Guitar Electronics Understanding Wiring and Diagrams: Learn step by step how to completely wire your electric guitar [Paperback]

T. A. Swike (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 19, 2007

THIS IS THE ONLY WIRING GUIDE YOU WILL EVER NEED TO BUY. Learn step by step how to completely wire Telecaster, Stratocaster, Esquire, and Les Paul guitars and all of the potentiometers, capacitors, switches, ground wires, hot wires, pickups, output jack, and bridge ground. Even if you dont have a Fender or Gibson, this guide will teach you how to wire a guitar with 1, 2, or 3 pickups. Also learn where you can get the complete wiring kits for dirt cheap, and learn essential soldering tips. Why not learn how to change your pickups, tone or volume controls, switches, and capacitors yourself? There are a ton of modifications you can do to your guitar for dirt cheap. This book will also show you some secret "hot rod" techniques that the pros use. This book will teach you how to do coil tapping, coil cutting, phase switching, series wiring, parallel wiring, bridge-on switching, mini toggle switching, varitone switching, mega switching, yamaha switching, blend pots, and much more !!!

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Tim Swike is an author from the midwest, writing books about hobbies and special interests. Some of his recent works include books on skateboarding, electric guitars, and the online auction craze.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: TIM SWIKE (September 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615165419
• ISBN-13: 978-0615165417
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #135,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Unfinished, Incomplete, Badly Composed, Not Worth $, December 11, 2009

By 

johnnyyenagain (New England) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Guitar Electronics Understanding Wiring and Diagrams: Learn step by step how to completely wire your electric guitar (Paperback)

1st of all, I am not given to writing reviews, but I use them extensively to make choices.

This book has far too many positive reviews for what it actually is.

1) Instructions tell you to follow by colored wires: the pics are printed black & white. You can download a color PDF file, but what is the point of buying this book (let alone publishing it) if color is a necessary component to the information? I was aggravated right off the bat.

2) Little care is given to the sizing of the pictures. Some are elongated horz. or vert., some squeezed. Inconsistent graphical layout is amateur at best.

3) Incomplete sentences due to text running off the edge of the page on page 101, another grievous layout error. You will be paying for the following paragraph "On the next page is a basic single pickup wiring diagram for telecasters using one pickup. this with either the bridge or neck pickup. The pickup will have a volume and tone control. plenty of good sounds with this setup.If you want to play around with the tone, you can or weaker capacitor. Ading a stronger capacitor sends more treble to the ground, and giv bass tones. Note: there are many ways to wire pickups to the pots. This is just one examp "

4) Aside from enough publishing errors that, to my sensibilities, mean that the book is not ready to be published, instructions are shown on how to add a Varistor switch to a guitar, and a Les Paul is used for the example. The drilled hole given as the example is nothing less than a hack job, I hate to say it, but it is. I would faint if I saw a tech do that to my guitar. Besides its being really bad advice in the first place, if you are going to do it, DONT follow this example!

Mr Swike appears to know what he is talking about, and has undertaken a body of work that is unfortunately for sale while only being 70% complete. Some of the instructions are incomplete (like showing what North polarity looks like on Stew-Macs polarity tester, but not South), and at least one (the Varistor mod) wildly inadvisable. Why not get the book done, checked out by objective professional parties, and then released as a complete reference book?

Regarding the PDF download, I have not done so yet, but all of this info is available on the web, in color, ad nauseum. I bought the book to have at my bench so I could refer to it while wiring guitars. I do not have a color printer. I find the thought that, in order to experience what the book OUGHT to look like, you have to download a file, presumptuous, at best. Annoying, at the least.

This book is not ready for sale, I advise against buying it, at least until these issues have been addressed. It ought to be an excellent bench reference, why not go the full 100 yards?

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wealth of information in layman's terminology, October 29, 2007

By 

Pete No-H Townsend "Pete" (Virginia Beach VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guitar Electronics Understanding Wiring and Diagrams: Learn step by step how to completely wire your electric guitar (Paperback)

I acquired this book in e-book form to assist me with several electric guitar rewiring projects, including pickup upgrades and replacement of potentiometers ("pots") and other wiring. I found a wealth of information presented in easy-to-understand, non-technical terminology, with many clear illustrations to show exactly how to connect everything. There is instruction in soldering basics and necessary tools to help the amateur guitar technician get the job done. If you want to repair the electronics in your guitar, or do your own upgrades and experiment with different wiring and control options, this book will help you.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book worth every penny!, October 28, 2007

By 

T. Aquino (NEW YORK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guitar Electronics Understanding Wiring and Diagrams: Learn step by step how to completely wire your electric guitar (Paperback)

This book is perfect the guitarist ready to dive in to the complicated world of guitar electronics. Not only does the book show you how to wire a guitar, it also helps you understand the wiring designs more clearly, so that you can come up with your own wiring schemes. I really found the info on wiring an unknown 4 wire humbucker very useful for my own projects. If you play through humbuckers like me, then you should coil cut them in order to get a ton of additional sounds. Very useful book.