No signal on bridge pickup when screwing in pickguard

[Baskoole]

I recently bought a hot rails style pickup, not a Seymour Duncan but the same wiring. So red and white together, black and bare to ground and green to hot.

It worked fine one day but suddenly it stopped working when I put the pickguard of the strat on the signal just cuts out.

This is only on:
-bridge pickup
-when the pickguard screws are tightened

The cavity is shielded and I already made sure nothing is touching the hot wire; I taped all the shielding of with painters tape and put heat shrink on the hot lug.
I really can't find what the problem is

 

[dystrust]

Re: No signal on bridge pickup when screwing in pickguard

You're probably shorting the pickup output to ground. I've done that a few times when wiring a Strat. If your guitar has other pickups, do those work? If it does and they do, that'll help you figure out where the problem is.

 

[Adieu]

Re: No signal on bridge pickup when screwing in pickguard

Some aftermarket components dont fit shallower routs. Ive seen switches bottom out.

 

[Baskoole]

Re: No signal on bridge pickup when screwing in pickguard

Thank you for your replies!

This happens only on the bridge pickup so the middle and neck are unaffected and always keep working

I will check the switch allthough it did work with another pickup earlier and it did work most of the time with another pickup and I put heat shrink over the lug on the switch for the bridge pickup

 

[Darg1911]

Re: No signal on bridge pickup when screwing in pickguard

Try pulling/pushing on the wires and the switch and pot solder lugs while the pickguard is off the guitar and the guitar is plugged into the amp (low volume). If you aren't shorting anything to ground when you install the pickguard, you may just have a bad solder joint, wire broken under its insulation or at the pickup or a funky pot or switch that doesn't show itself until tucking everything away when securing the pickguard.

 

[Mincer]

Re: No signal on bridge pickup when screwing in pickguard

My guess is that it is touching a ground point...so you have to find out where that is..and either tape up the wires, or tape up the point where it touches the cavity.