my mustaine livewires won't work.

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

ErikH gave a complete explanation.

maybe to someoen who knows what a ring and a lug are, i was asking for a picture so I know what each one is

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

Never mind it's a "good" experience-practice.

you're right, thanks for looking on the bright side.

but anywas, i have the jack exactly as the diagram shows and the battery is still getting hot and such.

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

wait, that is in fact exactly how my jack is wired already; even with the battery getting hot and stuff. what gives?

If you have a multimeter you can check the jack and the battery connector. Set it to beeper or ohm-meter. There must not be any short in either one (jack or connector). I cannot think of anything else at this time.....:33:
And make sure you send the right wires from the switch to the right spots.......ground and hot.......

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

If you have a multimeter you can check the jack and the battery connector. Set it to beeper or ohm-meter. There must not be any short in either one (jack or connector). I cannot think of anything else at this time.....:33:
And make sure you send the right wires from the switch to the right spots.......ground and hot.......

you know, it may be that the pickup and switch hots are switched. I mean the switch is on the middle lug of each pot and the pickup on the far side away from the grounded lug.. but maybe i need to switch those ?
i don't have a meter

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

you know, it may be that the pickup and switch hots are switched. I mean the switch is on the middle lug of each pot and the pickup on the far side away from the grounded lug.. but maybe i need to switch those ?
i don't have a meter

I think it's the same but you can do it just to see....

 

[ErikH]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

If you look at the plug at the end of your guitar cable, you will see the tip, then an insulator ring, and then the rest of the shaft (also known as the sleeve). On a stereo plug, or TRS (tip, ring, sleeve), there are two insulation rings so you have the tip, the sleeve shaft at the bottom, but in between those two is the ring (which just so happens to be the section between the two insulation rings).

Stereo Plug:

Now, let's look at the jack.

In this picture, the sleeve lug (btw, a lug is the point where the wire is connected and soldered) is the one at the forefront. The tip lug is the one on top pointing to the right and the ring lug is on the other side. If you remember that the ring is between the tip and sleeve, you'll never mess up, and they go in the same order as the plug TRS does.

EDIT: And no, you do NOT need to use a stereo plug with active pickups, just the jack. See my explanation in an earlier post for the why and how.

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

If your wiring is the same as the duncan diagram and it's not working then it's likely to have a faultyn battery connector, jack or switch???? (for the jack is a little difficult to be faulty...but again you never know - the other two are more easily get damage).

 

[ErikH]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

you know, it may be that the pickup and switch hots are switched. I mean the switch is on the middle lug of each pot and the pickup on the far side away from the grounded lug.. but maybe i need to switch those ?
i don't have a meter

You should be fine there. It would be nice to see a clear picture of your wiring, or an accurate sketch. The battery getting hot says something is not where it should, or is where it shouldn't be.

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

i tried to take some pictures man, but as far as them being clear, it's like trying to see through the fog when there's rain on your windshield.

i guess it'd be asking too much if SOMETHING of mine worked right..

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

i still can't see how the battery connector could be damaged though, it's from a 6 month old guitar that worked perfectly and i only touched a couple days ago.. only thing is i could've burned it with the solder iron right? but i didn't..

 

[ErikH]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

I don't think it's the connector either. Do this, sketch it all out as best you can, use a copy of the diagram from the Seymour Duncan diagrams if you can. Post that and then we can go from there. Include every hookup wire there is including where it goes to. The more detailed, the better.

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

there, i managed to take some decent pictures.. maybe not of help..

i know the jack is wrong right now, but i've tried all the combinations i could think of

 

[ErikH]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

Boy, that is difficult to tell. A side shot of the jack like the image in my post above would be great to see which lug is which. I'm assuming that black wire to the jack is the battery snap ground and the red insulated white/braid wire is from the switch?

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

It seems that the back of the pots must be connected together....It seems they are not connecteed(?)...I could be wrong.
Facing the jack in the way you hold it in the photo it must be:
black wire - bare wire - white wire.
I'll look again the pictures maybe I find something else.....

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

hey, I don't think the pots need to be conncted (with the ground) cause ESP did it in a unique kinda way. all 3 of the wires coming from the switch also have a swithc attached to the switch ground.. so those attach to each pot, meaning each pot is connected to the switch ground, meaning they're connected to each other.

I think.

i tried holding a wire in place on the two pot ground solders and it didn't seem to do much?

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

hey, I don't think the pots need to be conncted (with the ground) cause ESP did it in a unique kinda way. all 3 of the wires coming from the switch also have a swithc attached to the switch ground.. so those attach to each pot, meaning each pot is connected to the switch ground, meaning they're connected to each other.

I think.

i tried holding a wire in place on the two pot ground solders and it didn't seem to do much?

OK.

What I told you about the jack is according to the duncan diagram...however a picture with the jack from the side it could be helpfull like ErikH suggested.

 

[Metalblaze]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

So, the blue wire must be the one from the bridge. The 2 black ones are from the pups and the red is the double one from the hot and the ground of the switch. If I'm not mistaken....

A picture of the switch wiring could be enlightening too....if it's possible...

 

[Altitudes]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

The switch is wired like this..

blue = bridge

grey = neck

red = middle (so that's the output)

and they're all grounded to the ground..

and i don't think there's a problem with it since i didn't touch it, i left all the wires attached to it as it was when i bought it (when it workeD)

 

[Artie]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

It looks to me like you have the jack wired wrong.

Red arrow/red dot should be ground.
Blue arrow/blue dot should be "hot".
Green arrow/green dot should be sleeve. Negative (black) battery connector.

 

[ErikH]

Re: my mustaine livewires won't work.

Artie to the rescue. I can't believe I missed the jack wires being reversed. :doh:
And that also is why the battery is getting hot. The + and - are "seeing" each other in the same path.