Home of Tone Blog

Filter +
Introducing the Ground Bug by Swannell Guitars! A neat guitar pot ground wire solution

Introducing the Ground Bug by Swannell Guitars! A neat guitar pot ground wire solution

From the mind of UK based luthier, Jamie Swannell comes a really simple but genius helping hand for guitar wiring, the Ground Bug! This solder lug washer has some very handy uses indeed, from neatening up your wiring installs, to making ground connections easier and any future changes/mods/maintenance much easier too.
This is a simple washer design that fits underneath your pots and has extended lugs so that you can easily solder ground wires to. This is very useful for those that perhaps really struggle with making or consistently making ground wire solder connections to pot casings, drastically reducing the risk of damaging a pot from excessive heat for example. As with the Ground Bug installed, you simply solder your ground wires to any of the 8 lugs available. 
05 July, 2023 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: Ground bug guitar parts guitar pot casing ground wires Guitar pot grounding guitar wiring How to ground wires to guitar pot casing Swannell ground bug Swannell guitars Swannell guitars ground bug
Read more
Helping prepare and make ground wire connections to guitar pot casings video

Helping prepare and make ground wire connections to guitar pot casings video

The 'Quick Tips' series are back to basics, no frills videos to help guide guitarists through some maintenance and modding tasks. In this video I look at preparing and making ground wire connections to pot casings. This is something I know many dislike, or avoid altogether but I think with some simple steps it can be an easy task anyone armed with a soldering iron can master. So these are some simple and humble methods to try and help you achieve effective ground connections using lead free solder wire. I hope this helps my customers with the pre-wired kit installs, pickup installs/swaps, or from scratch re-wires using components from the Home of Tone too. These are just some of the methods I use everyday, there are I'm sure other ways to approach this, but these work for me and the parts/equipment I am using everyday.
20 June, 2023 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: guitar soldering guitar wiring how to solder guitar pot casings How to solder guitar pots how to solder pot casings making ground connections to pot casing pre-tinning soldering soldering guitar pot grounds soldering guitar pots
Read more
The Solderless journey

The Solderless journey

I've dedicated some time today to making a solderless harness. The first I made using these connectors is sitting in the McNelly Pickups demo guitar and they're proving to be nice and reliable. So I thought I'd have a run at testing the layout and approach of the solderless connections in the trusty Telecaster format. So far so good!
It'll be a little while yet before these become part of my harness range, but when they are, they will hopefully help those who are daunted by the humble soldering iron (you really shouldn't be though, if I can wield one, then anyone can!) & of course help those who enjoy swapping pickups regularly for various sounds!
19 July, 2020 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: Guitar harness Guitar wiring Pre-Wired Guitar harnesses Signature Series harness solderless guitar harness solderless guitar wiring Solderless wiring harness
Read more
How to Guide - Fitting a 3-way Pre-Wired Harness to a Telecaster!

How to Guide - Fitting a 3-way Pre-Wired Harness to a Telecaster!

A very long overdue 'how to guide' post here today looking at the step by step process of install one of our Signature Series 3 way Telecaster wiring harnesses! Telecasters are an iconic modular design, making them very easy to work on, but I hope this guide helps you during your harness install if it is a new task to you. Here I will break down each and every step during the install process including removing the original wiring and installing your new harness. For this example, I will be retaining the original pickups but very similar steps would follow if you were to be installing new pickups and a harness at the same time. I will write a post about swapping pickups on a Telecaster in due course though too!
01 February, 2020 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: 3 way harness guitar wiring guitar wiring install How to guide how to wire a 3 way telecaster how to wire a telecaster Pre-Wired harness Telecaster Telecaster 3 way wiring Telecaster wiring Telecaster wiring harness Telecaster wiring install
Read more
New Signature Series wiring harness options

New Signature Series wiring harness options

I'm always striving to find ways to further improve my own products. Whether it's quality of components, personally improving my techniques used to make harnesses or offer a great range, it's all something I think about a lot and ensure I take in your words of praise and custom requests.
02 October, 2018 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: guitar harness guitar wiring guitar wiring harness guitar wiring harnesses pre wired guitar pre wired guitar harness pre-wired pre-wired harness pre-wired les paul harness Pre-wired les paul jr harness pre-wired SG harness pre-wired strat harness
Read more
I want to replace my guitar's wiring, would it make a difference?

I want to replace my guitar's wiring, would it make a difference?

Replacing, or in some cases, upgrading your guitar's wiring may be a matter of necessity if there are niggling faults like faulty switches or noisy pots where no amount of cleaning has brought them back to life. But you may also have considered replacing it as a way of improving or modifying the guitar too. So the big question is of course, would it make any difference and would I see any improvement? That's ultimately what I'm hoping to address in this post! I'm looking to touch on the various aspects of guitar wiring components, what to look for and why it would, or wouldn't positively help the guitar in question sound it's best.
15 February, 2017 by James P Gascoigne
Tags: 335 harness 335 wiring harness choosing guitar pots choosing the right guitar pot choosing the right guitar pots ES335 harness Firebird Harness Gibson Firebird Harness Guitar wiring Guitar wiring boards Guitar Wiring Harness Guitar Wiring Harness UK Guitar Wiring Harnesses Guitar Wiring Harnesses UK Guitar wiring loom guitar wiring mods Handwired Harness Home of Tone Home of Tone Blog Home of Tone harness Home of Tone Harnesses Home of Tone pre-Wired Is it worth upgrading my guitar wiring Les Paul Harness Les Paul Harnesses paper in oil paper in oil capacitors Pre-Wire Harness Pre-Wired Guitar harnesses Pre-Wired Harness Pre-Wired harness UK Pre-Wired Harnesses Pre-Wired Home of Tone harnesses Sg Harness should I fit a new harness to my guitar should I fit a new loom to my guitar Should I upgrade my guitar wiring Strat Harness Stratocaster Harness Stratocaster Harnesses Tele Harness telecaster Harness
Read more