Problem- Gibson les paul cutting out?

Niallseroreilly

My les paul which i have owned from new has an intermittant problem. The sound from the pickups will cut out from time to time and give a muffled sound. 

If i tap on the back a few times it usually comes back on but it is incredibly annoying. It doesnt really matter which pickup is engaged and it is not a result of a faulty jack lead.

Its a 2013 les paul standard, with the PCB style wiring.

Any ideas?

ICBM

If it doesn't matter which pickup, the fault is between the switch and the jack. If the sound is muffled it's a short rather than an open circuit.

The usual cause of this is a shielded cable which has been overheated when soldering so the shield is partially in contact with the core. It could also be the jack, although I've only ever come across it with cheap far-east ones. It may also be something just in contact with some cavity shielding paint - I can't remember if these modern Les Pauls have it.

To be perfectly honest you could do a lot worse than to remove the whole PCB nonsense and fit a decent quality traditional wiring loom from someone like Oil City Pickups though...

Niallseroreilly

Thank you

Niallseroreilly

 I think the idea of making the wiring simpler is a great idea. Although will I be able to retain the out of phase, coil tap and bridge pickup bypass with the 50s wiring?

57Deluxe

spray contact cleaner in your pup selector socket... fixes mine...

ICBM

Niallseroreilly said:

 I think the idea of making the wiring simpler is a great idea. Although will I be able to retain the out of phase, coil tap and bridge pickup bypass with the 50s wiring?

That does make it a lot more complicated, but it can be done.

midlifecrisis

Mine did that a few yrs ago and I replaced the switch,fixed, probably just needed a clean 

Niallseroreilly

Sorted, sprayed contact cleaner into jack and gave it a clean.

guitars4you

think ICBM has covered the obvious pointers - had a similar issue the other day on a copy and it turned out the switch was just making contact on a terminal against the screened switch cavity - So a) bent the terminal gently and b) added a touch of PVC tape

Ref jack socket - sometimes can 'oxidize' - get a piece of fine wet and dry - roll into a tube like a cigarette and feed in/out of the jack socket to clean contacts - so no need to remove jack socket

But sounds like it is sorted now

Niallseroreilly

Problem has returned. When I tap above the jack it cuts out. Would this indicate that the jack is the issue? Would it need replaced or could there be a wiring issue? Thank you I appreciate the help.

ICBM

Niallseroreilly said:

Problem has returned. When I tap above the jack it cuts out. Would this indicate that the jack is the issue? Would it need replaced or could there be a wiring issue? Thank you I appreciate the help.

If it does it whichever pickup is selected the fault is definitely between the switch and the output, so the jack is a likely place. It probably isn't the jack itself since the muffled sound is the sign of a short not an open circuit, and I've never seen a proper Switchcraft jack do that although it's not unknown on cheap far-east ones.

It could be as simple as the outer braiding of the cable to the jack touching the tip contact, which would also make it very sensitive to vibration probably.

Niallseroreilly

Cheers @ICBM thank you for your help. If i take off the jack cover what should i look out for?

Sesh

Is there any chance it is the plug on the cable that is faulty?

Niallseroreilly

Thanks @Sesh. Tried different cables.

Sesh

Niallseroreilly said:

Thanks @Sesh. Tried different cables.

Thought you would have.

ICBM

Niallseroreilly said:

Cheers @ICBM thank you for your help. If i take off the jack cover what should i look out for?

I would do it the other way - take off the rear control cover first. Find the cable that goes to the jack, and see if gently moving it around makes the problem come and go.

Niallseroreilly

Thank you @ICBM your a gent

Niallseroreilly

Niallseroreilly

Opened it up and this green box was slightly hunched over. when i bent it back the muffled sound went away. Was this the culprit?

ICBM

Niallseroreilly said:

Opened it up and this green box was slightly hunched over. when i bent it back the muffled sound went away. Was this the culprit?

That's a connector holding the tailpiece ground wire - yet another way of making things needlessly complicated and unreliable - so by itself it isn't the problem because it's not connected to the signal path… but by bending it you may have flexed the PCB sightly and disturbed the real cause of the problem. This sort of fault can be a nightmare to find conclusively - I come across a lot of them repairing amps.

Are you willing to investigate further by taking the whole PCB out of the guitar, or is that something you'd rather leave to a tech?

Personally I would remove the entire unnecessary nonsense and fit a proper traditional wiring loom, but I am a self-confessed hater of push-connectors and other similar crap .

Niallseroreilly

Yeah @ICBM im tempted to yank it all out and go traditional wiring but i do like the out of phase sound on this. Thanks again for all your help.