Wiring diagnosis

sixstringsupplies

Evening...

I have a customer who is having some issues getting his circuit to work.

Anyway, he has some gigs coming up and I want to get his guitar working again.

its an es-335 type circuit. He gets nothing but a buzz when plugged in.

Can any of the tech's/builders on here see a problem that I can't from the below photos? 

Notes: 
 - he has replaced that thin ground wire (b string) with cloth wire, to rule out the fact it can come into contact with something it shouldn't
- the old switchcraft switch doesn't appear to have a ground lug, so he has ran a ground from the frame of the switch
- 50's style wiring

It is a grounding issue somewhere, and short of some potential cold/fractured solder joints, I can't actually see what he has done wrong.







My only other guess is that the ground connection to the bigsby isn't right.

Any ideas?

Bridgehouse

Would be interesting to see how the ground and tip wires are done going to the jack - looks like they could be touching to me - but it’s not very clear!

Funkfingers

sixstringsupplies said:

Any ideas?

On that type of switch, as it appears in your photograph, one pickup signal should go to the top left terminal. The second pickup should go to the top right terminal. The two lower terminals are linked to form the output to the jack socket. All ground connections go to the metal chassis of the switch.

Conventionally, the braided steel wire mesh is the screen. This should be soldered to the chassis.

In your upper two photographs, you appear to have a braided mesh screen soldered to one of the selector switch input terminals and the signal conductor soldered to ground. 

In this configuration, that pickup will produce no sound. With the selector switch in the middle position, the incorrect connection will short out both pickups. More silence (or a buzz).

sixstringsupplies

I'll check with him - but I think he has run a little ground wire from the chassis and wrapped it around the two braided screens, grounding them both. Will ask if the braid for the bridge selector lug isn't touching it. The output lugs have been bent together and run to the jack.

Funkfingers

Erm, is the customer's guitar left-handed?

Any chance of better close up images of the connections to both volume pots, please?

sixstringsupplies

Funkfingers said:

Erm, is the customer's guitar left-handed?

Right handed

Any chance of better close up images of the connections to both volume pots, please?

Requested from customer - we'll see what he sends back.

ICBM

You have an open circuit somewhere.

Nothing but a buzz indicates no connection between the jack and the switch, either in the hot or ground connections.

Anything else would give either total silence (a short between the jack and switch) or one pickup would work (a problem in the other pickup circuit).

Or the switch could be faulty or wired wrongly. Or the jack could possibly have a faulty ground connection.

It’s also a very bad idea to use an unshielded wire from the neck volume to the switch - that will let in a lot of noise. Only use shielded cabling.

sixstringsupplies

thanks all....@Funkfingers called it. He had not pulled the braid back far enough so it was touching the output lugs of the switch.

maltingsaudio

Never ceases to amaze me how many problems a whisker can cause, and it’s getting worse the older my eyes get!