Rewiring my guitar

[kaseri]

I am going to rewire my guitar and install two new pickups. I am going to install two new humbuckers & I'm going to tap each of them with a push/pull pot. There will be one volume & one tone control (push/pull pot) with a 3 way toggle. Am I able to use "star grounding" on a guitar that has two humbuckers? If so how would I go about wiring up the grounds via the "star" method?

[sumgai]

kaseri,

The term "star grounding" simply refers to all the ground wires being hooked to one central location. It doesn't matter where that central point is electrically or physically, but it is easiest to make it the back of a pot.

For your pickups, you merely run the ground wires over that central point, and the wire from the strings (under the bridge, soldered to the tremolo claw, etc.), and the wire that goes out to the jack. If you are not using phase reversal for one of your pickups, then you also run the negative side of each coil straight to that same central point. If you do use a phase reversal switch, then one side of its output will be soldered to this point.

For more info, see the original Guitarnuts page on the topic at: , about halfway down the page. But you really should read the whole thing before beginning your project.


sumgai

[kaseri]

I read that article & thats what made me think about doing the same thing to my humbucker loaded guitar. I suppose it's a rather easy thing to do. My humbucker loaded guitar doesn't have lots of noise when the pickups are split. Do you still think that I should shield the electronics cavity anyway?

[fobits]

Do you still think that I should shield the electronics cavity anyway?

Heh. Asking that in this forum is like asking Vikings if they like free beer.

Everybody in chorus: You can never have too much shielding!

I used a double layer of aluminum foil, the thickest and heaviest that I could find at the grocery store. It's the cheapest thing on the guitar, except the pick.