Bridge Pickup Noise Diagnosis

[TheRealistArtiste]

I've got a 2003 Epi Les Paul that I use as my main guitar. I put a Pegasus/Sentient set in it, with a 3 way toggle and one volume control. It's never really given me any problems, but 2 practices ago it suddenly got very noisy on the bridge pickup. If I touch the height adjusting screw, the noise goes away. I'm fairly green at guitar wiring, but I would like to diagnose and fix this problem myself, as I really don't have a reputable tech anywhere nearby anyways. Can someone point me in the right direction as to how I should go about taking care of this?
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Art

 

[nexion218]

I'd check the polarities. SD has reverde color coding: black is hot green is ground. I usually forget this and get similar issues. Though last time the height adjustment crew was humming I touched, not thenother way around. Wortth a check anyways

 

[jeremy]

if it was working fine for a while and then got noisy, check your ground wires. its the tone the same just noisy? check the bare ground wire

 

[ehdwuld]

No coil splitting?
just the 3 way toggle?

 

[TheRealistArtiste]

When I got home from work today I pulled it out and plugged it in. Now that I'm hearing it on it's own I'm noticing the noise in all positions, but it seems more predominant on the bridge pickup. I also noted that it goes away if I touch any of the metal parts on my guitar, tuners, strings, bridge etc.

I haven't noticed a difference in tone.

No coil splitting, just the 3 way toggle.

 

[ehdwuld]

Cold solder on grounds
heat until it reflows and should be good

 

[TheRealistArtiste]

Alright, just went through and heated solder on all grounds until it reflowed. Still noisy unless I touch the strings, tuners, bridge, etc. Any other ideas? Is there a way to diagnose which wires are the problem wires?

 

[beaubrummels]

Maybe the baseplate/bare ground has lost contact?

 

[TheRealistArtiste]

Just wanted to update this. Appears something was wrong with the volume pot. I took it out and put in a different one, and the problem went away.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[jeremy]

glad you got it sorted out!