Help with a hum

Iron1

Iron1

New member
My bass player does these killer guitar refinishes and just did up a BC Rich for me. I got the body and neck back yesterday afternoon and went to town reassembling it.

Once I got all the electronics back in, it has this ground hum that someone smarter than me will likely know how to fix.

When I turn the tone knob all the way to the bass side, the hum goes away. If I touch the volume pot inside the cavity, the hum goes away.

Its an HH with volume, tone and 3 way toggle. Hum doesn’t care where the toggle is set. I originally wired it using the SD diagram on the home page, then tried about 5 other ways, but all with the same odd result.

Any ideas?

TIA!
 
Some pics of your wiring showing all of the solder joints and connections would be beneficial.

Without actually seeing the control cavity, all I can say is to check your wiring and soldering again. Make sure everything is grounded including the bridge. Make sure there are no cold solder joints (they may look and feel solid if you tug at the wires, but they may not be making a good electrical connection).
 
GuitarDoc said:
Some pics of your wiring showing all of the solder joints and connections would be beneficial.

Without actually seeing the control cavity, all I can say is to check your wiring and soldering again. Make sure everything is grounded including the bridge. Make sure there are no cold solder joints (they may look and feel solid if you tug at the wires, but they may not be making a good electrical connection).
Click to expand...

Thanks - let me get some pix and I'll post em. You'll have to excuse the messing soldering as I've soldered and unsoldered almost every connection in it more than once now...
 
Mincer said:
First thing is to check if during the refinish, the bridge ground got pulled out. Also check if the jack is wired backwards.
Click to expand...

The bridge ground was my first though when I got it all back together, but it seems to be secure inside the body. TBH, I'm not totally sure where it routes, as this is a TOM with the floating tailpiece. My guess is it's supposed to ground on one of the posts.

I verified the jack was wired right, but oddly when I wire it backwards I get no sound at all...

Pix:

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First thing I see is big globs of solder. This indicates that your iron was not hot enough (not enough watts). It inevitably leads to "cold solder joints". From what I see, every one of your solder joints is a cold joint. Any of those solder joints could be a bad electrical connection and could be causing your problem.

The next thing I see is the poorly soldered strands of ground wires on the vol pot.

My advice is to completely strip it...remove ALL of the wires and excess solder (use "solder wick") and redo every connection. Pre-solder all of the wires before soldering them to their respective connection points and make sure there are NO stray strands anywhere. If your iron is not at LEAST 60 watts, invest in an iron that is 80 watts or more. They are pretty cheap and could make a night-and-day difference.

If you have a multimeter, it is easy to check if you have a good bridge ground and all your joints have good electrical connections.

Also, it looks like the wires from your pups either only have one conductor or you are only using one conductor. What's up with that?
What looks like your wire from the vol pot to the output jack is reversed...the hot lead (white wire) is connected to the back of the pot while the ground wires (the outer wires of the cable) are connected to the vol pot lug. There seem to be many other issues as well.

Yes, remove EVERYTHING and start over. If you need help understanding which wires go where you should consult the tutorial, "Wiring 101" on this website. That should give you lots of helpful info.
 
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Thanks. A lot of it was that way when I got the guitar (bought it, took it apart and sent it to my bass player just about 5 weeks ago). And, I'd mentioned earlier the messy soldering I did do, as I've trial and errored this thing to death. Been using this same iron for years, just ran out of patience with this to keep being neat and tidy.

The pickups are a DP100 (bridge and a BC Rich BSDM (neck). The DP100 diagram I found said to connect those two wires together, not unlike a Duncan Distortion, and tape them off - the other two wires are both connected to the toggle.

Might just order some new/better pots and start all over again - seems like it would be easier/better in the long run than trying to clean all this out and start from scratch.
 
Mincer said:
First thing is to check if during the refinish, the bridge ground got pulled out. Also check if the jack is wired backwards.
Click to expand...

So, I pulled the post where the ground wire goes, cleaned all the paint off the side of the post (it has black hardware, so they're painted black) and reinstalled. No difference.

I've since cleaned a lot of the excess solder off and dis/re-connected most everything. Absolutely nothing has changed the symptoms:
  • turn the tone knob all the way to the bass side, the hum goes away.
  • touch the volume pot inside the cavity, the hum goes away.
I even took the cavity off another Warlock I had here and made sure all the connections were the same - the only difference was that one has two BCR pups, and this one a Dimarzio and BCR. Went and rechecked the Dimarzio wiring diagram and verified it says to wire it up as I've done - check.

Could it be a busted pot? Something janky inside the switch?
 
nexion218 said:
After changing the pots, show us that refin, looks sweet! :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, looks like a very fine black crackle on red base.

I'm jonesing to 80's-fy my EMG loaded Pacifica in a crackle or splatter with matching headstock ofc.
I'm thinking white crackle with purple base coat or white metallic base with purple splatter. :)
 
Since you're starting fresh with new components, might as well take your time and do a good job. Remember to pre-tin all wires before soldering them to their various lugs or pot backs, and heat the metal BEFORE adding the solder (the solder will flow better, thin like water, and make a better connection-actually, the less solder you need to use, the better). Remember, "meat follows heat". Pay attention to the little details because they can turn into big nightmares if taken for granted.

While you're at it buying all new parts, this will help you immensely, and at a great price...
https://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Di...28937&sprefix=soldering+irons,aps,177&sr=8-11

And I recommend using the brass shavings to everyone rather than a wet sponge (which cools down your iron too much) to keep your soldering iron's tip clean while working...
https://www.amazon.com/Soldering-Ir...oldering+iron+tip+cleaner,aps,155&sr=8-5&th=1
 
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Here's some pix of the full guitar - and the pix don't do it justice, it looks so much cooler in person.

Got the new pots/switch/jack and installed em yesterday. Same problem. Disconnected the bridge pup, no change. Reconnected the bridge pup and disconnected the neck pup. Same problem. Pulled the bridge stud to double check the ground wire - verified it was good. Same problem. Pulled the bridge stud again and replaced it with another just to see if the black one was causing issues. Same problem. At this point, I've literally changed everything except the pickups and the problem persists. I've swapped a hundred pickups and never had this happen before.

And, for troubleshooting purposes, I've tried two different amps that are plugged in to different places, checked against other guitars, used different cables, etc...

Just about at the point where I want to throw in the towel and pay someone else to give it a shot... But I'm a cheap old bastard, so that may not happen. lol
 
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