Is it just me, or have major manufacturers gotten this wrong for decades?

[fieldwrangler]

Folks -

Haven't been doing repairs for awhile but I was reminded recently that I used to think that a simple change to the wiring layout of tone control circuits had a real advantage.

Especially in F-hole-type instruments, insuring that one leg of the tone cap was grounded seemed to reduce buzz levels dramatically. In fact, this tweak, IIRC, makes a more-than-significant improvement in any "normal" hi-z harness that's not fully shielded, as is almost always the case with 175's, 335's, etc.

Seems to me that the cap has been strung from pot to pot for a very long time, and therefore placed in the alternate series position, in which it can serve as an excellent noise injector.

Anyone else ever noticed this?

'Course, we were all taught that the positions of two series wired components can be swapped with no effect on their function.

I must say that since I bought a copy of "Grounding and Shielding" as prescribed by Salversan, this concept that significant properties of a circuit are not represented on its schematic has been most helpful.

Bob Palmieri

[jack briggs]

Folks -

Haven't been doing repairs for awhile but I was reminded recently that I used to think that a simple change to the wiring layout of tone control circuits had a real advantage.

Especially in F-hole-type instruments, insuring that one leg of the tone cap was grounded seemed to reduce buzz levels dramatically. In fact, this tweak, IIRC, makes a more-than-significant improvement in any "normal" hi-z harness that's not fully shielded, as is almost always the case with 175's, 335's, etc.

Seems to me that the cap has been strung from pot to pot for a very long time, and therefore placed in the alternate series position, in which it can serve as an excellent noise injector.

Anyone else ever noticed this?

'Course, we were all taught that the positions of two series wired components can be swapped with no effect on their function.

I must say that since I bought a copy of "Grounding and Shielding" as prescribed by Salversan, this concept that significant properties of a circuit are not represented on its schematic has been most helpful.

Bob Palmieri

Bob - I haven't noticed any difference between the series method and grounding one leg of the cap in noise levels. Every 335 type from Gibson I have worked on had shielded wire throughout the harness. Maybe some lower models or Norlin era models had unshielded wire in them, but I've never encountered it. My $0.02


cheers,

[fieldwrangler]

Bob - I haven't noticed any difference between the series method and grounding one leg of the cap in noise levels. Every 335 type from Gibson I have worked on had shielded wire throughout the harness. Maybe some lower models or Norlin era models had unshielded wire in them, but I've never encountered it. My $0.02


cheers,

Thanks for this. In fact, it's the shielded wire that leaves this element sticking out as a potential culprit due to its exposed position and direct connection to the pickups' output.

I'd certainly like to just do the obvious thing and set up one pickup's controls one way and one the other on a typical 2 pickup-4 control guitar but my own axes are so well shielded at the controls' periphery that I doubt it would make any difference.

Two cents most appreciated.