Extremely frustrating experience,
Just been working on a dry build of a 2 pickup cabronita style.
Put it all together, strung up and all fitting together nicely, so I thought I would try a quick check of the simple looking wiring.
Basically, it has a pre made Les paul junior harness, Vol, Tone and output jack, all looking nicely put together with braided wire, and an unused 3 way toggle.
So I did a bit of research, and think I understood how the toggle would be incorporated. Pickups are single braided wire gold foils, so I was keen to see how they sounded.
First attempt, and I realised I didnt have a ground wire installed, so that went on the list of things to doe when I dis-assemble for finishing.
Plugged it in anyway--thought I would get something--but complete silence.
Double checked some wiring diagrams, and some showed no ground from switch, so I clipped that-still silent, but some crackling from the cap connections, between pre-wired vol and tone, thought it might be a dodgy cap.
Anyhoo, I was desperate to see how the pickups sounded, so I dis-assembled and at this point my solder from the pickup braids to the back of the vol pot broke loose, so I thought, AHA, that was the problem, and at the same time I suspected the output jack might be faulty-it was a tight fit, and I was getting nothing at all.
So I did some fettling to the vol and tone pot holes, and spliced in a new output jack, put in a different brand new cap, and double checked everything. I put in a ground wire which I temporarilly attached to one of the string ferrules, plugged it all in again and still silence, nothing crackles, or pops, everything looks good to me-so can anyone give me any ideas, ???
I checked the DC of the pickups, which looked ok, and I'm pretty sure I have everything in the right place, trying to solder inside a telecaster switch rout is a bitch, and if I had some new 250K pots I would start from scratch.
HELP.
cheers guys.
Comments
Disconnect the hot wire from the jack to the volume pot at the pot end. Plug the guitar into the amp and touch the end of this wire. Usual buzz from amp? If no, the output jack is shorted. If yes, report back.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I will take it step by step, but I will have to dis-assemble first to get access, so maybe give me a few more steps first.
I have had it all out twice today, and it has fried my patience.
thanks anyway.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
My second attempt involved some woodwork, and I tried to make sure everything was well connected and had room, which was why I replaced the jack and cap, and was done outside the cavity.
I think final assembly will be done with insulated wire and a shielded cavity anyway, so I will do some homework about testing stuff with a multimeter as I go, I get a bit OCD about wiring, and never seem to do it confidently.
It takes a while to let a guitar build settle after being strung up, and I was keen to hear the gold foils in this build, never tried them before, so my impatience got the better of me.
I dug around in some parts, and thought, what I am basically doing is a telecaster layout, which helped me visualise. One of the pickup leads is a bit too short to work outside the cavity-which would be so easy, and being a braided single conductor, makes making the ground to the back of the pot a pain.
which is when I decided - i dont really use a tone knob anyway, so I decided it will be 2 vol, and 3 way toggle.
At this point, I am not too sure how it will be wired, so I just connected the short pickup wire to the back of an old 500k pot, and used the first lug direct to my output jack, the ground from the output jack went to ground on the back of the pot, then I put all my gear away, and put the back cover back on, it will all get done properly when I get it dis-assembled, finished then re-assembled.
when my room was tidy again, I plugged it in and did a quick check, sound came out, and it was glorious.
I have never tried these pickups before-Mojo goldfoils, which came with the 'kit' I picked up on here from Dr Bob a long while back. and they measure about 6 for the neck and 8.5 for the bridge, I wired up the neck, and it seems to work ok, the pot is very noisy at off, which is to be expected-as I dont have a string ground fitted-that is the main job when I dis-assemble, but at full vol it sounds pretty much as I would expect-both woody and metallic at the same time, woody due to -the wood, but metallic from the direct mount and telecaster type string thru, and probably new strings.
I have found a diagram that shows 2 vols with a 3 position slider switch, but could do with some info as to how a 3 way toggle will work-think it is the Gotoh version I will be using.
This will let me just get a blend of pickups at different volumes, and who needs artificial tone anyway?
cheers
andy k
Wiring the switch is easy - have a close look at it and you can see how it works. The two middle terminals should be connected together and to the jack, and the other two to the middle terminals of the pots if you’re having separate volumes.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Even with no string ground, turning a normally-wired volume control down to zero should produce silence since the jack - connected to the rotor - is then directly connected to ground.
There is a catch with the ground connection on guitar pots - sometimes when you bend the tab back to solder it to the casing, it stresses the rivet onto the trackboard and can produce a poor contact. You can fix it by squeezing the rivet with some narrow-nose pliers.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
There should be sufficient slack in your cable runs to allow the soldering to be performed outside the cavity. Connect everything THEN fit the controls and tighten up the hex nuts afterwards.
I'll probably do the finished job with a replacement, but it got me going, even got some recording done with it, I find a 'new' instrument very inspiring.
thanks for all the help guys.
cheers
andy k
Components appear in drawings as you will view them whilst working on them. Thus, a Telecaster drawing will show the pickups as viewed from the front of the guitar but the controls as viewed from the underside of the metal control plate.