I like to do my own electronics, and I’ve got pretty adept with a soldering iron such that my joints resemble neat shiny things rather than awful brown-tinged sloppy messes.
However, without fail when i have had a go at a guitar’s innards, it becomes way noisier. Everything is properly grounded, but if i take my hands off everything there is a very audible hum that wasn’t there pre-meddling.
What is the likely cause of this? Unsuitable wire? It’s the fact that I manage to make previously quiet wiring noisy that i find so frustrating - I recently changed the volume pots in my Cole Clark (alpha, same brand as the existing ones) and the only other changes were a few very short replacement bits of wire. It was just what i had to hand, stuff from maplin. Much noisier than before.
Any pointers much appreciated!
Comments
If it’s much noisier then it’s a certainty that you haven’t connected a ground or shielding correctly.
"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 did a complete rewire of my firebird last night and it’s as straightforward as you can get - one switch and one master volume. All components are stock and connected to ground. Super noisy. The wire was a combination of a two core shielded wire and vintage cloth covered wire. There are some long runs from switch to control cavity.
I’m thinking it must be the wire not being shielded - there’s no shielding in the cavities themselves and i know the fb wasn’t this noisy before i took all the old wire out (long gone now).
Stock were 500k replaced with 250k.
You need one or the other. For a Firebird the long wiring run to the switch must be shielded cable, that will be extremely noisy if it’s not. You need to keep the exposed cores at the ends as short as possible too, unless the cavities are also shielded.
"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
Also, the bridge pickup braid wire is too short to reach the switch and needs an extension- what’s the best way to mitigate against the inevitable bit of exposed wire where the extension meets the pup wire?
If you need to extend a pickup cable you can use braided cable - push back the braiding a long way, join and heatshrink the cores, then pull the braiding forward to cover it and solder it together - if it doesn’t quite meet you can wind a bit of plain wire over the gap, a small one won’t matter.
By the way, I should mention that the word ‘pup’ (other than referring to a young dog) irritates me so much that I usually don’t read threads where it’s used...
"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
Noted re ‘pups’ - pure laziness on my part due to writing on my phone. I will not repeat that mistake and risk you not helping in future!
I don't know why it annoys me so much, it just does for some reason
"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