in the way the tone rolls off when you dial back the pot. But in theory there is no difference in tone, especially not when treble is on 10.

    50ies:


    Modern:





    Personally, with those Asian pots I am a fan of modern wiring with treble bleeds on the volume pots:


  7. #6
    So it's not an issue if the grounded cap goes to lug 3 instead of somewhere else?

    I bought the kit without realizing I'm on the road with zero tools. No test light, no soldering kit, etc. So I got ahead of myself. I don

    I can solder the 100k cap as indicated. I just wasn't sure if this was some sort of pan-asian "goofy-foot" wiring that used a negative ground or some schitz.

  8. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Drewcifer
    So it's not an issue if the grounded cap goes to lug 3 instead of somewhere else?
    No that should work fine.

  9. #8
    For reference this guitar is an E335 copy, almost the stewmac, but it's from asia directly from the factory.

    The pickups are p90 knockoffs, both single coil.

    ---------WIRING ISSUES-----------------
    I soldered my neck and bridge volume pots to the pins on the 3 way switch.

    On mine, the ground is the single isolated pin,

    All hots going to the 3 pin side. Jack hot to the center pin, and neck and bridge volume pots going to the respective pins on the switch. So far so good.

    But the wiring of the volume pots is odd as you can see in the photos.

    The wires going from the volume pots to the tone pots is the OUTER lug, that is where I soldered the hot lead to the pickups.

    Should I have used the center lug of the volume pots?

    The guitar plays, but, I can't control the volume or tone of either pickup. Pickups transmit sound, aboslutely NOTHING happening at the pots. ZERO.

    Thoughts?

    Nut is has high as a giraffes' ass crack so the whole guitar needs a tweak at the shop, but I'd appreciate the help.

  10. #9

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    How many wires come out of your pickups?

    Do I understand correctly that the wiring pic you posted is a pre-wired harness that came with the guitar? If that doesn’t work, I would unsolder it and redo it like in the wiring schematics posted.

  11. #10

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    Actually I suspect you did something wrong at the switch, it sounds like the signal from the pickups goes directly to the output jack and bypasses the pots

    Or maybe you switched the signal and ground wires from the pickups around…

    It’s difficult to do diagnostics just from a description……

  12. #11

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    Here’s a more typical Asian 335-wiring (much like the one Greco posted but for P90s with braided wiring (braid = ground, core = signal). Actually, if you switch the pickup wires around, especially if it’s not braided wire but two seperate wires, it would still work.



    Try to understand how the signal flow works.

    The tone pots bleed off high frequencies of the signal to ground (frequency is set by the value of the cap, without the cap it would just be another tone pot). In this case signal goes into lug 1, then through the wiper of the pot (a variable resistor), out of lug 2 and via a cap to the pot’s casing. Since the casing is grounded (connected to the ground of the output jack), the signal bleeds to ground. Lug 3 is not used. It doesn’t really matter what lugs are used, as long as it results in a circuit to ground with a cap somewhere in the path. If the pot is not grounded, simply nothing happens.

    But since your volume pots also don’t work but you do have sound, I suspect you are bypassing the whole circuit all together, which could happen at the switch or perhaps also at the tone pots.

    The only solution is to get the harness out again and compare it to the schematic.

  13. #12

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    Oh and keep in mind that Asian 3-way switches have different connections than switch craft:



  14. #13

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    There are multiple 'standard' ways of wiring a guitar. They all work, but can have slightly different sounds. Some change the tone when the volume control is changed, some don't. You can choose which you prefer. Little Jay posted several above. Note that the wires on most are shielded, with a braid ground on the outside, and an insulated hot wire inside that. The ground on all is indeed 'negative', that's the standard way everything is done except for the goofy positive ground on pedals. Nothing else that I know of uses a positive ground other than pedals, and that's just for power, not signal.

  15. #14
    Hi all,

    Thanks for your great responses.

    Right off the top, this kit ship with input going to lug 2 of the volume pots, switch goes to lug 1. Once I put that back in place, the bridge pickup worked flawlessly. Let's dive into why the bridge pickup wasn't playing nice.

    I troubleshot the issue by isolating each pickup and working from the pickup to the volume pot to the tone pot. Power to switch, power to volume pot, power to tone pot.

    Bridge works, neck doesn't. Was stumped. Switch was cutting in and out when I used the mixed position.

    Turns out the wire between the neck volume pot and switch was overheated while I soldered.
    All the other wires aren't faulting or failing. (Also maddening because the middle position of the switch kept going in and out, making me lose my mind. Eventually I realized it was a faulty wire, not a faulty solder joint)

    I have flux now and rosin core solder, but the first time I tried it was just silver solder and no flux. So I overheated. I need a small 15 watt pencil iron for wires this delicate. Turns out the one I bought was a 60, which is more powerful than my usual home iron that I think runs 15 or 25

    Since I know the bridge pickup channel is fine, I think the neck one will work fine too once I have the good wire replacing the faulted one.

    Will check in after I make that fix.
    Last edited by Drewcifer; 03-27-2022 at 06:15 AM.

  16. #15

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    Welcome to the dark art of guitar wiring! Can you guys help me solve the wiring of this ES-335 copy?

  17. #16
    Thanks all for your help.

    I shook the wiring down with a voltmeter, and found a wire had an internal fault, so I used that one as a ground wire only, and ran the hot on another wire I salvaged.

    It took desoldering the entire volume pot and resoldering lug by lug, wire by wire until the whole thing worked, all while the iron was getting switched ON and OFF to keep it from overheating again.

    Finally done. Neck needed adjusting and even with a backbow, the nut needs some filing, but every step is one step closer to jazzy heaven.

    Regards

    Drew

  18. #17

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    When soldering, touch the connection with the iron only long enough to melt the solder. Too much heat can destroy the pots. Too little results in a cold joint which isn't solid. It's a balancing act, and the proper size iron makes it much easier. But too big is better than too small, properly used. Practice and experience definitely help.

  19. #18
    My previous formula for good joints:

    Clean metal with scotchbrite pad or wire brush
    Apply 91% alcohol
    Apply flux and tin both parts

    Then they merely need to be touched together under heat.

    But a hot iron with double my previous wattage training was too much.
    Solid flux (Ever seen solid rosin? I always found the paste variety in the States, but abroad they sell a small rectangle of rosin with zero instructions on how to use it. (Hint, you dump 91% alcohol on top and stir it into a paste. If you use any other solvent but 91% alcohol, you have massive issues as 70 percent is too high in water to work.)

    For the record, the experience of failing at it with the new iron taught me how to do it correctly, how little heat was really needed, how to make solder flux paste from solid rosin, and also that pure silver solder is not the right choice for any work on a large iron.

    I recalled also, from YEARS ago that rosin has to be removed with alcohol and a tooth brush after you finish because it is corrosive.

    Anyway, onward and upward.

  20. #19

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    I've seen solid-core solder, but never saw any reason to use it. Resin-core solder is more common, and cheaper, at least here in the US. Just tin and connect, you get the proper amount of flux and no need to clean it.