Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

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?

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.

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.

I just started learning about guitar wiring and thought I would give this ebook a chance - very glad I did. Procedures are simple to understand and the diagrams and pictures are great. I would buy it again if I lost the one I have.

CC

Very thorough, complete...... BUT, if you can't read an electronic schematic, there's lots of photos..... BUT, the photos are all in black & white photography, so colored wires and so forth all look the same...... BUT, if you go online, you can download a set of color photos that match some parts of the book....... BUT, you can't make copies or copy these color pictures which are locked for proprietary reasons....... SERIOUSLY, great book - poor execution. Sorry!!!

Tim has done his research, and presented it in a clear and easy to follow manual. I've been playing guitar for years, but recently became interested in building pre-assembled guitars. This book has been AMAZING, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is building, repairing, modifying, and upgrading.Nice work Tim!

While this book does not cover it all, it is an excelent primer, to get you started on wiring. With this book and a little time on Google and the manufacuterer websites I was able to totaly mod out my guitar. It could be a little more comprehensive as to the "whys" of aspects of signal path but I already had a decent understanding of that. Additionaly, it could use some better color coding and description of the various pickup wire color codes[..........]

This is a fabulous book. I have been building and customizing electric guitars for years and I got my money's worth in the first 20-30 pages of this book. It really expanded my understanding of different wiring and switch configurations as well as the use of capacitors to adjust the tone. Futhermore, I have much better understanding of how all the parts come together to create various sounds from vintage to modern, bell-like to growl. This book is overflowing with useful diagrams and photos as well. If you build, or customize guitars, this is an invaluable resource.

Here is a book...finally...that covers many, many, types of guitars, and more importantly, different kindf of switches. If anyone has worked on wiring a guitar from a stock diagram, the switches and pots always look different, this book takes this into account and offers varying diagrams for many different switches and pots. THANKS!

My wife bought this book for me as a surprise gift. I've been doing some minor repairs and setup on a few of my axes for a while and she thought this book might help. She was right. A wealth of information for novices who wants to do more of their own basic wiring, repair, and hot rodding. The illustrations and step by step instructions are detailed enough for anyone willing to give wiring a go. All aspects of wiring and a great introduction to basic soldering should get you started and on your way to proficiency in no time.