question on wiring/grounding

axisus

I always find it something of a pain in the ass adding all the ground wires to the back of the vol pot. It has a lot of metal so takes a while to heat up sufficiently, and I invariable don't add all wires at the same time so it becomes a bit of a faff.

Is there any reason why you can't solder all wires to, say a small washer, and then just have one wire coming off the washer and going to the volume pot casing? A reasonably small washer could be screwed into the body so that it doesn't move at all.

mrkb

That would work ok. The reason the pot takes a long time to heat up is that your soldering iron isn’t hot enough/or is underpowered.

Sporky

I use a loop of solid core wire screwed to the side of the control cavity. All the grounds go there. 

Soldering to the back of a pot is daft. 

ICBM

axisus said:

Is there any reason why you can't solder all wires to, say a small washer, and then just have one wire coming off the washer and going to the volume pot casing? A reasonably small washer could be screwed into the body so that it doesn't move at all.

There's no reason at all, and in fact for many reasons it's a better solution. You can get proper multi-tag ground terminals, you don't need to faff around with a washer. It also has the advantage that if it's screwed to the body through the shielding (foil or paint) then you don't actually need to separately ground that. In fact, if the cavity is fully shielded with foil you don't even need to solder to the pot casing at all since that connection is made by the bushing - only to the ground terminal.

This is the 'modern' way of doing it, which you will sometimes find in active basses or other guitar designs that aren't stuck in the 1950s...

You need something like this - https://www.tme.eu/gb/details/keys7313/solder-terminals-pcb-mount/keystone/7313/

Or this - https://uk.farnell.com/ettinger/19-05-745/solder-eyelet-3x-angled-0-169/dp/2691424

They seem to be oddly hard to search for! But this should do it -

grounding lug terminal solder eyelet

Sporky

That triple one is jolly neat. 

ICBM

Sporky said:

That triple one is jolly neat. 

I was trying to find some I've seen which have six terminals arranged in a star shape and a shakeproof hole in the middle, but no matter what search terms I put in, I couldn't find them.

axisus

Many thanks people, I will be doing that.

WezV

Have you seen the Ground Bug, it's a pot washer with the addition of terminals for this purpose


https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/blogs/news/the-signature-series-ground-bug-deal?_pos=2&_sid=82e272cf2&_ss=r

axisus

WezV said:

Have you seen the Ground Bug, it's a pot washer with the addition of terminals for this purpose


https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/blogs/news/the-signature-series-ground-bug-deal?_pos=2&_sid=82e272cf2&_ss=r

That is excellent! Buying!

ICBM

WezV said:

Have you seen the Ground Bug, it's a pot washer with the addition of terminals for this purpose

That is *very* neat - I've not seen it before.

Mike58

I use a pair of the Ettinger 3-star solder lugs on my Strat wiring, they fit neatly under the 5-way switch and when combined with a metal sub plate there is no need for pot case soldering. The 6 lugs give you enough for 3 pickup grounds, vol pot lug ground, capacitor ground and combine o/p and trem wires . Makes for a very neat look.





And showing tone cap grounding, no pot lugs were bent and soldered onto casings. ( different guitar Highway One Strat).



Would like to try the Ground Bug, but they seem sold out, if anyone has a sales link, please post.

axisus

@Mike58 Good Lord that's neat work! most impressive.


I need to do waaaaaaaay better with my soldering ...

Mike58

You are very kind, my soldering is only average, you only need to look at James from Home of Tone to see proper pro work. All I do is ensure neat wire trails, use a good solder station and dry run all the wiring so it looks tidy. I’m a retired Dentist ( without a PRS ! ) , so it’s a pleasure doing fiddly relatively precise work without someone spitting on your fingers all the time !!
Oh and like the OP, I don’t like solder on pot cases… I avoid it wherever I can .

djspecialist

Aside from the tone bug (which is out of stock), what's the best way to avoid having to solder on pots in a Jazzmaster?

In that case there aren't any nearby switches under which to fit a lug like the Ettinger used by @Mike58 . The cavity loop suggested by @Sporky would be good in a Les Paul type, but IIUC wouldn't work on a JM due to everything being mounted on the scratch plate.

Mike58

This. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313598511705?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=wgjnedxxto2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=JmRrIb9gSEO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Ok. It only one lug.. but I reckon you could drill out at least one more hole and add another on top at another angle.

Ground bugs are on their way soon… keep in touch with James home of tone 

Kurtis

I've used a washer with a single lug on it on the pot or you get washers that are made to clamp on the end of a wire you can use if you wind them together. No solder at all.
I used plastic bodied pots once. 

djspecialist

Mike58 said:

This. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313598511705?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=wgjnedxxto2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=JmRrIb9gSEO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Ok. It only one lug.. but I reckon you could drill out at least one more hole and add another on top at another angle.

Ground bugs are on their way soon… keep in touch with James home of tone 

The problem with that one (and with the products above linked by @ICBM ) is that the hole is too small - I need something which will fit over a 10mm pot shaft. James (Home of Tone) told me bugs are on the way, but he doesn't have an ETA.  Now that I've finally got started on my JM build, I'm eager to make progress!

ICBM

Mike58 said:

Too late now probably, but twisting the pickup wires noticeably reduces noise. I know Fender didn't...

Mike58

Thanks for the tip John, I do that with O/P wires, never thought of it with pickup wires.

Mike58

djspecialist said:

Mike58 said:

This. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313598511705?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=wgjnedxxto2&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=JmRrIb9gSEO&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Ok. It only one lug.. but I reckon you could drill out at least one more hole and add another on top at another angle.

Ground bugs are on their way soon… keep in touch with James home of tone 

The problem with that one (and with the products above linked by @ICBM ) is that the hole is too small - I need something which will fit over a 10mm pot shaft. James (Home of Tone) told me bugs are on the way, but he doesn't have an ETA.  Now that I've finally got started on my JM build, I'm eager to make progress!

I think the 3/8th” CTS thread ( 9.3mm) size is avail , this diagram shows a lug with id 9.6mm

Dr_Necessiter

ICBM said:

Sporky said:

That triple one is jolly neat. 

I was trying to find some I've seen which have six terminals arranged in a star shape and a shakeproof hole in the middle, but no matter what search terms I put in, I couldn't find them.

Is this something similar?

https://www.homeoftone.co.uk/products/swannell-guitars-ground-bug-ground-lug-pot-washer

Sorry, just read the rest of the thread.