Wiring for a vibrato ground lift switch

[Haroldoftherock]

Hi Folks. I'm a newbie to the site. I have a question on how to wire up the infamous vibrato ground lift switch. I have a 50KA pot with a spst switch attached and keep confusing myself on how to wire it in. I was under the impression that it was as simple as replacing the lead from the old intensity pot to the same locations on the switch pot. That doesn't make sense as I am pretty sure I have to incorporate the lugs on the back of the switch to facilitate the on off function. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. I am doing the mod on a 66 super reverb.

[tboy]

Hi Harold, and welcome to the forum.

One of the existing pot lugs has a wire that goes to ground. On the replacement part, that wire would go to one of the switch lugs, and then you'd attach a wire from the other switch lug to ground.

[Haroldoftherock]

Thanks for the help TB. I do fairly well with the tone stacks and power section, but jacks and switches still get me turned sideways.

Just so I am sure I understand correctly, the lug on the original pot that had the ground (left lug looking from the back) will be empty and the switch lugs will both be separately run to ground.

Thanks again.

Harold

[Enzo]

No, wrong end of the wire. Try again.

The old one had a wire to ground from one of the pot terminals. Disconnect the ground end of that wire and move it to one of the terminals on the switch. Now run a new piece of wire from the remaining switch terminal to ground. All we have done is wire the switch into the path from pot to ground. Like we had a piece of pipe that ran to a drain, and now we have added a valve in the middle of the pipe. It still comes from the same place, and goes to the same place, but now we have an on/off in the middle.

[Haroldoftherock]

Thanks gentlemen. Your willingness to share your knowledge is greatly appreciated.