Gonna try wiring up an esquire.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:05 pm

Got one of those CV telecasters a while ago, never used the neck pickup really, and I always wanted an esquire. So I bought an esquire pickguard from guitar fetish that should be in tomorrow or something like that. got some 3.3k resistors lying around (have heard I dont even need these), and am going to probably go pick up a couple 0.047 capacitors (ceramic disk or sprague?) at some point today or tomorrow.
Although.. I have a schematic for this, and it calls for 0.05 caps, and I couldn't find those at the store I went to (only 0.047's and other various caps), but have heard that a 0.047 should work fine. is that true? because i dont really wanna run out again and buy one just to find out it doesn't work right. soo, i guess i need some halp..

Seen a good bit of different schematics for these as well, any you would recommend for me to use? Just looking for it to do what an esquire does. Nothing fancy or stripped down even. The one i'm going by so far, and have with me is from seymour duncan (which calls for like.. 3 0.05 caps, and a 3.3k resistor).

Pics will ensue whenever it's all done, which shouldn't be too exciting since it's nothing out of the box or anything.

Should look like this when it's finished.

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Pens · Post by **Pens** » Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:12 pm

Those caps are fine.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 6:31 pm

Awesomee, thanks pens! Got all my stuff in today for it. Gonna wire this sucker up and see if it works. :D

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:20 pm

All wired, not working though.. wonder what the problem is.. D:

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:25 pm

post a pictrure of the wiring job and the schematic you followed

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:34 pm

The schematic I used:
Fender Esquire Diagram

Photo of the wiring job:

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Apologies for the crappy photo, wondering what I did wrong here. Should I try a different schematic?

theshadowofseattle · Post by **theshadowofseattle** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:37 pm

Fuck that garbage. You should've ordered one of their blank control plates and wired it straight to the jack like a champion.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:39 pm

At this point i'm considering wiring it straight to the pots. Although I'd like to get this done as planned so i'm hoping I can get it working.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 8:58 pm

think i'm gonna give this one a go:

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:10 pm

Cannot see the wiring job on teh switch well enough to know if you fucked it up or not. Need better pics. Also, can you define "doesn't work"? Is it just buzzing? No sound at all?

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:15 pm

was getting a loud buzz whenever i touched the volume pot, but none from the pickup. trying that second schematic now.
although i must ask, from the jack, which wire is the ground wire? white or black?

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:16 pm

Yeah, your grounds are messed up. In the schem above, the black wire is ground. In most schems, black is ground.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:36 pm

ooh okay. the only wire that isnt' really making sense is the ground that touches the bridge, dont see where it goes on the schem above.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:43 pm

Josh wrote:ooh okay. the only wire that isnt' really making sense is the ground that touches the bridge, dont see where it goes on the schem above.

Run that wire to the back of the pot that the sleeve of the jack goes to. You want to keep a common ground point for all to avoid ground loops.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:51 pm

Tried that and now it's just buzzing real loud, like before. Gonna take another picture of how it looks now.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:02 pm

Okay, here's how it's looking under the hood atm.

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Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:03 pm

You have something shorting the hot line to the tip of the jack to ground.

Hmmm. I dunno dude, I'd need to be there with a multimeter to check all of the connections to find the short. Those things are a bitch to find sometimes.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:08 pm

hmmm. :I what do you think I should do? I'm a bit of a n00b with this. Solder all the points again in case one of them isn't done right? I think everything's in the right spot.

Pens · Post by **Pens** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:28 pm

Well, without a multi-meter, you need to simplify: Desolder the line from the tip of jack from the pot. Run that line from the tip to the pickup hot (lug 1 on your switch). Plug it in. Is buzzing gone? You should be getting sounds, if not then your ground on your pickup is messed up, make sure that's connected to the ground going to the jack sleeve.

If you get sounds but still have buzzing, start undoing wires, check after each removal, until you find the one that is fine.

There are very few essentials to make a guitar work.

1. Pickup hot goes to jack tip.
2. Bridge ground connects to common ground (pickup ground, jack sleeve)

That's it. You can start adding things back once you have those basics in place.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:40 pm

Thanks pensbro. It's about 95% complete now. EXCITE. Strung it up and plugged it in, thing sounds awesome. Still some buzz, so i'll probably have to go back and fix the ground wires i'm assuming. but otherwise it's all done.

Had a lil' help from this schematic in the end, which worked out nicely.

Here's a photo of this thing: