S-Tastic newbie help

[chewie]

I've done the quiting the beast "mod" on the guitarnuts website.
Now I'm trying to do the S-Tastic mod.
I admit I have no experience and so the diagram is difficult to me.
Can someone explain:
1) Where do the wires from the input jack go?
2) What do the symbols on the red line at the very top and right mean?
3) Shouln't the middle terminal of the volume pots be connected to the input jack? In the diagram they are not. Is the diagram wrong?

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

chewie said:

2) What do the symbols on the red line at the very top and right mean?

You mean those two kinda 'S'-shaped squiggles with a space between them? I believe those are used to show that, in scale, the line would be longer. Those symbols (sometimes a different shape) mean that a (pretty much "repetitive") part of a line was left out so it would fit in the diagram. Kind of an "etc., etc." for a drawn line.
If I'm reading the symbol on the end of that line correctly, that's your output (input) jack.

[JohnH]

Hi Chewie,

I can chip in on the other two questions.

The input jack gets two leads. The one from the outer connection, that connects to the sleeve of your plug goes to the 'Star ground' - as do various other connections indicated 'SG' on the diagram. (see below). The Star ground is usually the back of a volume pot.

You are right to notice that the volume control wiring is different, but it is OK in this case, Usually the central 'wiper' connection of a volume pot goes to the output. That is the best way when there is just one volume control. However in this design, the combination of the middle pup depends on having a second volume pot to control it. With two volume pots wired conventionally, if one is turned all the way down it shorts out the whole signal, gving no output. So on guitars with two vols, often the wiring is turned around as in the STastic, with the central pot connections going towards the pickups. It still works. My view is that it is not quite as good for overall changes in volume, but is much better for mixing pups together.

That 'SG' 'Star Ground':

The use of a Star ground and proper cavity shielding is holy writ for all the GN mods. I see you have done this. For others to reference, it is here:



John

[Mini-Strat_Maine]

Thanks, John. Another day when I managed to learn something before the end of the day.
And I got enlightened on what "SG" stood for in this context. It's not just a Gibson product after all.

[eljib]

Welcome to the Forum! I have done the S-tastic mod myself and I believe you will be very pleased with the results. I have modified six of my guitars so far (all using different schems) but this remains my favorite and most useful guitar to date. It seriously can do anything.

-Aaron