59 troubles

[BluesNRock87]

go to play today, after replacing a scratchy tone pot, (later figuring out my output isnt grounded) and all of a sudden, my 59 has no volume

this is a HSH guitar with 1 vol, 1 tone, 5 way, wired normally

59-classicstack-JB, so essentially its a 3 hum guitar for wiring purposes, except the 59 is a single lead......

any ideas? i switch pups, and the 59 is silent, the solder is fine, just re-did it, everything else is great, what did i do?

[mongrollo]

Re: 59 troubles

Did you try to read the DC resistance of the 59? May be the lead wire it is shortcut...

[BluesNRock87]

Re: 59 troubles

what the heck did u say?

that is like french to me?

please explain?

[RiffRaff]

Re: 59 troubles

Sounds like you've shorted your pickup - go back, look at your wiring, make sure you don't have any solder or individual wires from your shield (the braided outside covering) touching the inner wire or the terminal it's connected to.

How did you wire the shield to the pot? In some instances it is possible to solder through the shield, through the cloth wire covering the inner lead which would short out the pickup (especially if you coverd the braid with solder flux). This doesn't happen often but it's somethiing to check. When I install a pickup I make a little tab from the braid seperate from the inner wire and solder that to the pot.

What mongrollo was saying is to remove the wiring and measure the resistance between the braid and the inner wire with a multimeter - if it reads "0" ohms or close to it you have a short - if the meter reads infinite resistance (doesn't move) then you have an open (busted wire somewhere in the winding or where the tiny little wires get soldered to the leads on the base of the pickup).

[BluesNRock87]

Re: 59 troubles

i didnt do anythiing with the shield, i thought with 59's you could just solder the inner wire to the 5 way, and the shield was just for a "vintage" look....do u have to use the shield as a ground.....i have a feeling the shield prbly touched some other part of my wiring, either another pup, or something....i didnt solder the shield....i dont have a meter to measure....ill try re-doing my solders again, but if it is shorted, do i need a new pup?

its def. the pup, other pups worked on that switch spot

[midnite_man]

Re: 59 troubles

The braided shield is your ground wire. You need to do like RiffRaff said and strip enough of the braid so that you can twist it up to form a ground wire that you will solder to the pot. What you'll basically be doing is creating a grounding wire as long as your hot wire. Your pickup won't work if it's not grounded. Either trim off the excess braid to avoid improper contact or tape it up so it won't touch anything, but make sure you get that twisted braid soldered up to it's respective pot.

[mongrollo]

Re: 59 troubles

What mongrollo was saying is to remove the wiring and measure the resistance between the braid and the inner wire with a multimeter - if it reads "0" ohms or close to it you have a short - if the meter reads infinite resistance (doesn't move) then you have an open (busted wire somewhere in the winding or where the tiny little wires get soldered to the leads on the base of the pickup).

Thanks RifRaF! You explained it a lot better.

Sometimes, to sold the braided shield to ground, I sold a short cable to the braided shield and then I sold this cable to ground. For me it is much more easier to sold the lead first and then sold the ground cable to the closest ground terminal.