loose pickup cable

[henry]

I went to one of John's lessons a couple of months ago and he said (very politely!) he reckoned my guitar sounded a bit thin. I saw another post about someone who'd sorted the sound of their guitar out by fixing a loose earth wire from the pickup.

My guitar's got a black wire that is unattached, so I thought soldering it on somewhere would fix my tone trouble.

The question is where? To the chassis? or somewhere on the jack?

Any help much appreciated.

[James Crowbear]

basically it should be soldered on the jack ( if it's long enough - which it should)
pick ups usually have 2 wires - hot & ground
the hot is the center of the jack & the ground is the contour of it
otherwise before soldering it on, i would suggest that you test it by contacting it to any metal base ( close to the changer or chassis ) & see if the sound improves ( which it should )

[henry]

cheers James. I'm a bit confused cos the pickup seems to have three wires.
It's nothing fancy as far as I know, single coil and no coil taps I think.

There's a coax with shield and centre, then also this black wire?

I will try contacting it as you suggest to see what sounds good.

Thanks,

Henry

[James Crowbear]

i could be wrong Henry, but the black & the shield could both be grounded
what colour is the hot ? white, red ?
you'll have to try different combinations
all in all 1 hot & 1 ground -

[henry]

I let this slip, but talking to Richard at John's meeting made me think more about it.
As you can see, there is a black a red and a shielded cable. Red connected to one shielded to the other and the black one is loose.

Richard was saying that two cables and the shielded cable might mean it's a coil tap?
If so do I connect both to where the red cable is?

But, it looks like it's come loose from the bit the shielded cable is connected to?

Another thing that confuses me is that the jack has three connectors. Doesn't that mean its a stereo jack?

any help much appreciated.

Henry

[James Crowbear]

yup ! looks like a stereo jack all right
which means 2 hot & 1 ground

[Jim Pritchard]

Just had a look at your photos with broken wire. This is a standard mono 1/4" chassis jack socket. The Red wire looks like it is correct (hot or+), the Black should be soldered to the other pin (cold or-). The braid may also be connected to the cold as this would stop any humming/microphonics etc. I'll try and add a modified photo for you, hope this helps. Jimbo.

[bob adams]

Jimbo! Wins the Coconut! The colours can be confusing Henry, most of the newer psgs are black and white but there are various (red +two browns .. White + two blacks etc. but Jim’s info on yours is correct. We done that man!

[henry]

thanks very much to everyone - time to get the soldering iron out!

I will report back soon, hopefully with news of tonal nirvana!

[James Crowbear]

sorry to have steered you wrong henry
it's not a stereo jack after all
i should have looked better before posting
goes to show what i don't know
having read the proper reply, this jack has 2 grounds then eh ?