squier vintage modified jaguar wiring question

[jaskah]

hello

i just re-painted my squier vintage modified jaguar but -- dumbly enough -- i don't know where one wire goes from the volume pot.

i've attached a photo here. basically, there are two ground wires coming from the volume pot -- i know where these go. and a green cable from the tone pot, which i also know where this goes.

but there is a third black cable from the volume pot which i don't remember where this goes to.



many thanks for any help on this.

jason

[bjornsynneby]

I believe it goes to the rythm switch.
https://www.seymourduncan.com/wp-conten ... andard.pdf

[jaskah]

hi

thanks for your reply, but that's a standard jaguar wiring diagram. the squier vintage modified is different, actually.

and even the squier vintage modified diagram on the seymour duncan site is different than the wiring in my guitar, which has two ground wires going from the volume pot to the body of the guitar (under the respective pickups).

this third black wire isn't even long enough to reach the rhythm switch. and this is what's throwing me.

jason

[bjornsynneby]

I cant really see from the image exactly where the black cable is soldered to but if it is a black cable it is likely a ground cable. If this third black cable is a ground cable it is likely grounding the bridge, trem or switch which should be in reach of this cable.

[jaskah]

thanks for your reply.

this unknown black wire is soldered to the right hand side of the pot (looking from above), which is connected from the solder point by a jumper cable to the right tab of the pot (there are three tabs).

the strange thing is the squier vintage modified jaguar wiring diagram i found on the seymour duncan site is nothing like what i found in my guitar:

http://jasonkahn.net/images/Squier Vint ... iagram.pdf

jason

[bjornsynneby]

And also if this third black cable is a ground cable - in contact with the case of the volume pot - there should be one cable soldered to the middle lug of the volume pot and one cable soldered to the output jack hot lug. Both cables coming from the rythm switch. A quick scan of the internet does not filter out any wirings of jags or jazzmasters that deviates from this. Judging by your info it is very hard to tell though.

[bjornsynneby]

So if your third black cable is connected to the right lug of the volume pot with the same orientation such as in the Jason Kahn diagram it is a ground cable.

[bjornsynneby]

Also, the cable from the tone pot seems to be shielded which points in the direction that this is a Jason Kahn wiring.

[bjornsynneby]

So if this is a version of the Jason Kahn wiring the two black cables with eyelets are shielding the pickup cavities and the third black csble is grounding either the switch plate, tremolo or the bridge. If the shield of the green (?) cable from the tone pot is connected to the switch plate you can rule out the first option. If there is no drilled channel from the trem cavity to the pots you can rule out the second option which leaves you with a connection to the bridge thimbles.

[601210]

Guys, I think he's Jason Khan. This isn't "the Jason Khan" wiring, he just uploaded the wiring he found on his Jag.

Anyways, it's too early in the morning for me to make sense of Jag wiring (I've never really looked at it before) but it might be easier to tackle the problem the other way -- instead of trying to figure out where this ground wire is supposed to go, try to figure out what's missing a ground.

Is your vibrato plate grounded?

[timtam]

Fender is not good at providing wiring diagrams for Squier guitars, whereas they exist for all Fender guitars. However the Squier VM jag is an exception - it does have an 'official' diagram on the Fender site here, but it is the same diagram as the one above from other places ...
https://www.fmicassets.com/Damroot/Orig ... iagram.pdf

it might be easier to tackle the problem the other way -- instead of trying to figure out where this ground wire is supposed to go, try to figure out what's missing a ground.
Is your vibrato plate grounded?

^Make sure that everything that should be grounded is grounded, with a multimeter. Of the 3 wires, the 2 screw tabs indicate that they go to body cavity shielding. The third wire has a bare end so my bet is on the trem or a bridge thimble, via a tunnel (there is no harm is having both grounded, although as long as you have metal saddles, one grounding wire is redundant). Its length suggests the trem. And the official diagram shows the trem ('tail') grounded from the tone pot, which the wiring pic is missing.

[kimson]

99% sure it goes to the bridge thimble. If you don't have a ground wire going there already, that's where it needs to go.

[bjornsynneby]

Sorry about the Jason Kahn/official wiring confusion. Since the existing wiring is not identical with the official wiring (the grounds with eyelets both connects with the volume pot) you have to make sure all ground points of are connected. The control plate, switch plate, rythm switch plate, microphones and strings through bridge or tremolo should be tied together with ground wires from the volume pot. I would try to connect each of the above only once for reasons given in this article: https://www.fralinpickups.com/2018/11/1 ... grounding/

[jaskah]

hello everyone

first off, thanks very much for all your replies.

regarding these three black wires:



the two black wires with eyelets are ground to the body (under the pickups). and i believe this third wire in the photo without the eyelet is also a ground wire.

i don't have a tunnel to the tremolo, so this third unknown wire can't be going there.

and i can't see how this wire could ground to the thimbles, as there is also no tunnel to a thimble.

this cable isn't long enough to reach the rhythm control panel.

so, the only thing i can think of now is that it goes somewhere to the lower control panel -- the question is where exactly.

jason

[601210]

It might just have been wedged under the plate, if you take the long stripped length as a clue.

But if there's really nothing grounding your strings that's a red flag and should be rectified.