Need wiring help

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr. C
  • Start date Start date
Mr. C

Mr. C

New member
I have an epi sg jr which I have installed a varitone switch in. I'm sure I have the switch wired right as the directions are simple (red wire to the input jack, white to the back of vol. pot.). The volume originally had the blue wire going to the tone pot. but nothing direct to the input jack. So after taking out the tone pot. I figure just go direct to the input jack. I'm including a pic (hope it shows up), can anyone help me?
 

Attachments

  • DSCN1122.webp
    DSCN1122.webp
    45.3 KB · Views: 229
Hard to tell what's going on behind that....NO!...:eek:...that's NOT electrical tape, is it!
C'mon...do it right, get some heat-shrink tubing. That electrical tape will just get gooey and eventually come apart...YUK. :D


Can you describe what/where each wire is from?
That might help answer you question...but...what exactly is your question?

Is it not working as-is...have you tried it out?
 
Ooops, forgot to say the problem is no volume. (The electrical tape on the varitone switch is not my doing.)
There is a red wire from the varitone switch to the hot side of the input jack. A white wire from the varitone switch to the back of the vol. pot. The blue wire is from the vol pot to the hot side of the input jack. I sort of wound it together with the red wire of the varitone switch. There is a white wire that connects both terminals of the input jack (doesn't make sense to me, but I'm no electrical genius and that's the way it was originally). The other wires connecting to the vol. pot come from the pickups and they were already wired like that.
Just a note, I had volume until I installed the varitone switch and messed with the blue vol. pot wire. I'm not master solderer either, so maybe the solder job to the input jack is not good enough?
 
Is it just me or is your tip and sleeve on the input jack jumped together? Sure looks like your signal is grounded out....but even then I see no wire going to the tip anyways.
 
Outlaws, you are correct, the white wire goes from the tip to the sleeve of the input jack (that's what you call those terminals?). That's the way it was before I put in the varitone switch and the volume worked fine. The blue wire from the vol. pot and red wire from the varitone both go to the hot side of the input jack (is that the tip or sleeve?). As you can see I barely know what I'm doing, but can easily follow diagrams and directions. The only thing different about the wiring, excluding the varitone switch, is that the blue wire is now going directly to the input jack. So what is the problem?
 
Does the BLUE wire actually have a shielded center wire (WHITE) with a naked braided wire (which is actually a ground wire)...?

That's what it looks like, but the picture is not very clear.
If that is the case...then the center white wire should be, and appears to be...going to the TIP of the jack, while the naked braided ground is tied to the SLEEVE.

Your RED wire is then in the wrong place...it needs to be where the TIP/BLUE(center WHITE) wire is going...the TIP...in the picture it looks like you have it going to the SLEEVE.

The TIP and SLEEVE should NOT be connected in any way or have the exposed wires touching each other.

Can you take a close-up of just the jack, from a side angle?
 
Miroslav, thanks for pointing that out about the shielded white wire coming out of the blue. I didn't notice it, but looked at the vol. pot and sure enough the white wire is actually coming out of the blue.

Now on the input jack, the white wire was definitely all by itself going from tip to sleeve. The blue wire originally terminated at the now removed tone pot.

So in the pic, which terminal on the input jack is the sleeve and which is the tip? Where I have the blue and red wire connected to now is where the red wire from the tone pot. went to.

I'll try to get another pic within a couple hrs or so, I have to run out now.
Thanks for sticking with me and helping out.
 
arcaxis said:
... I got a feeling the white "hot" wire in the shield got tied to ground inadvertantly.
Click to expand...


Yeah...that's why I asked him for a close-up from the side.
Also...I think he wired the red to what is really the Sleeve.

Anyway...here's how it should be IMO (99% sure):
The jack in the image is oriented almost the same as the one in your picture above...the TIP on yours is the leg pointing south

OutputJack.jpg
 
The varitone basically just puts one of several capacitors across the output.

Verify that the wire coming from the center of the volume pot goes to the tip of the output jack and the input side of the varitone. Also verify that the common on the varitone is grounded.

If you don't have one, you're gonna need a multimeter. It really sounds like you've got either the pickup output or the outpu jack itself grounded.
 
LDS said:
If you don't have one, you're gonna need a multimeter.
Click to expand...

Yup...sure saves time and takes the guesswork out of a lot of electronic questions...though AFA basic guitar wiring, for the most part it's easy to see where what goes (if you know what to look for)...but I always check it with a meter anyway. :)
 
I think I thought that the white wire was going from the tip to the sleeve when I first started messing around not realizing as Miroslav pointed out that it actually came out of the blue wire. So now I've got it all set up the correct way. I had no idea (obviously) which was the tip and which was the sleeve, but after everyone helping and some close examination I understand now. By the way arcaxis, I have no clue how to read a wiring diagram, just illustrations such as miroslav drew. Hey, at least everyone saved me some money in wiring this and that is my goal from now on. Thanks so much!!!
 
Yes, it is working properly now. But I'm disappointed in how the varitone sounds in the sg jr. The tones I'm getting overall are very trebly, which I didn't experience when I had one installed on a homemade tele. I'll probably end up taking it out and saving it for something in the future. I think a nice semi-hollow would be a good choice. Now if I could only convince my wife that I need another guitar.:D
 
Mr. C said:
Yes, it is working properly now. But I'm disappointed in how the varitone sounds in the sg jr. The tones I'm getting overall are very trebly, which I didn't experience when I had one installed on a homemade tele. I'll probably end up taking it out and saving it for something in the future. I think a nice semi-hollow would be a good choice. Now if I could only convince my wife that I need another guitar.:D
Click to expand...
That's weird; I would have expected the tone to go all dark. Those caps are suppose to shunt hi freq's to ground (low pass filter); are you sure you have it wired correctly? If you had the caps in series with the signal instead of in parallel to ground they might act like a high pass instead of a low pass filter. That would make the tone go all trebly.
 
That looks like a store-bought varitone switch...he only wired in the main leads. Who knows how it's wired internally.

I have a Snarling Dogs Very-Tone pedal...which is just a more robust version of a varitone pot...and I find the same thing with it. It's like most of the settings are intended to brighten up your tones...at least that's how it sounds with my HB guitars.
But I do have extra 3-position tone switches on a few of my Hagstrom Swedes (vintage and reissue)...and on them, the switch does cut the highs and mid-highs depending on position...so yeah, you get the darker/creamier tones which I prefer over brightening things up.
 
I bought the varitone from Big D guitars online. As I said, I had a homemade tele and yes, it did cut the highs in that. For some reason I'm not getting that with the sg, or could there be a problem with the switch? Ugghhh!!! Maybe I'll shoot Big D an email and seek an opinion on it.
A nice Hagstrom Swede would be just the ticket for the varitone, that is the semi-hollow body, correct?
 
You are thinking of Hag Viking...the Swedes are solid-body...but both have a 3-way tone switch on the original Swedish-made guitars, but on the reissues, the Viking only has a pickup-selector, while the Swede still has the 3-way tone switch too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top