First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

[Dauminator]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

Also,
As Alex suggested, a COMPLETE redo is called for. Remove every wire and all solder using this type of wick (https://www.amazon.com/NTE-Electron...=1&keywords=solder+wick&qid=1588087475&sr=8-3), then start over. It's also a good idea to get some new stranded pre-tinned wire. This stuff is good...https://www.amazon.com/Stranded-dif...keywords=stranded+wire&qid=1588087704&sr=8-11. But this stuff with flexible silicone insulation is excellent...https://www.amazon.com/Electrical-F...1-5-12d4272d-8adb-4121-8624-135149aa9081&th=1

I bought these wires off of amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DCV7BDD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I used that wire for the ground, as most of the other wires came from harnesses I had. The toggle switch and output jack came off of a GFS wiring harness I ended up not needing, and I'd like to at least keep the toggle switch wires in tact. They're already soldered to the toggle switch and I have enough wire to trim what I have soldered right now and use it again.
Just for ****s and giggles though I'll solder the red and white wires together just to see if it makes a sound

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

Just for ****s and giggles though I'll solder the red and white wires together just to see if it makes a sound

You don’t have to do it for ****s and giggles. You have to do it period. The pickups will never work unless they are either soldered together, or soldered to a switch that puts them in circuit.

You can’t leave wires out because you don’t know what they do. You need to learn what they all do and wire everything up properly.

 

[Dauminator]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

You don’t have to do it for ****s and giggles. You have to do it period. The pickups will never work unless they are either soldered together, or soldered to a switch that puts them in circuit.

You can’t leave wires out because you don’t know what they do. You need to learn what they all do and wire everything up properly.

I mean before I rewire everything. May as well just try it while it's this bad and see what happens

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

It's worth a try!

 

[GuitarDoc]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

The ONLY thing that is worth a try is to completely redo it, removing all the wires and solder first as I have suggested. Just connecting the red and white wires while leaving everything else in such a state won't show anything useful since you may still have some shorts and cold solder joints in your other wires. Anything less than starting over with a clean slate and some useful understanding is just spinning your wheels and leaving the problem intact.

Yes that is good wire that you bought from amazon. You just need to know how to work with it.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

The ONLY thing that is worth a try is to completely redo it, removing all the wires and solder first as I have suggested. Just connecting the red and white wires while leaving everything else in such a state won't show anything useful since you may still have some shorts and cold solder joints in your other wires. Anything less than starting over with a clean slate and some useful understanding is just spinning your wheels and leaving the problem intact.

Yes that is good wire that you bought from amazon. You just need to know how to work with it.

Sheesh! Yes, the guitar needs rewired, and probably at least one pot is fried. But I can't see any reason to NOT solder the red and white wires from each pickup together before doing the entire job over since that job is going to have to be done anyway. If he does it now then it won't get forgotten or mixed up later.

I don't have my first guitar to look at anymore (sold it in 1985, I believe) but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't look a whole lot better inside because I know I totally wired it myself with no experience and the wrong solder. It worked fine. And as a user of Teisco and similar guitars back then, sometimes they left the factory looking not much better than that! (I assume they had no training for employees? "Here's a soldering iron, there's a guitar. Lunch is at noon.")

If joining those two wires makes the guitar suddenly produce sound that would be encouraging for our intrepid OP. And if it still doesn't make sound he will know why (bad joins, etc.). Either way the rewire is required. That is what I meant by "it's worth a try." Nothing bad can happen.

How about this: By all means, try it. Whether it works or not you should still redo the rest of the wiring, though, because it WILL cause problems down the road.
Better?

 

[Dauminator]

Re: First wiring attempt gone wrong. HELP!

We have a winner :evil: I soldered the red and white wires together and what do ya know, it makes a sound! Sweet sweet rock n roll lol. Under high gain you can tell its not completely grounded, but my katana has a noise gate that I use anyways. Honestly I think I'm going to leave it how it is until I get CTS pots for the rewire. Not currently in a band and all I do is upload to instagram here and there. I actually like the tone of the Crunchy Pats, especially in the neck. Sure I'm not going to get the best tone with the way it's currently wired but for someone who has less than 0 knowledge of electronics I think I'm pretty happy. Tough love is tough for a reason so thank you guys for everything! I'll post the rewire or if anything happens under it's current birds nest of wire :headbang:

Also here’s a pic of the guitar itself. Not too shabby for under $200 imo

 

[Dauminator]

Just though I’d give y’all an update. I haven’t touched a soldering iron since I posted this until a few days ago when I put P90s in my SG. I followed some advice, bought tip tinner + clearner and practices on some pots I’m not gonna use, and this is the result. Not beautiful, and I feel like I can reduce the amount of points on the neck pot into just a few but for my second time I think it’s not bad! A huge improvement too. I also soldered the switch and output jack, where my first attempt I used the wiring that was already on there. Any feed back is appreciated!

 

[jeremy]

that is a big improvement! looks good

You can use a lot of heat for pot backs to make it easier and just dominate and create a good bond since there's no risk of damaging anything. Unless you use such extreme heat to disintegrate the wires. For pot lugs, use just the appropriate amount of heat so it doesn't break it.

What I do to evaluate a joint is tug on the wire to see if it's joined well and examine it visually to see if the solder looks solid and not all degraded and that there's reasonable contact in the connection.

:smack: you can absolutely kill a pot if you overheat the back

once the solder has cooled, it doesnt hurt to give it a little tug but using a meter to check the connection is a much better method

 

[playas]

Yes, huge improvement :fing2:

 

[beaubrummels]

Just though I’d give y’all an update. I haven’t touched a soldering iron since I posted this until a few days ago when I put P90s in my SG. I followed some advice, bought tip tinner + clearner and practices on some pots I’m not gonna use, and this is the result. Not beautiful, and I feel like I can reduce the amount of points on the neck pot into just a few but for my second time I think it’s not bad! A huge improvement too. I also soldered the switch and output jack, where my first attempt I used the wiring that was already on there. Any feed back is appreciated!

Nice job! That's better than my soldering. You went from a war zone to super clean pretty quick. Keep it up!