Picking it up - Wiring Our Tele

Next order of business is to get the front pickup installed. I'm going to wire up the 4-way switch on this one. So, we need to put a separate ground wire on for the pickup cover, in other words, we'll have a separate ground for the cover and for the pickup itself.

Since the grounds are connected together, you can just clip the bare wire going from the cover to the ground side eyelet.

Then it's just a matter of connecting up a new ground and then twisting it together with the other ground and the 'hot' lead. So we have three leads total coming off the pickup.  The ground lead is the one with the green arrow pointing to it in the picture.  It's a little confusing, but the lead is NOT soldered to the hot side (white) of the pickup!  The angle in this shot just makes it look that way.

Need to make sure you note which is the new ground lead for the cover alone, since it will go to ground and not the switch.

After it's all wired up, we chust run ze wires through the pickup cavity, through the hole and into the control cavity. In the last picture, you can see the wiring running through the body route on its way to the control cavity.

Then ve chust screw the new pickup into place, yes? Isn't this easy? It must be if I can do it!

A note here - I'm using a Don Mare "S-Telly" front pickup and a "2-Speed Stingray" for the bridge. I didn't mention how to put the bridge pickup on, but it's straightforward - if you have the bridge off it will be obvious.

The S-Telly is wound with the same gauge wire (43, I believe, but I'm too lazy to go to the Mare site right now...) as a Stratocaster pickup. The idea is that it will sound more like a Strat (duh) and have more clarity and highs than a stock Tele pickup. We shall see.