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Topic: Humbucker pickup wiring to volume & tome pots |
John Coones
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 9 Dec 2019 5:30 pm |
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As an absolute newbie to steel guitar I am in the process of building a lap steel guitar. My thoughts were to use average priced parts and, if I was actually able to get one working half decent, then upgrade the parts to better ones. I have the body of the guitar pretty close to completion and I am looking for some help from you steel guitar gurus on how to wire the Humbucker pickup and the controls.
I bought a Humbucker pickup from Musiclily along with a control panel containing a 3-way switch, a volume pot and a tone pot. The Humbucker has a white wire, a green wire, a red wire, a black wire and the shield. If I understand it correctly, the 3-way switch on the control panel is used when you have both a neck pickup and a bridge pickup. Since I am only going to use a bridge pickup, I’m thinking maybe I don’t need to use the switch at all, so the help that I am looking for is, how would I wire the Humbucker directly to the volume and tone pots and the amp jack, given that there are 4 wires and the shield coming from the pickup. I’m not sure what each wire is used for.
Any assistance is very much appreciated. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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John Coones
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 9 Dec 2019 6:35 pm
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| Thank you very much. I think I found one that might work. Much appreciated. |
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John Coones
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 10 Dec 2019 9:03 am
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Just one more question if I may. I think I will be ok on the wiring using the diagram from Seymour Duncan but in the diagram it show a black wire grounded to the back of the tone pot and it says "bridge ground wire". What is the purpose of grounding the bridge? Just trying to understand this since the bridge is not connected to anything but the strings.
Thanks |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 10 Dec 2019 10:10 am
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My knowledge of electronics theory would fit in a thimble and leave room for a finger. But I know from experience that if you don't ground the bridge, you'll wish you had. I'll leave it to someone else to explain exactly why.
Good luck with your project! |
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Andy Henriksen
From:
Michigan, USA
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Posted 10 Dec 2019 10:14 am
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| I think basically if not grounded, the strings act like an antenna and will pick up random EMI from the environment which will show up as "noise" in your pickup. |
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Chris Clem
From:
California, USA
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Posted 10 Dec 2019 11:55 am
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| Yes you need to ground the bridge. The bridge wire is just a bare wire that makes contact when the bridged is screwed down to the wood,It is not actually soldered to the bridge.That wire can go to any other ground (usually goes to the back of one of the pots). |
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John Coones
From:
Ontario, Canada
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Posted 10 Dec 2019 8:10 pm
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Thank you all for the replies. I'll make sure to ground the bridge. I don't need any random noise coming through. 
Cheers |
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