Dylan McKerchie — Electric Guitar Wiring

Series Vs Parallel Switching Usually when multiple pickups are installed in a guitar, they are connected to operate in parallel. This means that the signal passes through the pickup from ground and then on to the tone circuit, volume control, or straight to the pickup selector. Even when two pickups are on at once, you are hearing the sound of them working independently. When you wire two pickups in series, the signal passes through one pickup, straight into another pickup... and then back to the rest of the circuit. When wired correctly, these can be hum cancelling. You can have...

No load tone Pots.... No load tone pots are another product or buzzword we often see in internet forums and chat pages. What do they actually do? The basic idea of a no load tone pot is that when the pot is turned all the way up to 10 (11 if you are Nigel), there is a bypass of the tone circuit completely. Usually this is accomplished by cutting the trace that is responsible for setting the variable resistance of the pot right at the end (where it corresponds to 10 on the Knob) This can be done by modifying...

Cloth Covered Wire Vs PVC This is an age old argument, but does it really make a noticeable difference in your tone? Why Do we see cloth used in guitars? In the late 40's and early 50's, when electric guitars were in their infancy, cloth wire was the common wire in use. In fact, it wasn't just in guitars.... it was in everything. PVC was mostly being used at the end of World War 2 in navy applications, because the commonly used cloth was not waterproof. It was not common to see it in consumer electronics for quite some time...

60Hz Hum Vs EMI/RF Hum in your guitar comes from a few different sources. We discussed how shielding can minimize RF/EMI noise HERE. Electromagnetic interference exists anywhere there is electricity. This is compounded by the fact that anything with a transformer in it, TVs, Fluorescent lights, Power supplies, all emit a lot of EMI because they contain coils. This means that you can have noise from devices that neither share a circuit with your guitar, or are connected in any way. This is because this interference travels through the air. No matter how effectively you have shielded your guitar, you...