Wiring Diagrams

There are a plethora of websites around that have numerous wiring schemes.
One of the best resources is the Seymour Duncan wiring diagrams page. Here you can find many different diagrams for numerous pickup combinations presented in clear diagrams.

Fender keep many of their wiring schemes online in their service diagram pages found here (very slow to load).

Another page with some interesting alternative diagrams is Phostenix' Guitar Wiring Diagram Library You will also find links to other resources here.

Below are a few of our own diagrams.

Starting with perhaps the simplest wiring scheme of all, one pickup with volume and tone. This diagram is is a slight variation on others you may find because it has been wired "50s style".In a nutshell, the capacitor is wired so that highs are maintained when volume is rolled off. "Normal" or modern wiring can result in the tone muddying up as the volume is reduced. We call it Les Paul Jr wiring, 50s style.

One thing that is sometimes confusing is the layout of lever switch lugs. Some diagrams have them with right hand staggered, others with left. Switches come in both styles as well. The important thing to remember is that in the majority of cases the stagger is irrelevant; the lugs on each side correspond to the same position, no matter the stagger. So lug 1 right hand side on a left side stagger switch is exactly the same as lug 1 right hand side on a right side stagger diagram.

4 Way switching - We have produced our own wiring diagrams for both bridge/parallel/neck/series and our personal favourite bridge/parallel/series/neck.

We've included this Greasebucket diagram as it can be hard to see everything on the Fender diagram. Here's a great video of Mike Eldred from the Fender Custom Shop talking about the Greasebucket circuit on the La Cabronita single pickup guitar.

Cocked wah/Eldred/Arlo mods The original Esquire was a single pickup guitar that had a fixed bassy tone in the forward position. Great for back in the day when it was needed to help augment the bass, but not so usable today.
Mike Eldred from the Fender Custom Shop came up with a wiring scheme to make the forward position more functional. It has become known as the Eldred mod, or Cocked Wah mod. It gives the pickup a little honk, like a wah pedal half cocked. Here's another video of Mike Eldred explaining and demonstrating the mod.
Another slightly different version of the mod is known as the Arlo mod, from it's originator, Arlo West. It is essentially the same as the Eldred mod with the addition of a 3.3k resistor wired in series with a .01uf capacitor.
There are subtle differences between the two circuits, and you can switch the capacitor values to suit your taste.