Wiring questions

[karpetking]

Alright! thanks for the help with the knob alteration! i'll certainly give it a go!

But I have a question about wiring - when wiring my rotary switch, there are numerous points that will all be wired to the same point - should these each have a seperate wire coming from them, or can they all be wired together, with one wire coming from that point?? or does it depend??

I'm concerned about ground loops, noise, and signal quality.

also, has anyone considered using ferrite rings in a guitar?? is there any point??

cheers!

[sumgai]

Mar 11, 2010 5:44:55 GMT -5 karpetking said:

I have a question about wiring - when wiring my rotary switch, there are numerous points that will all be wired to the same point - should these each have a seperate wire coming from them, or can they all be wired together, with one wire coming from that point?? or does it depend??

I'm concerned about ground loops, noise, and signal quality.

Connect it all in a manner that make you comfortable, there's no rule on how it has to be done. I suppose if there were a rule, it'd be an obvious one - make good solder connections! If you choose to "collect" all the wires at some point other than the switch terminal, and then run a single wire to said terminal, just be sure to insulate that collection point. My personal favorite is heat-shrink tubing, but electrical tape will do, in a pinch.

Any ground loops created by either method will not signficantly affect your tone. (Ask JohnH for confirmation of this, if you are still wondering.) Noise will not be increased (nor decreased) no matter which connection method you choose. And signal quality will not suffer, unless you happen to botch one or more solder joints.

also, has anyone considered using ferrite rings in a guitar?? is there any point??

No and no.

Ferrite beads or rings are actually low-pass filters. As such, they would destroy our desired signal before they suppressed any noise we didn't want. This is why you usually encounter them in places where true RF energy is undesired, which is when it's well above the desired frequency range. Think power cords here, and you'll get the idea - 60Hz; good, RF noise above that; bad. We don't want it sneaking in and playing hob with our equipment, so we filter it out. Ferrite beads are cheap and easy for this kind of job.

HTH



sumgai