Does the wire matter?

[megi]

Apologies in advance for my obvious ignorance! But my question is: does the type of wire used inside an electric guitar matter very much or at all? On some humbucking pickups I have fitted, there was 4-core shielded wire used - I noticed that each individual core wire was very thin. Other pickups, for example strat type single coils, often use much more substantial looking wires. And what about the wire used in the general circuit for connecting switches and pots? If it does matter, what is the best type of wire to use?

Again, this is probably a somewhat dumb question, but I don't know the answer, so I'm asking it anyway, cheers! ;D

[cynical1]

I just take old VGA and USB cables apart and use that wire. You want to keep the size around 24 gauge.

The marketing hype about cloth covered or "vintage" wire is just marketing speak for "we're going to rip you off."

Hope that helps

Happy Trails

Cynical One

[JohnH]

It's a good question, and my answer would be that it really doesn't matter much from an electrical standpoint - since the signals are very small and the resistance of any wire is negligible compared to that of the pickups and pots etc.

So you should use whatever is easiest to make a neat job. I use an insulated flexible wire between parts and bare solid wire for between lugs on one switche, and for grounding pot cases.

I think some longer wires are best with a grounded shield. For running up and down the inside of a Les Paul, pickup rewiring and for the output wire on a Strat, I use shielded wire. with however many cores needed

John

[megi]

Thanks chaps, good to have an answer I can trust on this one, now I can stop worrying and get on with the soldering, cheers!

[thetragichero]

i use tinned stranded wire, much like what they have here: www.bulkwire.com/wire-cable/stranded-hookup-wire-300v-ul-1007-1569.html
i like the flexibility, and being tinned is convenient
also if you get enough colours i find it easier to hook everything up, colourcoding it so you don't have the "which black wire goes here" problem

[axekicker]

Sept 10, 2011 15:30:20 GMT -5 cynical1 said:

I just take old VGA and USB cables apart and use that wire. You want to keep the size around 24 gauge.

The marketing hype about cloth covered or "vintage" wire is just marketing speak for "we're going to rip you off."

Hope that helps

Happy Trails

Cynical One

The only thing I'd say about the cloth stuff, known as "pushback", is that you don't have to mess with strippers (for wire) which can also be a pain. You just push the cloth back to expose the wire. Though I doubt cloth makes for good shielding, etc.

[4real]

I often use 'ribbon wire' that is colour coded and tear off as many strands as required an easy way to get a lot of coloured wires...for instance, I will join 5 wired to an HB often, a wire to each connection and the shield, attaching this wire to a connection point or even pot is easier than the shileding itself and neat, you can use single strands as required, I think there is ten different colours to the ribbon I use.

Otherwise, I use a slightly thicker coloured hook up wire, sold in a packet of mixed colours at the electronics store for a couple of bucks.

Like john, I use shield cbale with as many strands as required. You can get this in ribbons of 4 individually shielded singl cores that are colour coded as well, tear of the number you need or use one for singles (say to the output jack). On my LP I used such cable to run up and back from the switch to the cavity for instance. Using shielded cable where possible and within reason will often get you away from needing to worry about shielding the cavity, other than my strat, none of my guitars have internal shielding and are completely quiet.