stop apologizing man this is the greatest video i found to teach me how to wire up my own guitar (im beginner by the way...)

10 Years Later: Still one of the best, clear cut videos! Thank *insert god of your liking* that it's still on here!

Probably the 5th time in the last few years I've come back here to refresh. I don't do much wiring, and I hate to waste my time when experts like this are on KZfaq. Thanks, again!

One of the best, most informative and clear cut vids i have ever seen. Are you listening to your standing ovation? Greatest teacher you are. Thanks

3 Guitar repairmen couldn't fix my EVH Frankenstrat.. All I did was watch your video, and ran a razor blade between the Pot and the Hot input. The granule of solder was soo soo small the naked couldn't see it but it was touching ( causing a horrible noise when strumming or every note played. It's fixed!!! Thank you for this fine detailed video...

Ground wire should connect from the bridge to the back of the volume pot. The ground on the back of the volume pot should connect to the ground on the output jack (the pole that touches the shaft of the cable). The last ground connection is made by bending the pole on the pot to the back of the pot. No wire is required. Solder the pole to the back of the pot and make sure your connections are solid. I hope this answers you question. Good luck and thanks for watching my video.

7 years after being made, video is still as relevant as ever. Thank you!

For any tremolo style guitar, the wire is usually soldered to the spring claw that the springs hook up to in the back of the guitar. This will ground your wiring to the tremolo. If it were a fixed bridge such as a Les Paul, there would be a wire coming into the wiring cavity from one of the bridge pieces. Good luck with your project, and thanks for checking out my video.

I usually don't comment, but this is probably one of the best explanation videos on guitar wiring. Suggestion: You should make an updated version with better video quality for those who have a hard time seeing

11 years later still a Great simple explanation.

This was awesome, re-wiring an old guitar as a fun project for myself and couldn't make sense of how to get it all hooked up (previously had 3 pickups, 2 tone and 1 volume). This gives me the confidence to just go buy what I need now!

Man this video is amazing. Simple instructions but he doesn't treat us like we're stupid

I have been waiting all my life to get my own EVH set up! Your video was just what I needed to complete my project! Thanks so much for your time!

Helping my brother wire a Frankenstrat replica. You're a boss, boss!

This was just what i needed. You described every step of the way and now i understand what to do . Thanks for taking the time to make this it really helped me out !

Man stop apologizing you’re doing us more than a favor and I’m so grateful you took the time to help us newbie’s

Thanks you so much dude. Building a 5150 tribute and was terrified of doing the electrics but you made it so clear and easy to understand. Brilliant video. Can't thank you enough!

thanks for the vid, I make banjo's, im 66, I sit all evening after supper in my recliner, next to my wife of 46 years as she watches tv, I don't like tv, so im playing my electric guitar, with one of those mini amp plugs and listening with headphones, because I can do so without disturbing her, but I need a banjo that I can do the same thing, so the next banjo build will be an electric banjo with one pick up so I can play it in the evening in my recliner, and now I know how to wire it up ! Thanks !

You keep apologizing. This is one of the better straight forward videos I have come across. Well done.

this is probably the best explanation of a straight wiring I have ever seen

this was my 2nd attempt at start to finish wiring, and i ran into a slight hiccup wiht the grounding, spent about an hour trying to figure it out and couldnt for the life of me get a solid ground connection. Then about 4 minutes into this video i found my problem... i had the wires the wrong way round on the output jack 😐, now it is fixed, thank you very much

Just gotta say props dude. This helped me so much. I just rebuild an Ibanez Destroyer with a piece of a Fender Strat with the bolt on set up, and finished it off with an ESP Kirk Hammett neck. The Destroyer was broken at the neck. But I put in an EMG H4 for the bridge, no neck pickup. No tone, no switch, just a volume and a pickup. This helped a lot. Thats how my jackson is set up too, but with a Seymour Duncan Dimebucker. But thank you for the video.

Thank you for posting this, It's nice to see a video where you are told why this wire goes to this lug and that wire goes to that lug rather than the usual this goes here this goes there without any explanation as to why. Thanks again, very informative video, much appreciated.

Inever soldered in my life, and... thanx to u I've fixed my bass last night. BIg Big fat thank you.

Great video Buddy! I recently picked up an old Kramer ZX10 from a garage sale and this is exactly what I needed to repair the mess of wiring someone did to it!

Thanks you inspired me to wire mine for the 1st time! This was the most helpful video I could find. Keep up the good work!

Straight outta the gate: proper soldering iron care. I knew this was gonna be an excellent video 🤌🏽🤌🏽 and it was

I appreciate the video, because it is really simple and easy to understand for most people. However, there is no such thing as a guitar "input" jack. There is only an OUTPUT jack. The signal goes OUT from the guitar "IN" to the amp. Also, do not ever blow on your hot solder joints! It will cause cold solder joints and bad connections, even if it does "feel like" a solid connection. There is absolutely no reason to blow on it anyway, as solder hardens very fast, almost as fast as you can blow on it. This being said, I do appreciate you taking your time to share your knowledge, there is a lot to be learned here. Thank you! P.P. Some of that hummm you may be hearing from your guitar is normal if it is single coil, but some of that hummm could be from blowing on your solder joints and creating bad connections or grounding.

This video is fantastic. Exactly what I was looking for. Everything is explained in a way that beginners understand what's going on. Thanks.

I was always told not to blow on a solder joint because it might cause a "Cold" solder joint.

Ive always been so intimidated by the thought of pickup soldering so ive been using emgs because of the somderless system. Ive got this single humbucker strat i wanna do a single Dimarzio D-Activator in tho and I figured this would be a great opportunity to finally learn sonce its only one pickup to get started. This video was crystal clear and im like 100 confident i can do it now so thank you! Its so much more simple than I thought.

Dude. This is the best video for a simple pickup wiring on YT. Never done this before but after watching your video I was confident. So I installed a pickup and a potentiometer all by myself for the first time and it works like a charm. Finally. ^^ Unfortunately your not uploading videos anymore. Three pickups and a 5-way-switch? ^^ Anyway. Thx.

Thanks so much for posting this video no more paying $40-$85 for somebody else to do this when it’s such a simple thing to do to begin with!

Today I found my old jazz archtop pickup wires had come off. This video let me know where to re-solder them. Thank you very much.😃

As I had not done any wiring for quite sometime, this helped me a lot. I wish other vids were as simple to follow as this one! Cheers.

bro this is so helpful to me. I'm building a frankenstrat and I'm at the wiring stage and this is literally exactly what i was looking for

Great video. I'm the worlds worse when it comes to this kind of work. Wasn't even going to try it but you made it look so easy. I did my guitar, it worked perfectly. Thanks.

Man it totally worked out! i checked the wiring and like you said the pole on the pot was loose, not well soldered to the back of the pot, so soldered it well and that's it, when i turned down the volume it kills the sound. Thanks a lot for the video and your helpful comments dude. I'll suscribe, have a nice day

I just discovered your channel and this is a fantastic tutorial. Legs 1 and 2 of the pots are interchangeable between hot and output (if there just one volume it doesn’t really matter, whereas if there’s two volumes like in a Les Paul, it makes a big difference)

i put off for so long thinking id mess up but finally went and bought a soldering iron and did it myself. thanks alot.

thx man i finaly finished my franenstrat build

It was very kind of you to post this video.i worked in the wood shop at Hamer. i never went near the finishing dept. Cool fact. Mark Durante Guitarist for KMFDM approved every finished guitar in the 1990s. and he final set up half of them. check out my podcast LIVE METAL PUPPETS -comedy and metal.

You are correct. The ground to the bridge on most tremolos is located on the spring claw in the back of the guitar. Make sure you get a good connection with solder and Don't Blow On Your Solder to cool it! Thanks for you question and good luck with your project.

Thanks for a first class lesson, I have just updated the wiring on my Gibson LP junior 🙏🏻 works brilliant 🙏🏻

Thanks for the comment and the great info. Always willing to learn new techniques.

thank you so much my dad doesnt live with me anymore so now i have to learn everything myself and this helped so much

That is true. I have been told this a bunch of times since the videos came out. Personally I have never had a problem with connections failing. Knowing what I know now, I can not reccommend blowing on solder anymore. My regret is that I don't have time to reshoot all the videos. Thanks for your comment and helpful information.

For someone who knows nothing of how to solder up a pickup in this configuration I found your video invaluable, thanks 🎸

Man Thanks heaps for this vid.It helped me out of a tricky situation with a detatched wire on one of my volume pots. I am a Guitarist who knows nothing about the electronic insides of my Guitar. You explain everything so that even I can understand it. Cheers Mate.

Hands down best vid on simple soldering. Thnx

Hey man, all is good. You are not the only one to tell me not to blow on the solder. I will also say you are correct in this information. I learned how to solder by trial and error, until a friend showed me some tricks. I have never had a connection fail by blowing on it. My only regret is that I can't go back and re-shoot the videos. Thanks for the info and letting my viewers in on some good advise. Thanks for looking and thanks for your comment.

Great video mate, thanks for taking the time. I got a problem now with a ground and its nearly got me beat, but will have another go.

Thanks very much for taking the time to make these videos. They are very helpful to learn about soldering.

Thanks for showing this with the simple EVH setup, it's exactly what I was looking for. Cheers man.

You can do this final connection with wire, but I usually just bend the pole over to the back of the pot and solder it directly. If you choose to use wire, the easiest way is to thread the wire through the pole and solder the end of the wire to the back of the pot and then the wire to the pole. I try to keep the number of connections to a minimum to reduce the risk of circuit failure later. Thanks for your question and good luck with your project.

5:30 Thats what he said

Brilliant concise video.Straight to the point and no waffle.l"ll try this on my box guitar tomorrow.

Thank you. I watched this and installed a Dimarzio Blaze in one of my ole 7 strings. Great tutorial

Just amazingly simply explained. Very Good. Best regards from Portugal

Thanks man! just used this one now to wire up EVH Bumble Bee with Dimarzio SS

Brilliant simple video. I like the effort you made of the soldering mock up board. Made it easy to see the whole picture. I like the error you made, gives that human touch, not so 'i'm so perfect approach' Brilliant just subscribed . do not want to miss anything else

I'll be using this video tomorrow in conjunction with the wiring diagrams that came with my pick-up. With me and thanks for the helpful vid!

hat geklappt, danke! seymour duncan DH6 hello from germany 2023👍

Fantastic!! many many thanx..you pulled me out of a right hole!! just finished working on a mini fender style guitar for a friends 3yr olds birthday!! all sorts of problems with the wiring but thanx to you it's sorted! your'e awesome dude!! cheers!! clear well presented vid!! best on youtube you made it easy!!

thank you so much for this video. i recently set up a guitar like this but i had a guitar tech install the pickup because i was having it set up anyways. I got the guitar back and the pickup sounds dead. I'm not sure what the problem is but now i feel more confident about opening the guitar up, identifying the problem and trying to correct it. so thanks again!

EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!!! what i needed. Thank you for the time you took to make this video. Guitar now working with a new volume control. V pleased.

One single humbucker , my favorite and all I need. Cool video 👍

Awesome video. Exactly what I was looking for (the VH setup). Thanks so much.

we should be thanking you so" thank you" don't pay attention to the people who say " it shouldn't say this or that" most of us are trying to learn something so we don't have to pay the " it shouldn't say this or that" guy. so really thank you so much for making it so easy for us " crap how do I do that" guy [ me] please keep them coming , it's great

best instructional vid i have ever seen

This is a great video! I'd love to see you do one for a 5 way super switch and 2 humbuckers. I'm about to try this on my strat but all the videos for super switch wiring are crap

It's an old film, but still very helpful for me as a beginner. Thnx

Thanks for the question. I have a Basic Wiring DVD that you can purchase at my website if you want to learn more about wiring. It will take you through the wiring you see in this video, adding the tone control, and then adding two pickups with a 3-way switch volume and tone. Capacitors are a great and inexpensive way to change the tone of a guitar. I would recommend Orange Drop caps .047uf or .022uf. The larger the number the more low end is produced through the electronic. Good luck...

Yes. You are correct. If you find that solder is not sticking to a pot you can scratch it to expose raw metal and the solder will stick to it. I have had these issues myself in the past with CTS Pots. Don't get me wrong. They are great pots and are great for restoring older aging instruments or upgrading newer instruments. But the solder sometimes doesn't stick well til you rough them up a bit. Thanks for the question. Good luck with your project.

Glad I could help. Keep an eye open for some new videos coming soon. Thanks for checking out my videos, and good luck with your project.

best tutorial i've seen! thanks. not even a selector switch on this, just basic wiring. what better place to start to learn? thank you!

Good stuff... wish I saw this like 20 years ago...lots of crappy soldering irons, cold joints, and hairpulling but I eventually got it right, lol.

Excellent tutorial. Clear and concise. Thank you.

Brilliant, easy to follow and very constructive too, plug in and go... thanks for this video.

Thanks for the info. I have shot a lot of videos containing wiring and you are not the only one giving me advice to not blow on the solder connections. I wish I had time to re-shoot the videos and take out the bad advice. The next wiring video I will be addressing the issues of my bad advice. LOL... Thanks for the comment and the education. It has not fallen on deaf ears. Best to you....

I appreciate that you took the time to make this video to help people on here. I do want to mention, however, that I have heard that you are *not* supposed to blow on solder to cool it. I don't know if this is overkill, but as long as you've encountered success with your electronics, I'd say you're probably in good shape. I don't mean to say that "I know it all", but that is just my two cents. Cheers, friend!

Excellent tutorial. Well done. This will save me time and $$ on my EVH build. Great job!

Thanks, this was so helpful and now I can finally finish my 5150 replica!

Great video, one thing I think you forgot is on the volume control if you don't ground the right leg, when you turn the knob to raise the volume it might just work the opposite way.

I installed a EVH Frankenstein pickup and had horrible hiss and hum. This video saved the weekend. Cheers

Thanks...Needed this vid for rewiring my LP Jr. Nicely done!

Thankyou finally so clear you cant not understand exactly what to do. Thanks man im so glad i found this

Thank you very much for this video - finally got my old bass working!

Thanks! Now to see if you have one with a pickup, volume and tone pot.

Awesome and easy to follow tutorial. This is a huge help. Thanks you!

I absolutely appreciate you showing this. What are your thoughts on pre tinning your wires? And I didn't notice you using any type of flux,,,that also could be the culprit for popping off? please keep them going. Very informative...

Great video, helped me wire up my humbucker hum-free.

You are correct about the pole being earth. However, if you do not solder that pole to the back of the pot it remains a tone circuit and will not ground out and kill the signal. By connecting the pole to the back of the pot, it shorts out the pot turning what would be a tone pot into a volume pot. I hope this helps. Good luck with your project.

This was very helpful explaining the basics. Thanks!

This video helped me tremendously. Thank you so much.

Very informative. Made wiring up my strat super easy. 10/10

Where would the "Bridge Ground" be connected if there is only one pickup?

arent you suppose to tin the wires first

There should be a ground wire from the bridge or tail piece to the back of the volume pot. From the back of the volume pot to the ground on the input jack. The pole on the far right side of the pot should be soldered to the back of the pot as well. I hope this helps, and good luck with your project.

Good knowledge about the ground wire