Has anyone ever used ring terminals to avoid soldering to the pot bodies?

I do basically that, I just solder all grounds to a copper washer and run a single wire to the output jack.

 

It does require fitting more wire in the control cavity usually and either heatshrink or a bundle of electric tape so it doesn't short on anything.

 

A member on another forum suggests them to all newbies. They are great, and really should be used more often.
An Error Has Occurred!

 

My Bart NTMB used soldered lock washers instead of grounded cases.

 

And there are some pots that are not particularly aimed at the guitar market, that you can't solder to. So you have to use rings.

 

I often only just have enough threads to get a shakeproof washer under there anyway so a ring terminal often wouldn't work.

And really, when you can just lay a strip of copper tape down, trim the holes and solder an earth wire to this, or even solder all the earths to this in one go, I'm not sure it's really worth the trouble.

FWIW, I've never found a pot that I couldn't solder to. (Except for plastic ones of course!) And I'm guessing that the guitar ones probably have internal parts that have a higher temp rating or something. I've even seen pots that have a pre-tinned casing. But I still avoid it. It's slower, I have to rub the casings, then I have to crank my iron all the way up, or even use another big iron I have. And it's never really necessary, especially since you can buy copper tape so easily these days.

I guess if you were working on a vintage fender and it had to look just right, that's fine of course. Or with a hollow body guitar where it's impossible to earth the casings any other way...

 

I have used ring terminals plenty of times, take the plastic insulator off of it and solder directly to them

 

I recommend using copper tape for shielding, but bringing all grounds to a common ground point (such as the #1 terminal on the bridge volume control) then a single wire from that common ground point to the ground lug on the output jack. This eliminates ring terminals as well as the need to solder to pots. I think this is illustrated in the Jazz Shielding sticky. The copper tape does not become your ground, it's just shielding. Make sure the copper tape touches the output jack body so it's touching a ground. All circuit grounds go to your common ground point; this eliminates ground loop hums.

 

In your illustration, solder the neck pickup exactly as you've drawn it. Solder the - from the bridge pickup to the #1 terminal on its volume pot (where you've drawn the ground going from the terminal to the pot body). Run a black wire from this same terminal to the ground leg of the tone cap on the tone control. Run another black wire from this same terminal to the - terminal of the output jack. These wires don't have to be very big, 22 gauge is quite adequate.

Note, I've corrected my earlier post where I originally mistakenly said to use the #2 terminal of the tone pot as ground, sorry about that. Use the #1 of the volume pot.

Okay, now all we have left to do is ground the shielding tape. Since the output jack is hard to reach in your case, we can use another approach. Run yet another wire from that same #1 terminal to the copper tape. T You can use a small ring terminal and wood screw (into the bass body) to connect that wire to the shielding tape

The reason the pots are soldered to ground on most production guitars and basses? Cost. It's cheaper and faster to solder a ground to the pot bodies than to shield the entire cavity with copper tape. The only purpose of the soldered connection to the pot bodies is so the pot case becomes shielding. Manufacturers then also use that solder point as a "tie point" but its primary purpose is shielding. If the cavity is properly shielded, there's no need to solder to the pot bodies. Note that when we run copper tape in the cavity, the pot body will typically contact the copper tape anyways, but that's not secure enough IMO to use as a circuit ground. Thus the use of a "star" ground so everything is soldered to a ground point.

edit: Oh, I didn't notice this was a Jazz! No need to run a wire to the copper shielding. Put copper shielding on the underside of the control plate so that it contacts the output jack body. When you put copper shielding tape in the control cavity, run some over the edge so that when you screw down the control plate, the plate will contact the cavity copper shielding tape

 

I don't like to solder to the pot bodies as well. I use ring terminals and alike. I also use copper tape, connected to ground to shield the electronics.

 

I use 1 ring terminal, a little extra ground wire, and shield control cavities, and I never solder anything to the casing of a pot, all grounds go to the copper shielding including a wire soldered to the cap lead. in most electronics, (not guitars and basses), soldering anything to the casing of a pot is a fail when a QC inspector sees it. (it isn't the best way to do the job), though it does work.