Welcome back! Now that you double checked your work and took a break, let’s dive back into rewiring your electric guitar or bass. If you need a refresher, click here to go back to part one of this lesson.
Continuing the wiring process
- After you solder the wire, connect it to the jack. Make sure not to blow on the solder. Prematurely cooling off the solder can cause a cold solder joint.
- If the jack has a lot of movement, use shrink wrap to tighten the bond prior to connecting it with the wire.
- Splice the wires together. Though this step is optional, it makes the contact quicker.
- Afterwards, ground the joint and capacitor.
- Solder the wire to the other side of the capacitor to connect the volume and tone.
- Trim any excess exposed wires.
- Afterwards, connect your pickups to the controls.
Soldering the bridge ground wire to an available pot
- The wire sits underneath the bridge plate. The strings pulling on the bridge are also part of the circuit. They follow all the way up to the tuners making each piece from the tuning gears, the ball ends of the strings, down into the controls and back around.
- When making this connection, make sure to use a wire with plenty of length. This connection requires the wire to move down a long path.
- Keep in mind where the wire is coming from and how you’ll be laying down the guard as you make the connection.
- After this final connection, screw the guard back on, string the guitar, and get ready to play!
Rewiring your guitar or bass can be a lengthy process, but successfully connecting your instrument is very rewarding and teaches you a lot about electric guitar maintenance. We have many of the supplies you’ll need for this process. Visit aeluthier.com for more!