SS Strat Grounding issue

skippy76

Hey all

Swapped out the pups on my Silver Sky SE to a set of bare knuckle mothers milks and having some issues.

When I first installed it the neck pickup position only wasn’t grounded.

pulled it out, checked all the solder joints and made sure nothing was shorting and there were no obvious issues.

Reinstalled and this time no buzz but all 5 switch positions sounded exactly the same (Like number 2 or 4)

Pulled it out, checked everything again, replaced the switch with a spare I had and now have the same problem.

Any thoughts? Will get some pic up shortly

thanks

Funkfingers

Difficult to comment without seeing pics of your actual wiring. 

Also, what circuit diagram are you following and exactly what selector switch have you used?

skippy76

Thanks @funkfingers I'll get some pics up after work

 

skippy76

Apologies for the delay! Damn work gets in the way of guitars

https://i.imgur.com/spCcRnR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/iiQyHHH.jpg

elstoof

Isn’t the silver sky wired with the middle pickup red wire to ground / black to the switch

skippy76

Good point @elstoof one of the original pups was wired “backwards” I figured that was a Korean factory error. 

Will grab the SS wiring plan and try it out

elstoof

It’s a RWRP in the middle, might not be a factor but I’m not sure if the switch has some different pin out than a standard strat

Funkfingers

Looking at the photographs, the middle terminal of the lower tone pot looks squashed up against the chassis of that pot. 

Similarly, the red output conductor from the volume pot to the output socket seems too close to the ground terminal.

Possibly of greater significance, you have mounted the selector switch the wrong way around. It is wiser to have the terminals on the open side facing towards the pots. The way that you have it, the terminals could be touching any screening materials on the routed cavity wall or physical pressure could be distorting the switch, affecting which connections are made and/or interrupted.

skippy76

What a donut I knew something didn’t look right! I’ll spin the switch around, I suspect it’s been making contact with the shielded cavity wall causing the issues…..

thanks guys, will report back

skippy76

Funkfingers said:

Looking at the photographs, the middle terminal of the lower tone pot looks squashed up against the chassis of that pot. 

Similarly, the red output conductor from the volume pot to the output socket seems too close to the ground terminal.

Possibly of greater significance, you have mounted the selector switch the wrong way around. It is wiser to have the terminals on the open side facing towards the pots. The way that you have it, the terminals could be touching any screening materials on the routed cavity wall or physical pressure could be distorting the switch, affecting which connections are made and/or interrupted.

Legend thanks @Funkfingers spun the switch around and it’s all sorted. Can’t believe I didn’t pick that up (pun intended)

sounds awesome with the BK mothers milk pups.

cheers all