Tips, Tricks and Wiring Diagrams
for Guitar and Bass
While you're here, be sure to check our line of Passive Electronics, Prewired Harnesses and Handwound Pickups!

Soldering Tips
Guitar Schematic Symbols
Manufacturer's Pickup Wiring Color Codes
How To Assign A Tone Control As A Master Tone
How to use a Stereo Output Jack as a Battery Switch
Independent Gibson® Volume Controls
How To Wire A Series/Parallel Switch
How To Wire A Phase Switch
How To Wire A Coil Split Switch
How to split a Lace Sensor Dually
Clapton Mid Boost Kit Wiring Diagram
Fender® Stratocaster® Wiring Diagrams
Fender® Telecaster® Wiring Diagrams
Fender® Bass Wiring Diagrams
Gibson® Les Paul® Wiring Diagram
Rickenbacker® Wiring Diagrams
Strat Pickup Height Adjustment
Tele Pickup Height Adjustment
Humbucker Pickup Height Adjustment
Most effective effects pedal chain order

Soldering Tips:

Ensure that items to be soldered are perfectly clean. This can usually be achieved by wiping the solder points with a cloth dampened with alcohol. Be sure that the alcohol has dried completely before applying heat. Alcohol is flammable.

Make a good mechanical connection by wrapping wires around each other or the solder point when possible.

When applying heat, do not apply the solder directly to the tip of the iron. Heat the base of the joint so it becomes sufficiently hot to melt the solder and flow it into the joint. A small amount of solder on the tip of the iron will help to carry heat from the iron to the joint.

Use only rosin core solder made for electronic/electrical work. Do not use acid core solder! Apply solder to the connection, not the iron. When the solder flows into the connection, carefully slide the iron away. Avoid disturbing the connection until solder cools.

Avoid too much heat. A heat sink can be helpful to draw heat away from the component.

Don't apply more solder than needed. Excess solder can cause short circuits and it looks like crap.

When done correctly, the solder should be shiny. If it looks cloudy, you may have a cold solder joint which can be caused by moving the joint before it is cool or not applying sufficient heat. If you have a cold solder joint, re-melt the solder and let it cool again.

Back To Top

Back To Top

How to Split A Lace Sensor Dually
Take the white wire from the coil you want to remain on during splitting and attach it to the orange wire from the other coil,
twist them together an solder. This is the series-link and will go to the splitter switch.
Take the other white wire and the green wires and solder them together, this goes to negative (ground).
The remaining orange wire goes to hot (+).

Back To Top

Original Fender® Stratocaster® Diagrams
These diagrams are in pdf format. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to open.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, CLICK HERE to download for FREE!
All original Fender® diagrams on this page are property of Fender® Musical Instruments which is not associated with HAS Sound.

Back To Top
 

Original Fender® Telecaster® Diagrams
These diagrams are in pdf format. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to open.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, CLICK HERE to download for FREE!
All original Fender® diagrams on this page are property of Fender® Musical Instruments which is not associated with HAS Sound.

Back To Top

Original Fender® Bass Diagrams
These diagrams are in pdf format. You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to open.
If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, CLICK HERE to download for FREE!
All original Fender® diagrams on this page are property of Fender® Musical Instruments which is not associated with HAS Sound.

Back To Top

How To Assign A Tone Control As A Master Tone
Disconnect the input of the tone control, usually the center terminal of the pot. Connect that terminal to the hot terminal (tip) of the output jack.
Now your tone control will work on all pickups all the time, no matter the positioning of the pickup selector switch!

Back To Top

How to use a Stereo Output Jack as a Battery Switch
A stereo jack has three terminals. One is the SLEEVE for ground. The other two are the TIP for positive and the RING for second positive. The ring clip is shorter than the tip clip. Connect your battery ground wire to the RING terminal. When you plug a mono cord into a stereo jack, it connects both the sleeve and the ring terminals together and completes the battery circuit to ground. When you unplug the cord from your guitar, it opens that circuit and there is no drain on the battery!

Back To Top

How To Re-wire a Gibson® Type Guitar for Independent Volume Controls
Swap the input lead with the output lead (usually the center terminal and the left terminal) of each volume control.
Now with the pickup selector switch in the middle position, each volume pot will control its own pickup separately without affecting the other!

Back To Top

Strat Pickup Height Adjustment
1- Adjust the Bridge pickup treble side to1/8 inch from the high E string and the bass side to 1/4 inch from the low E string.
2- Adjust the Middle pickup treble side to 3/16 inch from the high E string and the bass side to 1/4 inch from the low E string.
3- Place the pickup switch in the 2nd position (bridge and middle) and adjust the bass side of the middle pickup to get the amount of
"quack" that you desire. You may have to adjust both sides of the bridge pickup and the bass side of the middle pickup until you get the tone that you like.
4- Adjust the Neck pickup treble side to 3/16 inch from the high E string and the bass side to 1/4 inch from the low E string.
5- Place the pickup switch in the 4th position (neck and middle) and adjust the bass side of the Neck pickup to get the amount of "quack" that you desire. You may have to tweak both sides of the other pickups.
6- Once positions 2 and 4 sound the way you want , all five positions should have a distinctive sound.

Back To Top

Tele Pickup Height Adjustment
1- Adjust the Bridge pickup treble side to 3/16 inch from the high E string and the bass side to 1/4 inch from the low E string.
2- Place the selector switch in the middle position and adjust the neck pickup height until you can a distinct blend of the two pickups
3- Now check to make sure all three positions have a distinctive sound.

Back To Top

Humbucker Pickup Height Adjustment
A good starting point is Neck pickup 3/32 inch from top of the pickup pole to bottom of string and Bridge pickup 1/16 inch and adjust to taste. If a pickup is too close to the strings the tone tends to get muddy and lack clarity, and if too far away the tone will be thin and lacking in character. All pickups have a "sweet spot" where its tone will be optimal for a given guitar and pickup combination. Try to find this "sweet spot"...you'll know when you are there.

Back To Top

Most Effective Effects Pedal Chain Order

**GUITAR**
1- Filters: Auto Wahs, Envelope Followers
and other effects that respond to your attack.
2- Compressors
3- Distortions/Overdrives
4- Modulation Effects: Tremolos, Chorus, Flangers, etc.
5- Volume Pedal
6- Delays and Reverbs
**AMP**

Back To Top