Hi Correna: another very cheap item for your shopping list. You'll often need a way of removing tired old solder from a joint. Two possibilities: one is a simple little tool called a "solder sucker" or "desoldering pump" or words to that effect. The alternative is a type of braid that soaks up solder when you heat it, called "desoldering braid" or "solder wick" or similar.

At a glance I'm not seeing either of those on the RadioShack website (could be wrong) but they are easy to find at a hardware store and cost pennies.

I'd also suggest you Google for an online guide to soldering. There's a little basic stuff you need to know about preparing your new soldering iron, tinning wire ends, keeping your iron clean (the wet sponge Niki menioned is for that) and so forth.

Very simple: a five minute read will tell you all you need to know.

Good luck with it.

Cheers - C

Thanks a lot Ceri,

I was wondering the same thing last night as I was looking over my impending job.

I have an old mother board laying around that I am going to practice on before I start on my patient;)

Off to the store I go.

thats really good to know. I havnt taken any precaution in the past and have probably inhaled quite a bit of solder smoke.

am i in any kind of danger? or just from now on watch my breathing around it.


Good luck on the mini-switch btw, you got alot of great help here!

You're not in any danger but like you said, just from now on watch your breathing around it.

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You dig?

Just got back.

Got all my stuff and and I am now going to set up my lab...lol

Thank god there was a fellow "player" that worked at radio shack, and he hooked me up with everything I need, and knew what I was talking about.

Let the fun begin!!!

Should this wire, in yellow, be connected? It shows it on this diagram, and on the Fender one as well. Mine currently is not installed.

Correna if i'm not mistaken that wire is the jumper wire that enables the tone pot for the middle pickup to be used for the bridge pickup too. If the drawing says wire it, then wire it. If it is the jumper mod i suspect it is then its a nice addition to your guitar.

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No no and no

It's driving me crazy, as I have seen it with and without.
I figure while I am in there I might as well wire it up.

Confirming: That is the jumper wire which adds the middle pickup's tone pot to the bridge pickup too.

If you want the bridge pickup to have a tone control too, wire it. If you don't, then don't bother wiring it.

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You dig?

I have become a monster!

I have two strats. The one that I am working on now, and another that was my first, that GC also worked on, believe it or not.

Well I was checking the switch, pup configuration on the other strat and it is also messed up, can you believe that??!!
.
So now that I have a little knowledge, and know what I am looking at, I took it appart to check. everything looks correctly wired as it should be, but upon test of the pups I get:

1.) Bridge, middle
2.) Bridge, middle
3.) Middle
4.) Neck
5.) Neck

I am going crazy. Do you think that I have a bum switch?

Now I have two guitars to work on!!

Is this problem on the new guitar or the one that you are putting the gilmour switch onto?

Correna i suggest you pay good heed to any advice Martian gives. He's quite the wiring/pickup guru.

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No no and no

I kind of doubt the pickup selector switch is bad as they can take a lot of abuse. Just make sure no solder dripped down the terminals into the mechanical parts of the switch.

All in all, I must congratulate you as most people on their first try usually get no sound at all!

I'm trying to figure in my head how you could have gotten that combo from the selector switch. I think you MAY have the jumper from the one side of the switch to the other side which goes to the volume pot backwards.

Can you post any pictures of your wiring of the pickup selector switch? I promise I won't laugh. Seriously though, we are here to help, not belittle.

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You dig?

Let's walk through it all:

VERIFY ALL of the following:

Your pickup selector switch should have exposed contacts on one side where you can see the mechanics of the switch whereas the other side has a metal frame over it so it is difficult to see the inner mechanism. Premising this is correct, looking at the wiring diagram you posted above of the pickup selector switch, make sure the metal frame side of your switch is FACING the mini-switch.

Now, let’s run through this. All references are per your diagram:

On the left side of the switch:

The top terminal is for the hot wire from your bridge pickup.
The next terminal below it is for the hot wire from your middle pickup.
The next terminal below that is for the hot wire from neck pickup AND for the wire which goes to the center terminal of the mini-switch.
The last terminal should have a jumper wire soldered from there to the top RIGHT terminal on the pickup selector switch.

Continuing on the right side of the switch:

The second AND third terminals descending are for the hot wire from the tone pot furthest away from the volume pot, closest to the output jack. You can solder the one wire from the pot across both terminals in lieu of adding an extra jumper wire. This will be your tone control for the middle AND bridge pickups.
Lastly, the bottom right terminal is for the hot wire from your other tone pot, the one closest to the volume pot which is your tone control for the neck pickup.

There should be no more/less wires, per all the above.

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You dig?

I thank you!

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You dig?

I owe everyone a beer!

It is a separate guitar. I decided to look at that one as well.

I have a bees nest on my hands!