Soldering help

GrandmaShreds

GrandmaShreds

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Okay so I have a set of Tex Mex pickups I want to install into my Telecaster as well as a new pre-wired control plate.

My situation is as follows:
The Tex Mex bridge pickup has a super short ground wire. I plan on putting copper shielding tape in all the cavities so would I be able to solder the ground wire right to the copper tape? Or, can I just ground it right to the bridge plate (like lay the wire onto the body and let the bridge plate touch it)?
The other part includes grounding the control plate to the control plate cavity via grounding lug. The control plate I have has the ground wire attached to it already that has a ground lug which they want you to screw into the body. If the cavity is shielded with copper tape, then I would just have to screw the wire into the body and have it touch the copper tape.
Another alternative is just splicing a longer wire onto the ground wire coming from the bridge pickup and then soldering it to the volume pot along with the neck pickup and then screwing the ground lug from the control plate into the body.

Help?
 
The more solid your connections, the greater the reliability. Don't ask me how something as innocent as a ground connection can find a way to wiggle and break free..they just do.

If it were me I'd opt for adding a little bit of wire to you "too short" lead. You can always shorten it later.

About those solid grounds...
Everything you can do to increase the integrity of them will help. I've never been a fan of relying on passive connections...the reliance of proximity to insure a viable ground... I'm a fan of wire and solder, even when it's just plain redundant.
 
GrandmaShreds said:
Another alternative is just splicing a longer wire onto the ground wire coming from the bridge pickup and then soldering it to the volume pot along with the neck pickup and then screwing the ground lug from the control plate into the body.
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I like this idea. I lengthen short pickup wires (any short wire) all the time. Let’s make the task as easy as possible. Especially in the tiny control cavity of aTele. It’s a tight space and you don’t want anything getting pinched or touching something it’s not supposed to upon assembly.
 
GrooVey said:
I like this idea. I lengthen short pickup wires (any short wire) all the time. Let’s make the task as easy as possible. Especially in the tiny control cavity of aTele. It’s a tight space and you don’t want anything getting pinched or touching something it’s not supposed to upon assembly.
Click to expand...
I think what I'm gonna do is follow how Squier has it wired in the stock electronics and wire my new pickups and wiring harness that way. The pre-wired harness is already mostly put together minus the output jack. I'm going to remove the ground wire they intended to drill into the body because I don't think I'm going to add any shielding. I've heard many accounts online (forums) that say shielding can be detrimental to tone and isn't necessary. I will leave the ground wire running from the bridge/body and use that instead. Wire all three grounds to the volume pot, wire my hot wires where they need to go, and I should be good.

I'm just waiting to get my soldering iron kit from Lord Amazon lol.
 
I like the plan. While I don’t think shielding is a tone suck, I also don’t think it’s necessary. I did it on one of my builds but have no plans to use it again.

I did a shielded Tele with two push pulls to split coils and a 4 way switch. Very complicated and jammed with wires in that cavity. Won’t be doing that again. Ended up ripping out the shielding.
 
I wired everything together last night and it all works! No buzzing or grounding issues, and I have sound. I put new strings on my Tele this morning and man, those Tex Mex pickups sound wicked! Way better than the stock Squier ones.
 
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