***The Official Guitar Thread***

builder22 said:
The wires to the 3 way toggle on my LP copy have an inner and outer core/shielding (not sure proper name) with the outer all connected together for grounds
Can it be done with 4 single core wires or does it need to be this 2 core/shielded type?

Pic of the toggle ...
ibb.co

IMG-20250101-160759785 hosted at ImgBB

Image IMG-20250101-160759785 hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co
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That is single core shielded wire I think? And yes I'd say you want it shielded, else you have 2 runs up and one run back all picking up hum.

What you can do though is get some standard 4 core pickup wire and just run a single length of it. That is shielded, and has a spare core in case you have any funky wiring ideas. Usually it's just 3 wires/cores in an LP: neck pickup from pot, bridge pickup from pot, and output from switch to jack.
 
Yeah it's 3 wires to neck, bridge and jack like u say..Shortened them to fit to the EMG bus gonna put the EMGs in another guitar so need to replace the 3 wires..would 3 single core shielded or 4 core pickup wire be better?
Tying the outer core together just seemed a bit fiddly but will get used to it if it needs to be done!
 
builder22 said:
Yeah it's 3 wires to neck, bridge and jack like u say..Shortened them to fit to the EMG bus gonna put the EMGs in another guitar so need to replace the 3 wires..would 3 single core shielded or 4 core pickup wire be better?
Tying the outer core together just seemed a bit fiddly but will get used to it if it needs to be done!
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You've got a few options!

- Get some nice quality coax/shielded cables that are easier to strip and solder

- Get some 4-core pickup wire and use that - easiest to run 1 wire than 3

- Get some Gibson style braided cable where the sleeve is the shield. That just pushes back rather than strips so it's quite easy to solder several bits

It's been forever since I wired an LP but I'd probably go with the first option these days. Not sure why!

Edit: those box switches can be fiddly to solder to. Proper Switchcraft ones like Gibson use are nicely laid out for soldering.
 
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bit more to this...experimenting with the EMG's I tried using some 4 core shielded cable from a rotary encoder (have only just realised this is prob the same thing as 4 core pickup wire??) but used 3 of the cores for bridge/neck/output and the 4th core for ground, the shielding wasn't connected to anything but if I touched it at either end I got the buzz like if u touch the tip of the guitar lead connected to an amp...didn't seem to make any difference when playing the guitar but thought I had maybe cut through the insulation of one of the 4 cores and the shielding was touching so ended up soldering the original 3 single core shielded back in...

questions....would touching the shielding (not connected to anything) be expected to create a buzz/hum?
the pics I have found of '4 core pickup wire' looks like 4 insulated cores and a bare core? is it any different to the pic below....

the encoder cable used...

IMG-20250108-204334751.jpg


wired up to the toggle...
IMG-20250101-163245438.jpg
 
Looks great - yes I'd expect 4 core pickup wire to be 4 insulated cores and a shielding metal sleeve. The idea is to ground the shielding conductor so it wraps around the cores and shields them from hum :)
 
a sleeve, that's the word! so as in the pics above I didn't use the shielding sleeve for ground, I used the '4th' core....but when installed touching the sleeve gave a buzz/hum...guess that makes sense
(actibe emg's instructions say no need to connect bridge/strings ground)
 
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builder22 said:
a sleeve, that's the word! so as in the pics above I didn't use the shielding sleeve for ground, I used the '4th' core....but when installed touching the sleeve gave a buzz/hum...guess that makes sense
(actibe emg's instructions say no need to connect bridge/strings ground)
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Good point - EMGs say you don't need a strong ground, though I also know plenty of people who still do it.

But sleeving/grounding the signal wires is still good practise due to general ambient hum. It's actually OK to just ground one end of the sleeve if you still have some accessible in the control cavity. In fact that's often done in amps to prevent ground loops! Just like you have here - snip/insulate the sleeve at one end, and ground it at the other.
 
all good info here..cheers again!

to be clear..the heatshrink not my work...it's just how the cable was when i snipped it from the encoder end but familiar with 12/24v heatsrink/wiring etc, just not guitar wiring
 
builder22 said:
The wires to the 3 way toggle on my LP copy have an inner and outer core/shielding (not sure proper name) with the outer all connected together for grounds
Can it be done with 4 single core wires or does it need to be this 2 core/shielded type?
Click to expand...

The shielding simply reduces the RF noise that the guitar will pickup. You shouldn't use the shield as a return ground itself and it should (in theory) be connected on one end to ground. That way any noise to ground and the return remains cleaner.
 
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The output/neck/bridge shielding of the 3 wires at the toggle were all tied together and connected to the body of the toggle, the output wire shielding was the ground for the jack...the bridge/neck wires from the toggle at the pots end I'm not sure of (should have took pictures!)
 
If all your shields were tied together at the switch, and one of them was grounded at the jack, then the rest would be grounded too :)

In reality nobody uses a balanced/separate ground from the shield in guitars. So long as it all has electrical continuity that's about all people bother with.
 
LuckyBenski said:
If all your shields were tied together at the switch, and one of them was grounded at the jack, then the rest would be grounded too :)

In reality nobody uses a balanced/separate ground from the shield in guitars. So long as it all has electrical continuity that's about all people bother with.
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Yup-all guitars end up with a wire and shield hitting the amp. The AC signal is on the core and the shield is the return.. although people forget that. My amp's jack is not connected to the chassis but the shield of the jack/cable is connected to the pre-ground.

In the end if it works then it works :D
 
Finally measured the guitar after the adjustment it’s dropped 200g just in the little adjustments I made. Now 5.6Kg, it’s heavy but still feels lighter. I suspect the next iteration may drop that closer to 5kg.

I was playing with the new app I’m writing - it recognises the notes to the accuracy required and it recognises all string notes but it can get a little confused with octave strings as I was filtering out the harmonics (ie 2nd harmonic of B1 is.. B2 etc).
i’ll work something out but it’s coming together.
 
Raymond Lin said:
5.6kg....my Les Paul, which I thought was on the heavier side is 4.3kg.

What wood did you use again?
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All of them :D

The heavy part is the through neck laminate. It rings like a xylophone block but it’s heavy, it’s composed of:
Maple (thick)
Wenge (thin)
Walnut (thin)
Thick Purple Heart
Walnut (thin)
Wenge (thin)
Maple (thick)

The body back limbs are Alder.
The front is flame maple
The fretboard is bubinga (african rosewood)

In it’s defence it is longer with more strings and hardware on too including locking tuners and metal volume knobs etx)
 
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