Quick question about three-wire neck pickups

[Tagliatellecaster]

Hi, all. On my current Tele neck pickup, the ground wire runs to a lug on the body and then continues to the volume pot body. I'm about to replace it with a three-wire Bootstrap pickup, and the black and yellow are both ground (I'm sticking to a three-way switch). Can I just run the yellow to the lug and the black to the volume pot body, as they are both ground in this circuit, or would the yellow also need to continue to the volume pot from the lug?

 

[WalthamMoosical]

If both those spots are "ground" already you shouldn't need to add another connection between them, which is all continuing the yellow from the volume pot to the lug would do. But if the only reason they are both "ground" is the wire between them from the original setup, then you will need to preserve that wire or replace it with another.

 

[Tagliatellecaster]

That makes sense. The body cavities have conductive paint, but the neck pickup cavity doesn't appear to be connected to the bridge cavity, and I'm not using copper tape on the pickguard and tabs on the paint to bridge the two cavities, so I think you're right - I'll need to run the yellow on to the volume pot body. Thanks for your quick reply.

 

[Steve Holt]

Hi, all. On my current Tele neck pickup, the ground wire runs to a lug on the body and then continues to the volume pot body. I'm about to replace it with a three-wire Bootstrap pickup, and the black and yellow are both ground (I'm sticking to a three-way switch). Can I just run the yellow to the lug and the black to the volume pot body, as they are both ground in this circuit, or would the yellow also need to continue to the volume pot from the lug?

It depends on if your guitar is shielded and if that lug is connected to ground.

You want to make sure that both of those wires are connected to ground. You could run them both to the back of the volume pot. And then run a separate wire from the back of the volume pot to the lug you're talking about. That would ensure everything is connected together properly. Pictures are always good.

Sounds like the person that wired it up originally was killing two birds with one wire by running the wire to the lug then the volume pot, but if that's the only thing connecting the lug to ground, sending the pickup cover ground wire to the lug by itself might cause you some problems.

 

[Tagliatellecaster]

Thanks, Steve. The existing wiring is original Fender. I'm just going to carry the wire on from the lug to the volume pot body.

 

[Steve Holt]

Thanks, Steve. The existing wiring is original Fender. I'm just going to carry the wire on from the lug to the volume pot body.

Yeah, don't fix it if it's not broken. I would run the black wire to the lug and then the volume pot body and the yellow wire straight to volume pot.

 

[Tagliatellecaster]

As a final update, I wound up running the yellow to the lug in the neck pickup cavity and then on to the the volume pot body, and the black straight to the volume pot body. Everything is working as expected and is properly grounded, and I am now the happy owner of a tele with a pair of very lovely Bootstrap Palo Alto pickups. Thanks again, Waltham and Steve.

 

[mountainhick]

The wires are attached to two different points on the pickup, the negative end of the coil, and the metal cover. The two are needed for 4 way switch wiring, but otherwise they just both need to be grounded.

With series parallel wiring, the cover needs to be grounded as a shield, typically to one of the pots. The coil's negative wire is wired into the switch separately. If it was grounded to a pot, it would shunt all signal of the series circuit to ground... silence.

4 way:

 

[jeffchinn0321]

If both those spots are "ground" already you shouldn't need to add another connection between them, which is all continuing the yellow from the volume pot to the lug would do. But if the only reason they are both "ground" is the wire between them from the original setup, then you will need to preserve that wire or replace it with another.

The reason for 3 wires is for out of phase or series parallel wireing one wire goes to the cover and the other goes to the coil.

 

[Tagliatellecaster]

Thanks, Jeff. My doubt was not regarding the function of the third wire, which I already knew, but whether I could get away with not running a wire from the ground lug to the volume pot body. I needed someone to point out the obvious - that the lug wouldn't be grounded if I didn't include that extra wire.