My pickups are shorting out

[357mag]

I just installed an HS-4 in the neck along with an HS-3 in the bridge. But they appear to be shorting out. I was playing and both pickups were working. As I continued to play and move the pickup selector switch back and forth all of a sudden the bridge pickup stopped working. I lost the sound.

I have desoldered both the neck and bridge pickups from the switch and resoldered them.

As I test before restringing my guitar and I'm tapping each pickup with a screwdriver they seem soft so I can tell they are not working properly.

So my question to you is what is the most likely culprit?

I put in a new switch a few weeks ago and since then I've had the YJM Furys and the Tex-Mex pickups installed and have not experienced any shorting out.

I'm not sure how I should proceed.

 

[357mag]

Re: My pickups are shorting out

Okay now I just put the low E string back on and tested. Now both pickups are working. So I'm starting to suspect that it's got something to do with when I put the pickguard in place and screw it down or something? Wires touching something there are not supposed to? I don't know.

And I just moved the selector switch back and forth several times and it worked for a minute or so but now when I just moved it to the bridge position the bridge pickup lost sound again.

What should I do?

 

[Clint 55]

Re: My pickups are shorting out

Yap, that's usually the 1st thing to check - that nothing that's grounded can contact any of your hot wires or connections.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: My pickups are shorting out

Something grounding out or a bad switch would be my two guesses.

 

[Adieu]

Re: My pickups are shorting out

Pickguard mount on a strat?

Some of your hots are shorting to ground against the cavity shielding, switch too tall / solder work too sloppy

 

[357mag]

Re: My pickups are shorting out

Never heard of a switch that is too tall. Strat 3-way switch. That's what they are called and made for. Anyway I put in a new switch and cleaned up the inside. I separated the two ground wires from each other so they are not touching and I taped up the hot wires together so they are no longer taped up with the ground wires. So far so good.