A few weeks back, I had to put a guitar on the sidelines, because the jack was failing. The guitar has EMG pickups. The electronics must all be in the pickups, because there's no PC board in the control cavity.
So, the guitar (bass) has a long threaded (sealed) jack.
(example)
so the connections are stereo:
as you can see, the right one is the outer (ground) & the other 2 are lead connects.
So, the way the wiring currently is, is this:
kind of hard to see, but, that loop, connects the ground, to one of the leads. If you look closely at the top image (of the 2), the white loop wire is connected at the same point as the other white wire going out, then loops around to the other terminal.
The white wire then goes to the ground of the tone pot case.
The black wire? goes directly to the battery terminal, then is connected to 2 red wires that feed into the body, to go to each pickup. They are Y'd together. That is the only connections to the jack.
Question(s)...
does this seem right?
There seems to be no lead coming from the pickups, except this Y cable, through the battery, then straight to the jack. Meanwhile, the 2 volume pots seem to work just fine. How is this possible?
Not sure what the wiring looked like stock. I did have the original jack replaced 30 years ago, & everything's tight in there, so I don't know what he did back then. I'm sure he kept it the same, but, some of the "factory" soldering looks pretty rough, if it is indeed, especially for a custom shop company...
Here you can see the overall wiring. There's white multi-par wires that go from the pots, to the pickups & connect each other. The red wires come from each pickup & meet & go into the battery terminal. 1 white wire (single strand) goes from tone pot ground to the jack, & the black wire from the battery terminal goes to the tip...
I'm going to install the new jack, but this just has me curious, as to if this is the best way to connect it? I don't want to have to disconnect & reconnect, or, I'm going to change the white ground wire, because it's all of about an inch long & there's about an inch between the pot & the jack terminal, so, it's tight & I don't want to fuss w/ it...
I custom ordered the bass w/ the pickups in it, back in '89.
Is there some sort of series magic going on inside the pickups?
btw: all the crud inside is from there was a sheet of black foam, insulating the pots from the battery & it pretty much has disintegrated inside there.
So, the guitar (bass) has a long threaded (sealed) jack.
(example)
so the connections are stereo:
as you can see, the right one is the outer (ground) & the other 2 are lead connects.
So, the way the wiring currently is, is this:
kind of hard to see, but, that loop, connects the ground, to one of the leads. If you look closely at the top image (of the 2), the white loop wire is connected at the same point as the other white wire going out, then loops around to the other terminal.
The white wire then goes to the ground of the tone pot case.
The black wire? goes directly to the battery terminal, then is connected to 2 red wires that feed into the body, to go to each pickup. They are Y'd together. That is the only connections to the jack.
Question(s)...
does this seem right?
There seems to be no lead coming from the pickups, except this Y cable, through the battery, then straight to the jack. Meanwhile, the 2 volume pots seem to work just fine. How is this possible?
Not sure what the wiring looked like stock. I did have the original jack replaced 30 years ago, & everything's tight in there, so I don't know what he did back then. I'm sure he kept it the same, but, some of the "factory" soldering looks pretty rough, if it is indeed, especially for a custom shop company...
Here you can see the overall wiring. There's white multi-par wires that go from the pots, to the pickups & connect each other. The red wires come from each pickup & meet & go into the battery terminal. 1 white wire (single strand) goes from tone pot ground to the jack, & the black wire from the battery terminal goes to the tip...
I'm going to install the new jack, but this just has me curious, as to if this is the best way to connect it? I don't want to have to disconnect & reconnect, or, I'm going to change the white ground wire, because it's all of about an inch long & there's about an inch between the pot & the jack terminal, so, it's tight & I don't want to fuss w/ it...
I custom ordered the bass w/ the pickups in it, back in '89.
Is there some sort of series magic going on inside the pickups?
btw: all the crud inside is from there was a sheet of black foam, insulating the pots from the battery & it pretty much has disintegrated inside there.
