HELP NEEDED: Rewiring my PRS Santana SE

professorben

imalrightjack said:

So, @professorben, the yellows and blues coming from the tone and vol to the switch, am I right in saying they're the core of the braided cable I have?

The blue from vol to jack, again braided cable, split at the jack with the outer as the ground? 

What's this braided cable??

professorben

Ah right. 
Ok you've got spare 2 core braided cable. 
Excellent.

Is the braiding metal or cloth/plastic/waxy type stuff? 

imalrightjack

Er...there are the pickups with the associated four wires...and I've some braided cable which is core and outer (the latter for grounding, right?), and some of those connections aren't those four wires, are they? 

imalrightjack

It's the metal stuff, I believe. 

professorben

imalrightjack said:

Er...there are the pickups with the associated four wires...and I've some braided cable which is core and outer (the latter for grounding, right?), and some of those connections aren't those four wires, are they? 

Ok. 
The braided cable is the outer metal??
and is it just one wire inside?

imalrightjack

professorben said:

imalrightjack said:

Er...there are the pickups with the associated four wires...and I've some braided cable which is core and outer (the latter for grounding, right?), and some of those connections aren't those four wires, are they? 

Ok. 
The braided cable is the outer metal??
and is it just one wire inside?

http://www.axetec.co.uk/guitar_parts_uk_025.htm

WRSC02 - actually cloth. I presumed metal but apparently not...

professorben

imalrightjack said:

professorben said:

imalrightjack said:

Er...there are the pickups with the associated four wires...and I've some braided cable which is core and outer (the latter for grounding, right?), and some of those connections aren't those four wires, are they? 

Ok. 
The braided cable is the outer metal??
and is it just one wire inside?

http://www.axetec.co.uk/guitar_parts_uk_025.htm

WRSC02 - actually cloth. I presumed metal but apparently not...

Right. The middle is wire wrapped in cloth, then the outside sheath is metal. 
This is both useful and a hazard, useful cos it's dead easy to ground everything just run a bit across the pots and solder it to the backs of the pots, then all your grounds can solder to that, easy. 

BUT!!!! If it touches ANY other part of the circuit it will dead short the circuit and probably not work. 

Personally I'd cut two lengths pull the centre out of the braid and use those to connect the toggle to the vol and tone ( yellow and blue) then as you quite rightly said, use another length to connect the vol to the jack, making the braid the ground and the middle bit the 'hot' (signal carrying bit)

imalrightjack

Thanks, @professorben , so the wires other than the pickup ones can just be the cores? But what about the input socket? How does that get earthed?

Thank you for your endless patience. Have 1,000 wisdoms

professorben

imalrightjack said:

Thanks, @professorben , so the wires other than the pickup ones can just be the cores? But what about the input socket? How does that get earthed?

Thank you for your endless patience. Have 1,000 wisdoms

Anywhere you see that little ground symbol, there is a wire going to ground, they leave them out of circuit diagrams for clarity, if you imagine a black line connecting each little ground symbol, that's your braided sheath. 

If if you follow the blue wire from the volume pot to the jack socket but now imagine the braid sheath connecting the back of the pot to the other tag on the jack socket yeah? 

imalrightjack

Yes, so that would be the full braided cable, outer to one lug, inner other?

professorben

imalrightjack said:

Yes, so that would be the full braided cable, outer to one lug, inner other?

Yep got it. 

As I said make sure you get the wires the right way round otherwise its buzz city. 

professorben

https://imgur.com/gallery/W5SWu


Here you can see how the braid is used to ground the circuit
and the connection to the jack socket too. 

Its not identical to your circuit so don't use it as a guide just a reference regarding grounding. 

imalrightjack

One last thing I'm still unclear on is the ground on the tone pot - I just can't work out what goes where? A short length of the braided cable but inner/outer where?

professorben

imalrightjack said:

One last thing I'm still unclear on is the ground on the tone pot - I just can't work out what goes where? A short length of the braided cable but inner/outer where?

All the grounds MUST connect to each other, treat it like a dot-to-dot. 

You could use the cable going to the jack socket, run it from the volume pot, over the tone pot to the jack socket. 
Solder the braid to the back of each pot. 

imalrightjack

I'm still not sure how that tone bit connects - do you know which bit I mean? The black line that says ground? 

professorben

imalrightjack said:

I'm still not sure how that tone bit connects - do you know which bit I mean? The black line that says ground? 

Yeah, so you have a wire coming from the side of the pot, connecting with the top two tags on the pull switch. 

They then connect to ground. On the back of the vol pot 

imalrightjack

How does one wire go onto two tags? Bare cable, yeah?

Sorry to be such a pain...

Jalapeno

Can't help but feel a couple of photos would aid a diagnosis ......

professorben

imalrightjack said:

How does one wire go onto two tags? Bare cable, yeah?

Sorry to be such a pain...

Yep just strip a bit extra and solder it across. 

Its cool man, better to ask questions. 

I tried to solder my first guitar aged 13, I didn't have a soldering iron so I just used a screwdriver I heated up in the fire in my mum and dads front room. 

It did not end well. 

imalrightjack

Haha, @professorben I'm 41. I've left it way too long. As I think I said, I hooked up a loom to pickups and that gave a sense of satisfaction so thought I'd do the whole thing...bitten off more than I can chew?

So, a stripped cables goes from the side across those two tags and ends on the top of the pot with the braided bit? Seems complex...