Note: - Depending on which side of the pot you ground will depend on which way the pot turns to shut off the signal.

When wiring a Tone pot you are sending high frequencies to ground. When a tone pot is at full volume, you are actually hearing what is the signal at normal tone. When turning the tone control lower, you are taking out high end. So you are not boosting high end with it. You are actually taking out high end.

That's why the output is wired to ground via a capacitor. The input goes to the pickup hot wire. Usually, this is accomplished by wiring it to the same input leg on the volume pot as the pickup. Once again this is not a one way only solution. But it's probably the simplest to understand and it works.

Note: - The value of the capacitor will determine how drastic the high end cut will be.

Below is something slightly more advanced. It's a stacked blend pot. In the center both pickups are full output. Turning either way will reduce the output of one of the pickups while leaving the other full power.

    Although there are several ways to use this pot the above wiring is the most basic way to blend 2 pickups.

On a Gibson style 3-way toggle the middle position allows both inputs to contact the output. When toggled to either side it's disconnecting one of the inputs. So, the toggle position is opposite of the actual switch pole that's making contact.

There's basically 2 types of selector switch used in Strats and in other guitars that follow the 3 pickup design. There's the old standard (our favorite) Gold Contact type that comes in the american strats and the box type that comes in a lot of imports (Ibanez, Squire, Dean , etc.). Both do the same job but they look and are wired a little different. Take a look :

0 = common. This contact is always in contact and usually wired to the pot or output jack.
1 = bridge position.
2 = middle position.
3 = neck position.

The wiring is pretty staight forward. The "hot" leads from the pickups are connected to contacts 1, 2 or 3. The common is connected to the master volume input or directly to the output jack if the pickups connect to a pot before connecting to the switch.

One modification some players use is to give each pickup it's own volume and leave out the tone control. In this case, the pickups connect directly to the pot input and the output from the pot is connected to the relative position on the switch. In this case, the switch common would connect directly to the output jack.

Note : Wiring for the 5 way switch is the same as the 3 way.

    Pickups generally come in two fashions. Single Coil and Dual Coil. Single Coil pickups are most often linked to Fender Stratocasters & Telecasters. Dual Coil (Humbucking) are most often linked to Gibson in guitars like the Les Paul and SG. There are a ton of brands using both models and Dimarzio even has a three coil pickup. In the last 20 or so years split coil humbuckers have become just as common as the standard humbucker.

Standard single and dual coil pickups have 1 hot and 1 ground. Split coil pickups have two leads, a hot, a ground and a shielded ground. Different mannufacturers use different color codes. It's best when possible to have the wiring sheet from the pickup manufacturer. Below is an example of each.

Once again to use a split design pickup in full humbucking mode solder the two individual coil leads together. This leaves you with 1 hot, 1 negative and a ground sheild.

These are just some of the symbols associated with electronic schematics that directly associate themselves with guitar wiring. Most all of the wiring diagrams listed on this site will be in a format so that you won't have to learn to read schematics to understand. However, if you do want to start understanding schematics , this is a nice basic start.