Okay, here comes the new guy with dumb questions:

[mcw]

Alright. Call it a middle-age crises, or whatever, but I am very new to electric guitar. I decided I really want to be able to play. I have dabbled with acoustic and acoustic/electric, but never really learned much except how to strum a couple simple songs. I went on eBay and bought three guitars, all of them chinese made knock-offs, but it was a cheap way for me to get into the hobby while I'm learning. The first one I bought is a strat style with one humbucker and 2 singles (neck and mid), 1 tone-1 volume, and a 5-way switch. I also bought an electric bass, and a Les Paul Full style solid body. I haven't received the last two yet.

Well I also got my hands on several training DVD's and videos, as well as joining with Jamorama online guitar course. I've been learning a lot, and experimenting with the different sounds with the various pickups. I noticed that the humbucker didn't sound much different than anything else. I was also getting some noises out of the amp that I didn't think should be there.

Sooooo, after digging around on the web, and finding lots of info about mods and shielding and such, I decided to dig into the guts of the guitar, and I took off the pickguard. The first thing I noticed was that the wiring was a mess. The quality of the soldering was horrible (I did say it was cheap) and one of the wires was actually broken off from somewhere? In removing the pots, pickups and switch from the cavity, I also broke another wire from its solder point.

Again I hit the web, and found wiring diagrams galore from Fender and other places, but none seemed to have exactly my setup. Everything seemed to show 2 tone pots and I only have one, or the switch looked different, or the humbucker showed 4 wires and mine only has one (plus ground braid). The closest I came was a Fender Squier Standard Fat Strat 032-1700, but there were still the 2 tones. I decided I could figure out how to translate it to one, but it sure would have been nice to find the "right" wiring diagram for my configuration. I also thought I could add another tone pot. I will definitely do the shielding explained on guitarnuts.com.

Here's where the questions start:

1) Can anyone direct me to a wiring diagram with HSS, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5-way selector?

2) Should I unsolder everything and start from scratch, or just repair what I have now?

3) Should I have a professional shop figure this out?

4) Regarding setting up an electric guitar, is it a necessity when getting a new rig?

5) How often should it be done?

6) Should this only be done by a luthier?

7) Am I in over my head?

Any constructive help (even if accompanied by smart-aleck comments) will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[UnklMickey]

mcw said:

...
1) Can anyone direct me to a wiring diagram with HSS, 1 volume, 1 tone, 5-way selector?

2) Should I unsolder everything and start from scratch, or just repair what I have now?

3) Should I have a professional shop figure this out?

4) Regarding setting up an electric guitar, is it a necessity when getting a new rig?

5) How often should it be done?

6) Should this only be done by a luthier?

7) Am I in over my head?...

1) it probably won't help you much, unless we know what kind of selector switch you have, and what your wiring looks like now.

can you post a picture or drawing of it?

2) it probably makes more sense to repair what you have.

3) i wouldn't (unless you are very clumsy). you cam learn by doing, and it you can't get it right, it won't cost any more to have them correct totally messed up wiring than to fix one broken connection.

4) set-up work is necessary if you are unsatified with the action (too high or too low), intonation (in tune when open, but out of tune when you play on the frets especially closer to the bridge.), or if your strings buzz on the frets.

5) whenever your guitar doesn't play "right".

6)

setting the bridge saddle height and intonation is easy.

adjusting the relief (truss rod) requires a little more skill.

deepening the nut slots requires more skill.

replacing the nut requires yet more skill.

leveling and polishing the frets doesn't require so much skill, as it requires time.

7) probably not.


BTW, welcome to GuitarNuts2.


unk

[mcw]

Thanks, unk.

I really do appreciate your encouragement and thoughtful comments.

I guess I will eventually know what sounds "right" after I've been playing for a while. With that in mind, it probably doesn't make a lot of sense to mess with the setup until that happens, and then I will probably take a stab at it.

I have a great diagram I could show you that perfectly shows my layout with the exception of two tone pots vs. my one tone pot. However, I don't know how to attach it to this post, so I'm going to give you the link:

www.squierguitars.com/pdf/diagrams/SquierStandardFatStrA8C.pdf

One more queston: Does it make any sense to simply add another tone pot?

[UnklMickey]

hi Mcw,


that image won't post directly to this board.

maybe because it's a .pdf, or maybe because of the site that it's on.

i'll copy and edit it later today, so you can see what it would look like with only one tone control.

i wouldn't bother adding a second tone control.

i find having 2 tone controls to be unnecessarily cluttered, but YMMV.



unk

[UnklMickey]

i sent you a personal message with the drawing.

unk

[mcw]

Now I know how you acheived God status.

[UnklMickey]

thanks for the compliment!

but "God status" is acquired by post count, not skill.

it just means i talk too much. ;D


unk