Mustang Single Coil & Humbucker (Coil Tap) Wiring Problem

[ter2121]

Hi everyone,

First time Mustang owner, and it's a cool little guy I've built out of a kit. I'm totally new to wiring, but that was something I wanted to get a little practice on. There were basic diagrams available w/the kit, so I went ahead and wired up the standard single coil configuration.....BUT I'd already a read some posts on a single coil + humbucker w/coil tap options. B/c this is something I'm doing as a project, I thought I'd make it a little more interesting and try that out. Well, that's where I need some wiring wisdom!

So I went down a rabbit hole of posts running back ten years on forums...Now I'm pretty sure I have the diagram that's what I want, but first of all, I'm not sure what two connections in it mean. Second, if anyone can help me confirm what I'm thinking is right, I'd really appreciate it!

SETUP:
So what I'm trying to put in here are a standard Fender Mustang pup at the neck, and an SD Hot Rails humbucker at the bridge. I'd like it so that the top switch goes on/off/out of phase for the neck single coil, and the bottom switch goes coil-tap/off/humbucker for the Hot Rails @ the bridge. I've posted the diagram that I'd like to use below, I found it at this site: https://marcuseffects.wordpress.com/201 ... tang-mods/



So my first question is maybe really stupid, but I can't see a similar illustration in other diagrams I've looked at: I can't figure out what the little wire running from the selector switch contact around it's side is. In the Tom Levens diagram pic, this happens in the top switch in the top right position, and in the bottom switch in the top left position. What I mean is there's a little length of wire that runs from those contacts around the side...is it running to some ground point? If so, where would the best place to ground it to?

The next question is about the SD Hot Rails used in this config. My understanding from their site is that the Green Wire is the start of the south coil, Red is finish of the South Coil, Black is Start of North Coil, and White is Finish of North Coil. So then my question is that I've still got the bare wire ... I'm assuming I should just wire this to ground on the volume pot? Could anyone confirm that?

Thank you for any help / suggestions you guys have!

[hpr_hpr]

So my first question is maybe really stupid, but I can't see a similar illustration in other diagrams I've looked at: I can't figure out what the little wire running from the selector switch contact around it's side is. In the Tom Levens diagram pic, this happens in the top switch in the top right position, and in the bottom switch in the top left position. What I mean is there's a little length of wire that runs from those contacts around the side...is it running to some ground point? If so, where would the best place to ground it to?

The next question is about the SD Hot Rails used in this config. My understanding from their site is that the Green Wire is the start of the south coil, Red is finish of the South Coil, Black is Start of North Coil, and White is Finish of North Coil. So then my question is that I've still got the bare wire ... I'm assuming I should just wire this to ground on the volume pot? Could anyone confirm that?

Thank you for any help / suggestions you guys have!

1. that little wire is the ground wire for the switch, you ONLY need it when your switches are'n grounded some other way. You can also use a slightly longer wire and 'squish' it between the switch and the guard at it's mounting screw (it works best with a piece of thin solid copper wire). My personal preference would be to stick a piece of adhesive backed copper foil shielding tape (search for it on amazon, costs $6 or so) to the guard over the switch openings, cut the openings with a shark break off (or exacto) knife, mount the switches then solder a wire from the copper foil to Output GND and both switches will be grounded (and at least partially shielded as well . . . for complete shielding the foil on the guard should cover the whole switch cavity which should als be lined with copper foil tape (or shielding paint) which should be connected to GND as well).

2. the bare wire is indeed ground for the baseplate of the pickup.

[ter2121]

Hey, thanks so much hpr_hpr -- I really appreciate the help on that, I was going around in circles trying to combine all the diagrams I'd found on the net, and that one was the best I saw but I was having trouble making sense of the switches when most guides referred to the 5 way blade types, not these.

For anyone interested in doing this, I followed the wiring guide here + hpr_hpr's help, and it came out great -- lot of different tone options for those who are alright not going S/S coil.

You can find this in other places, but as I mentioned I used the Hot Rail, to make the Levenson diagram more clear, the SD color scheme correlates like this: Green is Start of South Coil // Red is Finish of South Coil // Black is Start of North Coil // White is Finish of North Coil.

Let me know if you have problems and I can send along a pic of how I wired it up if that'd help.