Changed from humbuckers to single coils

duke808

could I have advice in basic layman terms please. I have got a Washburn N1 and I'm changing the humbuckers to single coils and need advice on shielding the body. Do I shield the pot and switch cavities and is it ok to have the volume pot touching the copper shielding? .... this to start with please. Where do the ground wires go from the pickups? Then I will ask help on soldering the switches but this to start with please.
thank you for simple advice.

paulnb57

I have never shielded any of my partscasters...although they often have some factory fitted on the inside of the scratchplate.....
Pickup grounds usually go to the back of one of the pots....

ICBM

Yes, the pickup ground wires go to the back of the volume pot - ideally all the ground connections do, this is called 'star grounding' and will minimise hum.

It's not a bad idea to shield the cavities, but not usually essential. It's usually more important with the control cavity than the switch, since the volume pot is a bit more prone to picking up noise when it's set somewhere between full and off than the switch is.

Having the volume pot casing touching the foil is in fact the easiest way of connecting the foil to ground, so you don't need to do anything else - same with the switch, the switch frame should be grounded and this will then contact the foil in the cavity.

duke808

Thanks. Should I still solder the pickup grounds to the volume pot or can I attach it to the copper shielding ? 

ICBM

duke808 said:

Thanks. Should I still solder the pickup grounds to the volume pot or can I attach it to the copper shielding ? 

Pickup grounds to volume pot. Ideally you want all the grounds on the guitar connected to one single large solder patch on the back of the pot, that's the way to absolutely minimise hum. Of course it doesn't matter too much if they're a bit separated since the resistance across the piece of metal is probably in the micro-ohms… but it's surprising how much difference it can make if the pickups are grounded somewhere else from the jack.

A classic bad wiring scheme is the original Fender Tele which has the pickup grounds soldered to the volume pot and the jack ground to the tone pot, relying on the contact through both pot casings and the metal control plate to complete the circuit. This can cause noticeable hum, especially on older guitars where the metal has got a bit corroded.

duke808

Thanks so much. My last question is I have a five way selector, can you help me , where should I solder the pickups to and the volume pot to. The selector has 7 little tabs in a row all on one side.

ICBM

What pickups do you have and what combinations do you want? A 5-way selector like that usually goes with three single coils, but if I'm not wrong the N1 is a two-pickup guitar.

duke808

It was twin humbuckers but I've changed it to 3 single coils I will post some pics tonight after work. It seemed all my other guitars are humbuckers and I like the Washburn N shape so thought I'd give it a go at changing it. 

ICBM

Ah!

In that case, the switch is normally wired so pin 4 goes to the volume control and 1, 2 and 3 are the pickup connections - which way round 1 and 3 are for the neck and bridge pickups depends on the way the switch is mounted. (5-7 are for the tone controls in a Strat.)

But... that's a crap switch. I would replace it with a CRL open-frame one first, it will be better in the long run.

duke808

Thank you. I have ordered a new switch. Will keep you updated haha.