Guitar Wiring 101

Table of Contents

Single coil wiring


5-way standard switch

Note: looking from the terminal side, bridge terminal is the one closer to neck pickup!


Strat switch schem

The only difference between 3 and 5 way switches is that 5 way switch connects two terminals with the common in positions 2 and 4: center and one outer terminal. Schematic above shows position 2 that connects both bridge and middle terminals; image below shows how it’s typically represented on diagrams.

Standard strat blank

To wire three two-conductor pickups we only need one pole. Common goes to volume pot input and 3 switched terminals are connected to pickup outputs. That way, we will select one pickup in positions 1-3-5 and two pickups wired in parallel in positions 2-4. When middle pickup has reverse polarity, noise will cancel out in positions 2-4 and they will be wired in so called “humbucking” mode.

We will use the remaining pole to switch tone pots. Typical strat wiring has two tone controls – one for middle and one for neck pickup. We want to switch neck/middle tone control on when neck/middle pickup is on. To do this, common terminal of the second pole is connected to the common terminal on the first pole (pickup output) and neck and middle terminals of the second pole are connected to their respective pots. When neck pickup is on, the second pole will switch the output to the neck tone control as intended. What happens in position 4 (both neck and middle pickups on)? Both pots will be switched on and will be in parallel. Moving any tone pot would change the overall resistance to the tone cap and change the tone. The result is below:

Standard Strat

Humbucker wiring – Les Paul

Les Paul style pickup selector switches are simple and easy to wire. Complicated part about wiring a Les Paul is having separate tone and volume controls for both pickups and having longer leads between control cavity and the switch.

Les Paul switch

Typical Les Paul-style switch has 4 terminals on one side and ground/shield on the other. Outer terminals are connected or disconnected to the closest inner terminal, depending on the position. We’ll use them as inputs from volume controls. Since we have only one output, the two inner terminals are connected together and serve as the output.
I’ll go through standard Les Paul wiring and explain what happens in each position.

  • Lead position (bridge pickup only): switch connects bridge pickup terminal to the output terminal(s) but leaves the neck pickup unconnected.
  • Middle position (both pickups): both pickups are in the circuit and connected to the output terminal which makes a parallel connection (note that both pickups are still internally wired in series, but neck and bridge are combined in parallel).
  • Rhythm position (neck pickup only): the same as for the bridge pickup but in reverse – bridge pickup gets disconnected, but the neck pickup gets connected to the output terminal(s).

Note: unlike Strat-style wiring, volume and tone controls come before the switch and switch output goes directly to the jack.

Humbucker wiring – 4 conductor

4-conductor humbuckers are fun to wire because they offer many combinations to play with. Some pickups have another bare wire which is there for shielding and should always be grounded. Manufacturers have their own color code, so make sure you find the right color code before connecting anything. Below is color code diagram for common pickup manufacturers.

Color codes

To verify that you got the leads right try to measure DC resistance across each pair of leads. Leads that belong to the same coil should measure a couple of kilo ohms, and if they don’t they should measure infinity.



  • Series coils (standard): connect the hot lead to output, ground lead to ground and leave the coil-tap unconnected. Provides the most output.
  • Splitting the humbucker #2: by grounding the hot lead and connecting the coil-tap the output we’re left with the coil closer to ground. Some pickups have asymmetrical coils and even symmetrical coils will sound different because the one closer to bridge will sound a bit brighter. That’s why it’s useful to have both options available.
  • Parallel coils: coil tap connection needs to be broken for this kind of wiring, so three lead pickups cannot be wired this way. The idea is to join start of each coil with finish of the other coil. One on those connections will be hot, the other ground. Parallel coils will sound more like a single coil sound, noticeably quieter and shallower than a series connection.
Multi-pole switches (aka 4-pole switch, aka Super switch)


Super Switch

Diagram below shows switch diagram with all 4 poles outlined in red and all terminals marked – C stands for “common” and 1 through 5 are terminals that get connected to the common in a certain position.

Super switch diagram

The only downside is that these switches are physically larger than most other switch types and mounting them in cavities routed for some smaller switch may be tricky.

Now, let’s go through one example of wiring using a Super switch and hopefully you’ll figure out how it works somewhere in the process. Below is a diagram taken from DiMarzio site and wires two humbuckers. I marked poles 1-4 right next to the common terminals.

Super switch example

  1. Position 1 (bridge humbucker, series connection): poles 1, 3 and 4 do not have any effect in this position because nothing is connected to terminals that correspond to position 1. That leaves us with pole 2 which connects bridge pickup hot lead to the output (volume pot input).
  3. Position 3 (both humbuckers): Poles 1 and 3 do nothing, so we’ll ignore them. Pole 2 connects bridge pickup hot lead to the output and pole 4 connects neck pickup hot lead to the output. Each humbucker has it’s coils connected in series and humbuckers themselves are connected in parallel.
  5. Position 5 (neck humbucker, series connection): This is similar to position 1. Poles 1, 2 and 3 do nothing and pole 4 connects neck pickup hot lead to the output.
Volume controls

Volume pots are wired as simple voltage dividers. Higher settings have higher resistance to ground and lower series resistance, so more signal passes through. When maxed, volume pot has zero series resistance and full pot resistance to ground. Signal takes the path of least resistance and most of it will go though. However, some signal, mostly treble will be lost. With low pot values (250K) it will be more noticeable than with higher (500K and 1M) pots. That’s why typical pot values for brighter single coil pickups is 250K and for warmer humbuckers 500K or sometimes even 1M.

Typical volume pot setup is shown below. Input goes either directly from the selector switch (Strat style, master volume control) or from hot pickup lead (Les Paul style, separate volume controls). Output goes either to the output jack for Strat style guitars or to the switch for Les Paul style guitars.

Volume pot

Another thing to bear in mind is pot taper. Two most commonly used tapers are linear and logarithmic. Linear taper, as name suggests, linearly increases resistance throughout it’s range. That’s ok for some applications, but not for volume pots. Our humanoid ears work in logarithmic fashion, so volume pots need to have logarithmic taper in order for us to hear smooth transition between quieter and louder settings. If volume jumps suddenly in the first 20%-30% of volume pot range and then does almost nothing in the rest of the range, it’s likely that you got a linear pot instead of logarithmic.

Tone controls


You’ll notice that once it reaches zero sound gets very muddy very fast. That’s because we have zero resistance between the signal and the cap. To prevent this, some people put a small resistor (10K or so) between the pot and the cap. That way we won’t affect pot operation at higher settings (510K is very close to 500K) but at lower settings it will prevent it from reaching zero as we’re always adding 10K in series.

No-load tone pots

Even with tone control maxed some high frequencies get cut. To let all the frequencies through you can either get a no-load pot or make one. CTS makes them for Fender and what they do is simply break the connection between the wiper and conductive element when pot is maxed. Additionally, they have an indentation so once they reach maximum setting they “click” and it’s not that easy to turn them back. To make your own just cut (or cover with nail polish) the element near the end, so that resistance between the wiper and the opposite lug reads infinite when maxed, at lower settings it should read as usual.

Note: no load pots won’t work for volume control! Don’t try to use them.

If you ask me, they aren’t worth the hassle. Fender pots have annoying click and it’s not easy to mess with your own pots for very subtle result.

Treble bleed

Treble bleed

  • Single cap, ranging from 100pF to 500pF, sometimes even bigger. Ibanez uses 330pF on many RG models, some PRS have 180pF or so. This configuration works well with higher volume pot settings, but with very low settings (30% or lower) it gets really bright.
  • Cap in series with a resistor (shouldn’t matter which comes first). Kinman recommends this for single coils but it works rather well for humbuckers too. I installed 1nF cap in series with a 130K resistor and it works awesome. Resistor is there to limit the effect of the cap and having it in series with the cap means it shouldn’t affect pot taper as much. Larger cap means wider frequency range, so treble jump isn’t as sudden. So far, this is my favorite treble bleed circuit.

Note: some folks actually prefer volume pot treble roll-off, so you should try few different setups and find the one you like.

48 Responses to “Guitar Wiring 101”
  1. Ralph Hipps says:

    are tone pots also log taper, or linear?

    • bancika says:

      Typically, log pots are used for both…but it’s not set in stone. Linear would change the response of the pot and it may be what you are looking for. I prefer log for both.

  2. Manfred says:

    Wow, useful information here ! And the DIY Layout Creator really rocks, good job.
    Just trying to figure out the wiring for my new diy guitar using a Schaller Superswitch M and 2 Humbuckers (4 conductor).
    DIY Layout Creator helps a lot, but the analyze Guitar Diagram function drives me crazy and always says the wiring is NON hum canceling, so i lost a lot of my remaining hair 🙂
    So I simplified the wiring to a minimum and I think found an error in DIY Layout Creator.
    The normal, serial (and hum canceling) wiring of humbuckers always connect South finish and North finish (see also above on the site).
    If this is done in diylc it states NON hum canceling.
    If North finish and South Start are connected diylc states hum canceling ?
    Take care and ty for a reply.

    • bancika says:

      Can you please email me your layout file to bancika AT gmail DOT com so I can try?


      • Manfred says:

        This was a fast reply 🙂 Did not expect that.
        email is on its way ,,,,
        Thank you

        • Manfred says:

          This guy is amazing 🙂
          My problem has been fixed with the current update of DIY Layout Creator !
          Thanks mate 🙂

  3. Tony says:

    I have a shadow killswitch that I want to hook up to my single conductor EVH Frankenstein pick up but cannot get any help with a schematic.

  4. Ben says:

    Thank you so much for this. How about two resitors that are series and parralel with a cap (I’ve seen it in diagrams)? I look forward to trying many combinations in the near future. I also like the idea of using a variable resistor to see what value your ears like best.

    • Bancika says:

      Yes, you can do that too, kind of a mix between the two.

    • Miguel Roldão says:

      When you a have two resistors in series, you just need to add their value. Eg: 400k + 50k = 450k. Hope it helps 😉

  5. Jorge says:

    Very good information. Thanks for sharing.


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