No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Hrodgar82

New member
I recently bought a nickel covered, Seymour Duncan, JB bridge and Jazz neck pickup set. My guitar is an early 2000's epiphone lp. Watched a few videos and installed them myself. To my dismay i had no sound out of the treble switch position ( JB). I resoldered the corresponding pot and had some improvement as i could shred for awhile but it still cuts. Had sound last night now none tonight out of the JB. I borrowed a multimeter for troubleshooting. Is it a short? Fried pot? Any advice much appreciated!
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

If sound was intermittent before completely absent it could be as simple as a loose connection. It's a pain, but desolder and resolder, making sure the connection is complete. From what I've read, it's harder to burn out a pot than you'd think, it's just goobers on the internet being overcautious.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Welcome to the forum, and I am sorry you are having trouble with your pickups. Maybe we can help. If you have some clear pics of your wiring, we might be able to see if there is something wrong. Sometimes you can't see a bad connection, as it looks just fine. We pretty much all started by diving in and making mistakes- i still do.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Thanks for replying quickly! I should note that the stock humbuckers worked fine and i am an amateur with the soldering gun. When i get time this weekend i will snap some pictures once i open her up again. Cheers!
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Upload your images to your computer.
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Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Picture of grounding wire solder on top of volume pot.
 

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Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Does inferior or cheap solder not puddle as well? Or is it temperature? Mine look nothing like Epiphone's.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Thanks for replying quickly! I should note that the stock humbuckers worked fine and i am an amateur with the soldering gun. When i get time this weekend i will snap some pictures once i open her up again. Cheers!

I always cringe when I hear the words soldering "GUN", without knowing the wattage of your "gun" the image that comes to mind is 75/100 watts, (my opinion with over 45 years fixing stuff) if your soldering with any more then 25 or 35 watts it's too hot, also it's good to keep several different size tip's on hand, I use the "flat" end tip's (looks a little like a screw driver tip), one fine tip and one a bit larger, the larger I use for soldering the grounds, the fine tip for connections. I mention all this because soldering too hot can damage pots both internal and damage the lugs and melt wires. I would use a soldering "iron" and not a gun. Hope you solve your problem, the folks here have helped me
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Two things...
Looks like you've got your input lug grounded to the back of the pot, that's why it doesn't work.
Also, your soldering iron is not hot enough and perhaps your tip is too small to transfer enough heat fast enough. In any case you need a new iron, at least 40 watts (I prefer 50 watts or more).

Hold the iron to the metal until it gets hot enough to melt the solder and flow like water. Do NOT heat the solder until it drops onto the metal.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Yes i have a soldering iron. It's the "pen type" 60W with temperature dial that goes up to 450° C. Should i try my heavier gauge rosin core solder or the cheap thin wire that came with the kit?
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Thanks for the tip. I was afraid of getting the pot too hot probably. As for the grounded lug, are you referring to how close my ground solder puddle is almost touching the red wire's puddle? I did not solder the input wire to the pot ground. That's how it was before i started on her.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Thanks for the tip. I was afraid of getting the pot too hot probably. As for the grounded lug, are you referring to how close my ground solder puddle is almost touching the red wire's puddle? I did not solder the input wire to the pot ground. That's how it was before i started on her.

You need to make sure the red wire in your last pic, the one that looks like it is going from the input lug to the ground 'star' on the back of the pot, isn't going to the ground on the back of the pot..

Assuming it is a 2-vol 2-tone epi lp, here is a wiring diagram from Seymour Duncan's site (under support tab):

https://www.seymourduncan.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/2H_3G_2V_2T.jpg
 
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Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Ok so i need to de-solder the red wire from the top of the pot? I assume it was done in factory. Also my jazz pickup is soldered the exact same way albeit cleaner. Yes it is 3 way switch, 2 vol. 2 tone pots.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Can you post another pic of all the wiring? Try to pick a visual angle where most wiring terminations are visible.. What model is the epiphone?
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

I found this at the 'MyLesPaul' forum..

Does/Did your wiring look like this?

20140916_211743_zpsbwlhqyr_edit_1410926477058_zpsv15qqgqf.jpg

If so, in the above pic you can see that the wire comes in from the pickup and then a jumper wire with two leads (the red/blue wire connecting the pots horizontally in the pic) has the signal wire connected to the lug and the uninsulated ground connected to the pot rear, and it does the same thing on the tone pot, but the signal wire never goes to the rear of the pot..

Here's another pic from that other thread that shows what I just tried to describe:

ChineseLesPaulWiring_zps7505db28.jpg

I used to have a Les Paul but that was 7 years ago and it wasn't an Epiphone so I am going off what I can find on the google machine..
 
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Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

I think so but not sure. Can't see all the connections. I will try to take more/better pics tonight after work.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Well lads i resoldered all MY connections and it worked! Used better quality rosi20190311_011328.jpg20190311_011328.jpgn core 60/40 solder after sucking up old crap. Jb screams and jazz melts butter.
 
Re: No sound from my bridge pickup:(

Oops didn't mean to add 2 pics... Thanks for the help! The wiring was right all along, just my soldering was the problem.
 
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