wiring questions

[wellREDman]

does the wire used to connect components in a bass have to be stuff that's sold as guitar hookup wire?

 for instance I have a load of good quality  svhs cables which is 4 core high grade video signal cable, is there any reason I cant use that? I know from my video days the adage was always "you can use video cable for audio but you cant use audio cable for  video" which to me implies that the quality is better, or is it a resistance thing?

If not is there any other type of cable that can be cannibalized to use as hookup wire? I have drawers full of old cables of every type but I'm out of hookup wire on a project I want to get moving on 

 second question, the ground  from the bridge normally gets soldered to the base of the nearest pot, if the output jack is nearer could it be connected to the ground of that instead?

cheers
 

[Granny Gremlin]

Nope - any wire will do.  Shielded may be better, but many companies now don't even bother with that.  Any electronic 'hookup wire' will do.  22-20 guage is ideal, 24 will work, but starts lacking in structural integrity, 18 or thicker and it gets bulky and hard to solder to pot casings properly.

I recently used some scrap offcuts of console hookup wire (mic/line, but the super thin stuff for patchbay etc wiring looms, ignored one conductor) to replace switch to output jack wiring on a bud's Squier Strat (which had the crappiest wiring in it - just crumbled when I touched it).  For non-shielded, thin guage speaker wire is just as good as anything.  When I did my kitchen the new lighting fixtures came with 1 meter extra length of wire per conductor and I use that for stuff too because it's surprisingly nice.

Bridge ground can go to any ground point, yes. However, it is best to use a star ground scheme and have all ground connections come to a central point (usually one of the pot casings is the most convenient), and only 1 wire to the jack from there.  That said, I have never had a ground loop problem in a guitar, even when I tried that one time just to see.

[Alanko]

Somebody should make a Rosetta Stone-type resource that translates expensive guitar-orientated products into their generic hardware or electronics store equivalents. There is way too much virtue signalling out there on the web, repeating the same nonsense about what you need (cloth wiring for warmer tone). Blokes on forums parroting the opinions of blokes that make blog posts about the virtue of product X, an opinion entirely uncoloured by the fact that they also run a pre-wired wiring harnesses or expensive replacement parts business.

[wellREDman]

Nope - any wire will do.  Shielded may be better, but many companies now don't even bother with that.  Any electronic 'hookup wire' will do.  22-20 guage is ideal, 24 will work, but starts lacking in structural integrity, 18 or thicker and it gets bulky and hard to solder to pot casings properly.

I recently used some scrap offcuts of console hookup wire (mic/line, but the super thin stuff for patchbay etc wiring looms, ignored one conductor) to replace switch to output jack wiring on a bud's Squier Strat (which had the crappiest wiring in it - just crumbled when I touched it).  For non-shielded, thin guage speaker wire is just as good as anything.  When I did my kitchen the new lighting fixtures came with 1 meter extra length of wire per conductor and I use that for stuff too because it's surprisingly nice.

Bridge ground can go to any ground point, yes. However, it is best to use a star ground scheme and have all ground connections come to a central point (usually one of the pot casings is the most convenient), and only 1 wire to the jack from there.  That said, I have never had a ground loop problem in a guitar, even when I tried that one time just to see.

Thanks

[Pilgrim]

Somebody should make a Rosetta Stone-type resource that translates expensive guitar-orientated products into their generic hardware or electronics store equivalents. There is way too much virtue signalling out there on the web, repeating the same nonsense about what you need (cloth wiring for warmer tone). Blokes on forums parroting the opinions of blokes that make blog posts about the virtue of product X, an opinion entirely uncoloured by the fact that they also run a pre-wired wiring harnesses or expensive replacement parts business.

There is so much ju-ju around stuff like wiring and cables...visit any stereo audio forum and you'll get tons of it. It's right up there with cars when discussions turn to motor oil, filters and air intakes.

[Granny Gremlin]

My favoraite is exotic power cords.

As for signal cable, I'm sure that silver/whatever is a bit better at least in some (low level) applications.... it's just not an order of magnitude better as the price would suggest (though as we all know, the last 5% always costs 95% more)

[eb2]

My local hardware redid their lighting fixtures a few years back and were giving their old 1940-50's  era fluorescent fixtures, so I grabbed a few. All the inside wiring was black and white cloth covered wire, all nice and cooked for 50 years. Just like cracking open a vintage Fender, except I have enough to rewrire a dozen or more.

[wellREDman]

Somebody should make a Rosetta Stone-type resource that translates expensive guitar-orientated products into their generic hardware or electronics store equivalents. There is way too much virtue signalling out there on the web, repeating the same nonsense about what you need (cloth wiring for warmer tone). Blokes on forums parroting the opinions of blokes that make blog posts about the virtue of product X, an opinion entirely uncoloured by the fact that they also run a pre-wired wiring harnesses or expensive replacement parts business.

that would be so useful,

 for example I need to buy some more shielding paint at 7 quid for 30ml, when I am sitting looking at half a can of "magnetic" blackboard paint left over from a project i did with my kid. its not magnetic , it just has enough metal in it to make a fridge magnet stick to it, surely that's gonna shield just as well as a copper based paint?
 
I've shied away from testing it cos if it does create a horrible buzz it will be a massive pain to clean it all off again

[FrankieTbird]

that would be so useful,

 for example I need to buy some more shielding paint at 7 quid for 30ml, when I am sitting looking at half a can of "magnetic" blackboard paint left over from a project i did with my kid. its not magnetic , it just has enough metal in it to make a fridge magnet stick to it, surely that's gonna shield just as well as a copper based paint?
 
I've shied away from testing it cos if it does create a horrible buzz it will be a massive pain to clean it all off again

In the past, I've just used aluminum foil & contact cement.  Cheap as can be.

[amptech]

I've shied away from testing it cos if it does create a horrible buzz it will be a massive pain to clean it all off again

I bought a can of blackboard paint (cheap) some years ago to test that theory. I can't remember how many coats I put on (I did not use an instrument) but it build up thick and did not have electrical continuety. So it's cheap but useless, at least the one I bought.

The sellers of shielding paint use small bottles because most people only need for one or two guitars. Ok the price is high, I've actually been temted to cook up and sell it half the price just to annoy them but then I'd have to do that all the time, and who'd want that..

It's fairly easy, cheap and well explained how to make your own. If too much hassle - like many said before me - aluminium foil is just as good and very cheap!