The Steel Guitar Forum

Does anyone have a wiring diagram for the single-neck 6- or 8-string Stringmaster-type circuit that uses separate volume, tone, and mixer controls?

I have been following this Seymour Duncan diagram, and either I am missing something or there's an error somewhere on the diagram.



The controls don't do what they're supposed to do. Electronics are not my strong point. Perhaps someone can spot my wiring error in this photo:



Pots from left: Volume, tone, mixer

Volume:
The top terminal has one black (ground) wire from the jack and another black wire soldered to the casing.
The middle terminal has the white (hot) wire from the jack.
The bottom terminal has one end of the tone cap and the white (hot) wire from the lead pickup.

Tone:
The top terminal is unused.
The middle terminal has the other end of the tone cap.
The bottom terminal has a black (ground) wire soldered to the casing.

Mixer:
The top terminal is unused.
The middle terminal has the black (ground) wire from the lead pickup and the yellow (hot) wire from the rhythm pickup.
The bottom terminal has the black (ground) wire from the rhythm pickup and another black wire soldered to the casing.

1/4" jack (not shown):
Hot side -- white (hot) wire to middle terminal of volume control.
Ground -- black (ground) wires to top terminal of volume control and to bottom of bridge.

Tone & Mixer pots missing ground wire to common ground.

Steven Paris wrote:Tone & Mixer pots missing ground wire to common ground.

They should all be grounded through the pot's star washer on the copper foil but maybe that's not happening. Are you sure you don't have the white jack and pickup wires reversed? Or the two black pickup wires?

Steven Paris wrote:Tone & Mixer pots missing ground wire to common ground.

Ran ground wires between the casings on all three pots. No change, so they were likely already grounded through the copper tape as Bill suggests.

Bill Sinclair wrote:Are you sure you don't have the white jack and pickup wires reversed? Or the two black pickup wires?

Didn't think I had reversed any wires, but since it does not work properly that's entirely possible. Will open it up and double check my work.

Has anyone found a solution to this ? I have been following the same diagram but the mixer knob it’s not working properly

I just got done wiring my single neck stringmaster copy and have had some luck. Here are a few pics of what I did. if you were to flip the pickguard/metal cover where the pickups and pots sit in, upside down, the wiring diagram should match the same orientation. I used a 250k blender pot, a 1mg pot for volume and a 250k pot for tone.





I am no expert, but hopefully this will help give a comparison to anyone trying to work off of the Seymour Duncan diagram, which I too had trouble figuring out for my specific guitar.

Michael

Michael Harrington wrote:I just got done wiring my single neck stringmaster copy and have had some luck. Here are a few pics of what I did. if you were to flip the pickguard/metal cover where the pickups and pots sit in, upside down, the wiring diagram should match the same orientation. I used a 250k blender pot, a 1mg pot for volume and a 250k pot for tone.





I am no expert, but hopefully this will help give a comparison to anyone trying to work off of the Seymour Duncan diagram, which I too had trouble figuring out for my specific guitar.

Michael

I ran into this installing Lollar replacement pickups. If you wire them with the diagram online, it blends the bridge pickup into the neck, which is incorrect. The diagram Michael posted IS correct, and confirmed what I was starting to realize when I ran into this issue. Good work Michael!

Thanks Mike! I'm glad it worked out for you.

-Michael

Just curiuos are the volume and tone placement switched around ? When you flip the plate to install isn't the volume on the side closer to the player (inside) and the tone on the outside? That looks like the volume is outside and the tone inside.Just checking I don't know myself.

-Paul

Hi Paul,

That is a good point. Truthfully, I am not sure which is the correct orientation that Fender used. I wanted my tone closer to my right hand, so I chose that way.

Michael

The pic is correct as Fender had made them. Interesting choice, might have to do with it seems a little easier to do swells with the volume where it is located then if it was on the outside like the tone. Not sure if that was Fender's intent just something I noticed at least that's how it felt to me.

Wow, I came across this six years to the day from my original post! I would be remiss to not report that after becoming frustrated and walking away from the project for a few weeks, I came back with fresh eyes and discovered my mistake -- one white wire had appeared to be connected, but was in fact loose. Confirmation that the Duncan diagram is in fact correct. A quick and easy fix. My old 7-string "Ultramaster" rescue has been working just fine ever since!