I can hear my guitar in Off position

[Vortex]

Hello.
I have connected my SD humbucker, with On-Off-On switch, Series - Off - Parallel, but in the middle position, where the coils should be OFF, I can hear my guitar. Very weak, but it's there.
I didn't have the problem, when I connected the humbucker directly to the jack, without the switches, pots and caps.
Do you know what can cause that?

In my 80's Vantage guitar there is a humbucker in the bridge, tapped coil in the middle and a kind of stacked coil in the neck - 2 coils on the same bobbin.
I desoldered the other pickups to finde out which one is playing, when the switches are OFF.

The tapped pickup is working fine, no sound in OFF position.

 

[larryguitar]

It's either a bad switch or a fault in your wiring. If I was checking it, I'd rig up a continuity meter and start checking connections from component to component, looking for the 'leak'.

Larry

 

[beaubrummels]

Are you sure they are center-off switches? Looks like if they were actually on-on-on you might be getting one coil in the center position.

 

[Vortex]

Thanks for the answers.
I'm checking and trying different things.
beaubrummels - I'm sure its on-off-on. I have 2 multimeters, so I can double check Now I'm trying with the old original switch.

I removed humbucker from the body, so it doesn't touch my copper shielding in the cavity and connected it with on-off-on switch and jack.
I is placed above the strings, up side down.
The thin black wire connects ground/minus from the jack, with the bare wire from the pickup.
The thin green wire is ground, attached to E string.

The guitar is still playing in OFF position. I don't understand it.



Connections are still the same:



There is also something strange with the pickup cable. The bare wire is soldered with the baseplate and it's placed in the center of the cable, so it doesn't touch the foil, I have measured with Ohm meter - no connection.
I thought the foil was some kind of shielding.
So when I touch the foil with my finger, it generates noise. Without ground connection I guess it acts like an antenna.
So what's the point of having the foil if it's not connected with the bare wire?

 

[Artie]

This isn't that unheard of. (No pun intended.) From time to time, someone will post about a weak pickup, only to find that they didn't solder the red/white together. The pickup is still producing sound even though it's internally "open." The internal contacts in that switch are very close to each other. Try this: with the switch "off", strum it a couple times to verify that it's making sound. Then short the black & green on the back of that switch. (Needle nose pliers will work for a quickie short.) See if that kills the sound.

A shot of Dexoit into the volume control may help also.

 

[Vortex]

Thanks ArtieToo.
I fixed that yesterday, with a new switch, so I can disconnect Hot ( black wire) in OFF position.

Green and black goes straight to the jack, also in OFF position.
I think the coils are "to close" to each other and are inducing some kind of connection between white and red wire
There is no pickup selector in my guitar. Just the 3 pcs. 3 position switches.
Now everything is working fine

 

[Artie]

Cool. Good job.