Wire the Strings
This step is pretty simple – you’ll be routing wires from the strings to where you’ll be putting the circuit board. Currently, these instructions only apply to through-body guitars with ferruled strings (strings with the little metal cylinders on the mounting ends).
- Measure out enough wire to comfortably go through the body and reach both the ferrules on the strings and the circuit board. Again, leave extra space, so if you have to move something later, it’s not a major issue.
- You have 2 options to actually connect the wires to the strings.
- You can wrap each wire onto a ferrule and solder it
- OR -
-
- On one end of each wire, solder on a specific male connector plug (.093” Terminal - DigiKey part #WM1135-ND). Those plugs need to be crimped slightly, but then they can be inserted into the ferrules and provide a reliable friction-fit contact.
- Route the other end of the wire through the guitar.
- (Recommended) If you want to be able to change the circuit board in the future, solder a 5 pin connector onto the end of the wires going to the circuit board. Make sure that the order of the wires is correct (If it’s wrong, it can be fixed in firmware, but it requires programming the chip).
Next, we have to add the Plus and Minus buttons and make a metal pick.
