Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

[wiiqwertyuiop]

So I recently got three new pickups (Injector Neck, Chopper, and Dimebucker), and I took out all my old pickups and tried installing the new ones.

I only tried installing the Injector and Chopper so far and I am pretty sure I have them wired correctly, but I am getting absouletly no output from my guitar.

Here I some pictures I took of how I have it setup for far and hopefully someone can tell me what I did wrong:

Spoiler

I have all the grounds are soldered togther and go to the volume pot. I have the Injector in the neck and chopper in the middle too, I did not connect the Dimebucker yet, but the wires are there.

I tried to take as many useful pictures as I could, hopefully they are clear enough, if not I can explain it or attempt to draw a diagram if need be. Thanks!

 

[wiiqwertyuiop]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

I tried using a multi-meter and getting a reading from the guitar cable (by putting the red probe on the tip of the cable, and the black probe below the ring of the cable) and I was getting a reading of around 1.0 for both the middle (chopper) and neck (Injector) pickup which is well below either of the numbers on the site. Hopefully someone can give me some ideas on what could be wrong.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

Welcome Wiqq-
1. You probably won't get workable pup readings when wired up- disconnect to check ohms
2. That is a lot of wire moving around, but I think I can confirm-
-Green and Red leads from 2 pups are connecting to switch lugs 2 and 3
-Common comes off of lug 4 and goes to left leg of vol pot
-Center of vol pot connects to jack with white wire
-Shield of that same wire is the ground to the jack? Or does this go to the back of the tone pot?

-But there seem to be 2 more wire also going to the jack- There is an orange and copper colored wire coming in from the body and then seem to go to the jack- What are they connecting too?
-I would imagine that one is the bridge ground- Do you know which one that is?
-Can you tell what the other wire is for (assuming it isn't your 3rd pup?)

Bottom line, there is a lot going on at the jack and I'm not sure I'm seeing ground leaving the back of the pots and making it to the jack.

So start by figuring out what the jack is connected to.

 

[wiiqwertyuiop]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

Welcome Wiqq-
1. You probably won't get workable pup readings when wired up- disconnect to check ohms
2. That is a lot of wire moving around, but I think I can confirm-
-Green and Red leads from 2 pups are connecting to switch lugs 2 and 3
-Common comes off of lug 4 and goes to left leg of vol pot
-Center of vol pot connects to jack with white wire
-Shield of that same wire is the ground to the jack? Or does this go to the back of the tone pot?

-But there seem to be 2 more wire also going to the jack- There is an orange and copper colored wire coming in from the body and then seem to go to the jack- What are they connecting too?
-I would imagine that one is the bridge ground- Do you know which one that is?
-Can you tell what the other wire is for (assuming it isn't your 3rd pup?)

Bottom line, there is a lot going on at the jack and I'm not sure I'm seeing ground leaving the back of the pots and making it to the jack.

So start by figuring out what the jack is connected to.

Thanks for responding.

I'm like 99.9% the pickups themselves are fine. They are brand new and I really doubt both would be bad, because currently I'm getting no output from either of the pickups.

- But yes, the red wire is the Injector neck in the neck position at lug 3. The chopper is my green wire connected to the red wire from the pickup (just so it was easier to solder it) on lug 2. I don't have the bridge hooked up yet to lug 1. Lug 4 is the common and goes to volume pot and tone pot.

- The white wire on the volume pot goes to the input jack and the other part of it gets grounded. It is kind of hard to see but if you look at the 7th picture you can see the top black wire going to the tone pot.

As for the orange and brown/copper colored wires, those are actually for a kill switch I had installed in the guitar so they can just be ignored.

Bridge ground you can kind of see in the 5th beneath the orange and brown wires, and that goes to the other wires I have soldered together to ground on the volume pot.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

So if the ground from vol goes to the back of the tone pot, where is the source of ground going to the jack?

And just to be clear, the yellow and copper kill switch wires aren't connected to anything on either end?

 

[wiiqwertyuiop]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

I just drew a diagram of how it is wired up so hopefully it is easier to understand:

Spoiler

The pink are white wires.

The killswitch was working fine in the guitar before changing pickups and is weird like this picture.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

Ok kill wiring looks good but I would disconnect while trouble shooting.

So assuming all is wired correctly, It's time to get mmeter out and trace. I start at tip and follow the path. With no sound ,jack was first concern so hope you find something like kill switch gone bad or lose shielding touching tip. A totally fried vol pot or switch are your next choke points. Keep tracing and disconnecting and you will find it.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[wiiqwertyuiop]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

Just to update on this apparently it was the kill switch causing the problem. When I put the pickgaurd back on the wires for the kill switch got caught underneath it and they were pushing it up causing it to stay activated.

The pickups sound great though! The chopper and injector actually sound pretty similar, the chopper being a little bit darker and not as bright as the injector, but still very close. I was surprised on how vintagey the injector sounds, I was expecting something a little bit more modern sounding. I would describe it as modern vintage pickup, it can do everything pretty well while still retaining that quack sound really well if you are into that.

I think eventually I will probably move the chopper to the middle and get a darker sounding pickup for the neck (probably try a Virtual Vintage Heavy Blues 2), but for now I am happy with them!

 

[jeremy]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

glad it was a simple fix!

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Need help installing new pickups - no output from Guitar

Great!