Teardrop content - Wiring diagram help

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:29 pm

Hello everyone. My name is Eric and I am building a teardrop guitar.

So I finished the scratchplate that will hold the electrics. Hooray! This project was started in 2010. Anyway, I have mounted two humbuckers and have three B500k pots, 2 on/off switches and a jack socket. What I need is some kind of diagram as to how to wire the pickups in the following setup:

2xVol, 1xTone, an on/off switch per pickup.

My wiring knowledge is laughably shit so I can't quite figure out how to do it. Halp me.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:40 pm

Here's where I'm currently at:

Noirie. · Post by **Noirie.** » Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:12 pm

You tried the Seymour Duncan site for diagrams?

Looks fire btw.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 4:53 am

I have one of these with that wiring scheme which I need to take apart to clean and work on soon, will have a go tomorrow and document how it's wired.

Freddy V-C · Post by **Freddy V-C** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:09 am

paul_ wrote:

OH MY GOD WHAT IS THIS

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 9:24 am

Teardrop looks great. Glad to see you're on the home stretch. I can usually find the diagram I need here.
http://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 9:31 am

I don't know about teardrops but I just learned I need to find a copy of Simpsons Scrabble.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 11:51 am

Thanks chaps. Just about to drill out the holes for the electronics tonight. The second scratchplate section is mostly done now, just need to mount it.

That SG guitar looks great, what is it? I was thinking of doing a floating Les Paul style pickguard section for the teardrop but decided to just go with a flat-mounted piece again.

Last bits to do now are a piece for the truss rod adjustment cover on the headstock.

Simpsons Scrabble Realtalk:

► Show Spoiler

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:37 pm

ekwatts wrote:Here's where I'm currently at:

Did you get someone from the US to send you that Guitar Fetish stuff? Their shipping charges seem ridiculous, more than the items themselves.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Thu Jul 12, 2018 1:55 pm

It's only the trem from GFS. I picked it up in a sale so it ended up costing less than the original price even with the shipping heaped on. So it wasn't too bad.

The bridge is just a cheapo "Rickenbacker" style bridge from a cheap parts supplier on eBay.

The pickups are Entwistle pickups, they're called Nashvilles, basically just PAF-styles in a faux-filtertron minihum casing. I've stuck them in nearly all my humbucker equivalent guitars at this point. I love em.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Sat Jul 14, 2018 10:59 pm

So I drilled the holes, installed the bits....

No wiring yet, because I just realised that I still need to try and sort the grounding out. The bridge sits on a metal plate that is secured with two regular scratchplate screws, so there's no hardware that really goes into the body, so I suspect I'll need to get creative... I was thinking of drilling a small hole that pops up underneath the bridge plate so the ground wire can just rest underneath it, secured once the plate is screwed down fully.

Anyway, hopefully I'll this all soldered up by next weekend.

(low quality instagram picture stolen from Jasmine)

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Sat Jul 14, 2018 11:03 pm

ekwatts wrote:So I drilled the holes, installed the bits....

No wiring yet, because I just realised that I still need to try and sort the grounding out. The bridge sits on a metal plate that is secured with two regular scratchplate screws, so there's no hardware that really goes into the body, so I suspect I'll need to get creative... I was thinking of drilling a small hole that pops up underneath the bridge plate so the ground wire can just rest underneath it, secured once the plate is screwed down fully.

Anyway, hopefully I'll this all soldered up by next weekend.

(low quality instagram picture stolen from Jasmine)

Yep, that's how I did it on my Harmony Bobkat. I have the same bridge you have on yours.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 10:37 pm

When wiring grounds, do they all have to touch, or do they have to just touch the pots?

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Sun Jul 15, 2018 11:11 pm

ekwatts wrote:When wiring grounds, do they all have to touch, or do they have to just touch the pots?

All grounds must connect.

Nick · Post by **Nick** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 12:27 am

If the pots are connected to ground you can ground your pickups to the pots.

ekwatts · Post by **ekwatts** » Mon Jul 16, 2018 2:14 am

Pulled an all-nighter wiring it up the way I thought would work. Plugged it in, aaaaaand.....

Nothing.

I'd started with one pickup switch set to off, one set to on, both volumes and tone rolled up.

It was only when I switched both positions to "off" that I got any sound. Only the bridge appeared to be coming through; Both switches had to be flicked down, while both volumes worked for that one pickup. The tone did nothing at all.

Sooooo, shit.

Guess next time I'll just use an actual schematic instead of trying to be clever and winging it (which, to be fair, I did the first and only time I ever wired a guitar from scratch and it worked perfectly so FFFFUUUUCCCKKK IIIITTTTT).

I'll probably go with 1xVol, 2xTone, 1x3-way switch and a coil tap switch (so I can still use the holes I already drilled) when I attempt it again.