Help with a wiring diagram

fastonebaz

In planning the new pots/caps of my gordon smith GS2 deluxe, I've obtained a copy of the wiring diagram which you can see here:



I'm not very good (no good) at interpreting wiring diagrams so wondered if anyone could advise:

1) The "A250K" by the volume pot, does that indicate they are 250k volume pots, or that that's the measure of them when they are operating in coil tap mode (e.g. single pup mode)

2) Currently in the guitar there are 2 caps (or resistors?) attached to various points on the volume pot, and then another cap (or resistor?) between the volume pot and the tone pot.  Can you tell what measurements the 3 of them are from this diagram (v and uf/ohms)?

3) I'm guessing the answer to 1) is they are 250k pots, so therefore the "A250k" by the tone pot must mean they are also 250k.  

4) If all pots are 250k, isn't that a bit weird to have that in a dual humbucker guitar?  Or is that was the extra caps/resistors are helping with to compensate somehow (that it isn't 500k vol pot)?

thanks alot

Danny1969

A250K means 250K audio taper or Log pot

That's a cap between the volume and tone

1000pf = 1nf = 0.001uf so 220nf = 0.22uf etc 

I can't read the values on that diagram cos my eyes aren't great and the res is low

fastonebaz

@Danny1969 this might be slightly better quality version?

Danny1969

Ah yeah that's better

C4 22n = .022uf 

C1 is 220p which is 0.22nf 

You can ignore voltage ratings as any cap will be rated well above the voltage levels in a guitar

The more windings on a pickup the higher the impedence so in general humbuckers use 500K but not always ...pickups with less windings can be fine with 250K pots

With pots A means log taper and B means linear taper. Often other guitars use linear taper pots for tone but it all depends on what you like and the value of the cap

fastonebaz

Thanks.  Can you advise what the purpose of these caps across the vol pot and between the vol pot and tone pot are?

Danny1969

You can use a cap to shunt high frequencies to ground, thus attenuating them. That's what a tone control does. High frequencies pass through a capacitor (or appear to) but low frequencies get semi blocked by capacitors and pass less easy. 

So what the tone does control wise to the signal depends on the value of the cap, small values of cap will only attenuate the very high end of the guitar and larger values of cap will affect the upper mids of the signal as well as the high end

A cap across the volume pot is generally a treble bleed cap, making the effect of losing treble when you turn the volume down less noticeable. 

fastonebaz

Thanks, I've ordered a bunch of replacement pots/caps etc for my project.

pintspiller

Going to rewire my GSG Gypsy. The pots say 220k. WTF?

prowla

pintspiller said:

Going to rewire my GSG Gypsy. The pots say 220k. WTF?

250k will be fine; the product tolerances are pretty wide anyway.

prowla

fastonebaz said:

@Danny1969 this might be slightly better quality version?

That's interesting with the switchable cap, so you can have .022 or .044 uF (ie. 2x .022 in series) in the tone circuit.

I was debating having a switch to choose either .022 or .047 on a build, so that's a different way of achieving the same.

ICBM

prowla said:

fastonebaz said:

@Danny1969 this might be slightly better quality version?

That's interesting with the switchable cap, so you can have .022 or .044 uF (ie. 2x .022 in series) in the tone circuit.

I was debating having a switch to choose either .022 or .047 on a build, so that's a different way of achieving the same.

Two .022uF in series is .011uF - they would need to be in parallel to give .044uF.

That's a very odd and complicated circuit.

pintspiller

prowla said:

pintspiller said:

Going to rewire my GSG Gypsy. The pots say 220k. WTF?

250k will be fine; the product tolerances are pretty wide anyway.

@prowla I went for the standard 500k as I use the humbuckers more often and  will forego the additional caps for now on the coil taps

prowla

pintspiller said:

prowla said:

pintspiller said:

Going to rewire my GSG Gypsy. The pots say 220k. WTF?

250k will be fine; the product tolerances are pretty wide anyway.

@prowla I went for the standard 500k as I use the humbuckers more often and  will forego the additional caps for now on the coil taps

I have to say I've never done a test to see if I can tell the difference. I had considered using a stacked 250/500k pot to try it out; maybe I'll do it some day (along with the cap switching).

pintspiller

@fastonebaz did you rewire your guitar?

I did mine over the last couple of days. I also lined the pickups and control routes with copper tape.

I had to remove wood to make room for neck tone pot. Had to widen  the holes for the pot shafts. Took ages to figure out the wiring. Too fiddley a job for me. But I got there in the end.

I didn't go for the small caps. The supplier I used didn't have them and I was glad as I'm pretty useless with a soldering iron. The single coil sound is probably less loud probably not as toppy as before.  The humbuckers probably is not as toppy either. I had a pair of .22uf caps and put those across the tone pot.

I haven't played it through an amp properly. Just through my amp and Captor into Reaper. The guitar is a GS Gypsy 2, so maybe similar to you Deluxe.

pintspiller

I've also to source knobs now as mine don't fit the CTS pots. LOL.

fastonebaz

@pintspiller ;
I no longer have that guitar.