Wire for rewiring guitar

[Suhnton]

Good morning everyone,

I'm planning to change put the pots in my guitar, and at the same time I thought I'd discard the old wire and use higher quality material. I found some Fender-style cloth wire which looks like it will do the job. The only thing I'm not sure on is whether it has the outer wire braid (for earthing) or not. A google on this product brings up pics, but none clear enough to see the construction well. Has anyone used this wire? And if so, is it good stuff? BTW, the guitar I'm planning to rewire is an Epiphone SG Custom.

Thanks in advance.

 

[markb]

Cloth wire is just a single conductor. The good thing about it is that you just push the insulation back at the end, no fiddly stripping. Tin the bare wires before soldering. Using a shielded wire to the jack is a good idea. If you don't, twist the wires to the jack, it seems to help with noise. Another thing I found while rewiring my strat is that the new style CTS pots are much easier to heat for earth connections than the "vintage" type. I suspect the shells are thinner.

 

[Suhnton]

Thanks for the quick reply. I've heard CTS mentioned as the preferred choice for replacement pots.

 

[Bloozcat]

What guitar are you re-wiring, Suhnton?

 

[Suhnton]

The guitar in my avatar, a MIK Epi. It was originally wired with 3 independent volume controls and 1 tone, but I changed it to 3 independent volumes and 1 master volume. I've found it easier to manipulate the pickup mix with this configuration. I ended up going with some Gibson-style braided wire (see pic). At the same time I'm changing out the pots, knobs and pickup rings to gold and ivory. I actually wanted to get a MIJ Firebird clone, but my wife would turn it to kindling if another guitar showed up at the door, so changing the colour scheme on this one seemed the safer option.