A question so basic, I'm almost afraid to ask....

[c. winn]

...but since this is my first foray into wiring, I have a few questions.

It's a Morrell "Little" Roy Wiggins body - came to me with the slotted headstock/drilled tuner holes/body cavity route.

I made the bridge/nut/fingerboard, bought some tuners & electronics.

I've foil taped the cavity:


And plan to layout the very simple pickup/single volume/output jack:


So here's a pair of questions:

1 I have about 12" of lead wire off the pickup. You can see I need about 3/4" - should I cut the wire, or just neatly wrap the excess? I'm thinking cut, but wouldn't mind having a way to keep the wire intact, in case I want to use it in another guitar.

Here's the real basic one:

2 What do I ground to?

I thought about sinking a screw into the base of the cavity & grounding to that, but then I wasn't sure if I would need some kind of rubber gasket to isolate the screw from the copper tape.

I've had a blast thinking my way through the rest of the guitar, but this wiring is driving me nuts. Thanks to the forum for your advice...

-c

[Bent]

C, all I can add is make sure the foil tape is grounded to the plug and that the pup is grounded to the plug as well. Maybe even soldering a wire onto the foil and onto the ground on the plug (if the foil can take soldering) If not, it is likely that the fastening of the plug will be good ground in itself.
Edited: It looks like there is no nut on the plug that will come into contact with the foil tape. Therefor you will have to find a way to solder a wire onto the tape and plug in order to get good ground. Here's a trick for thicker foil that you can solder: Go to a stained glass supply store and buy a pack of the 1.5 mil copper foil. It's thicker and pliable and at the same time solderable

[c. winn]

It looks like there is no nut on the plug that will come into contact with the foil tape.

D'Oh! The nut!

The plug is one I found in my pile of scraps - it was missing the nut. I hadn't thought twice about it, any more than how convenient it was that the plug fit snugly into the hole.

Course, the nut would provide a point on which to ground everything - and contact with the copper tape couldn't hurt....right?

[Pat Comeau]

Make sure your ground is connected to the bridge also...otherwise you'll have a hum

[Allan]

Have a look at the thread I have just opened 'Wiring your guitar...'
That should help you.

Regards, Allan.....

[Georg]

Course, the nut would provide a point on which to ground everything - and contact with the copper tape couldn't hurt....right?

If I'm not mistaken (pictures are not sharp), that "output jack" is from a female stereo connector for headphone extension cables and such. If so it never had a "nut", but rather a metal or plastic cover screwed on. Such a cover can't be used for grounding no matter what it's made of, so no problem that it is missing.

Just glue the jack connector in there so it can't be torn out no matter what, and make sure it DOES NOT have direct contact with the copper foil shielding in the cavity. Instead, use a wire for connecting the copper foil shielding to "common ground" (read on).

There's a lip onto the existing metal shielding on that jack, and that's the point you solder ground wire onto. Then find (measure or test) the lip which will get connection to the inserted jack-plug tip, and solder signal wire to that lip.
Third lip (if there is one) is for the ring on a stereo jack-plug and will automatically be grounded when a mono jack-plug is inserted, so you can forget that one or solder it with a short wire to the ground lip.

Allan has drawn up a standard/basic wiring diagram that is as good as any AFAICS. Should keep you on track if you follow it closely.
If you can solder one end of all ground wires to the back of the volume pot, do so and it'll become "common ground" point for all ground wires. Otherwise either the ground lip on the volume pot or the ground lip on the output jack can be used as "common ground". I'd recommend use of the jack-shielding for "common ground" in most cases when the pot can't be soldered on, but it doesn't really matter as long as you end up with one "common ground".
I repeat: you want ONE "common ground" point in your instrument, NOT a few extra ground points or ground wires "spread around for good measure".

Oh, and excess wire from that PU can be left in there - so you can reuse it or whatever. AND, signal wires in an instrument should ideally NOT be "wrapped up neatly" - "neatly" tend to have negative effects on factors like hummmm etc. Just make those wires lay somewhat still in there so they don't start making sounds/noises of their own or soldering gets shaken lose when you play hard.
I recommend use of a few dots of easily removable (wood) glue to "calm down" excess wiring, and that all wires are at least 1 inch too long.

[guitarlover]

I want to know did you really made this guitar by yourself.

Really nice work.