Soldering the pickup

[boingboing]

Hello!

My pickup is currently just connected to the jack. There is a lot of noise.

If I solder the pickup, will there be less noise? Does soldering remove noise?

Thank you! I'm asking because I never soldered a pickup and I need to know...

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Soldering the pickup

One wire out the pup?

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Hello!

There are two wires, one for hot, and one for ground

Also, my jack had three pins, for some reason, and one just muted the sound, so I broke it... is a three pin barrel jack a stereo jack?

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Ok.

Somewhere your grounding wire should hit the bridge cup or trem body or something of that nature. Do you have a wire coming from the bridge?

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Yeah you have a stereo barrel jack then. And in your case you will only need two of the three pins.

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Yep, I have that wire connected to the ground pin, it does remove some of the noise, but there is still quite alot of noise... also, when I fingers on the strings, the noise choke quite a bit too...

Would soldering change anything? Or change the jack to a mono?

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Do you have all of your grounds sent to the grounding pin on the audio jack?

Do you have pictures or a diagram that you used to post up so I could get a better idea?

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Yes I have all my grounds on the ground pin of my jack, both the pickup ground and the bridge ground of my guitar, could this cause a ground loop?

Yes, http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=zvq5bs&s=5

The bridge is the actual bridge of the guitar, not the bridge pickup lol... sorry for the bad picture...

Thank you again!

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soldering the pickup

You have almost certainly soldered the hot and ground wires to the wrong terminals.

The three original terminals on your barrel jack socket correspond to Tip-Ring-Sleeve connections inside the jack socket. Unfortunately, the lengths of the three soldering terminals do not necessarily correspond directly to the TRS contacts.

If you have actually managed to wire the socket up in reverse, all of the guitar's screening parts will now be acting as a RF interference receiver. So, the pickup works but there is an unacceptable level of hum/buzz mixed in with the guitar sound.

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

So that's what TRS stands for... that sounds like it could be the case... but does a mono jack has three or two pins? I ordered a mono jack and got three pins on it, I don't know if it's a mono jack or not...

The wires are not soldered, just connected, just attached...

Your explanation makes sense... but I don't know which of the three pins is what between Tip, Sleeve and Ring, and where I should connect the hot and the ground... I'm very novice, actually...

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Soldering the pickup

The only difference between a stereo and mono jack is the ring terminal and how you solder it. In the case of using a stereo jack as a mono you just solder hot to tip, and ground to sleeve (thus leaving the ring terminal empty).

I used a stereo jack in my tele just to make it a tighter fit that won't wear out as easily.

 

[nalo1022]

Re: Soldering the pickup

If your pickups are connected directly to the output jack, which is what it seems like you're doing, then a small value capacitor between the hot and ground lugs with make help reduce the interference. all guitars will pickup some interference, but since most have some kind of volume/tone circuit before the output the interference, which resides mostly in the very high frequencies, gets bled to ground. How well is the cavity shielded? That can be another place to look after you make sure the pickup is wired correctly. As far as soldering goes if you are simply twisting the pickup's wires onto the connections it may introduce some noise from the connection moving around a bit. They need to be soldered.

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

jcthejester13:

Okay... I left one empty, that's for sure, I broke it, I don't know which terminal it was though...

nalo1022:

Yes, I can reduce the upper frequency noise by reducing impedance, or applying a low pass... but there is still quite a lot of noise

I think I'll order another mono jack, and try to see if the connections were bad...

 

[jcthejester13]

Re: Soldering the pickup

You could take a DMM and test the terminals of the jack to see which two terminals you have left. Is there any way you could take a picture of the jack to post it up?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Here is a quick way to determine which of your two remaining jack socket terminals is which.

1) Insert standard mono instrument cable into guitar's jack socket.
2) Hold "hot" probe of a DC resistance meter against the tip contact of the unconnected end of the instrument cable. Hold "ground" probe of a DC resistance meter against one or other of the jack socket soldering terminals.

Whichever terminal gives a zero Ohms reading is the Tip (hot).
Whichever terminal gives an infinity reading is ground. (With a mono cable, Ring and Sleeve will both be grounded.)

Make a note of which terminal is which. Resolder your pickup and bridge grounding wires accordingly.

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

You could take a DMM and test the terminals of the jack to see which two terminals you have left. Is there any way you could take a picture of the jack to post it up?

I don't have a camera, but hope this can help: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2gy3w1s&s=5

I think it's a Switchcraft Barrel Input Jack. The pin to the right is the one I broke

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Here is a quick way to determine which of your two remaining jack socket terminals is which.

1) Insert standard mono instrument cable into guitar's jack socket.
2) Hold "hot" probe of a DC resistance meter against the tip contact of the unconnected end of the instrument cable. Hold "ground" probe of a DC resistance meter against one or other of the jack socket soldering terminals.

Whichever terminal gives a zero Ohms reading is the Tip (hot).
Whichever terminal gives an infinity reading is ground. (With a mono cable, Ring and Sleeve will both be grounded.)

Make a note of which terminal is which. Resolder your pickup and bridge grounding wires accordingly.

I know that my guitar cable plug is a 1/4 to 1/4, not a TRS to TRS... could that mean something?

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Soldering the pickup

I don't have a camera, but hope this can help: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2gy3w1s&s=5

I think it's a Switchcraft Barrel Input Jack. The pin to the right is the one I broke

Yes, thank you. The pic helps.

On the low budget three-contact barrel jack in my Chinese Ibanez SZ, the longest soldering terminal is ground. The terminal equivalent to the one that you have snapped off is the "hot" output. The remaining terminal (to the left as per your drawing) is unused. This makes it the Ring contact.

I know that my guitar cable plug is a 1/4 to 1/4, not a TRS to TRS.

This is precisely why I suggested testing with a mono instrument cable. I was hoping that the Ring contact of your damaged jack socket could serve as the ground connection.

I could take a look at some Taiwanese Yamaha barrel jack sockets to see how their terminals are laid out but I do not think that this will help. You almost certainly need a new jack socket. Sorry.

 

[boingboing]

Re: Soldering the pickup

Yes, thank you. The pic helps.

On the low budget three-contact barrel jack in my Chinese Ibanez SZ, the longest soldering terminal is ground. The terminal equivalent to the one that you have snapped off is the "hot" output. The remaining terminal (to the left as per your drawing) is unused. This makes it the Ring contact.



This is precisely why I suggested testing with a mono instrument cable. I was hoping that the Ring contact of your damaged jack socket could serve as the ground connection.

I could take a look at some Taiwanese Yamaha barrel jack sockets to see how their terminals are laid out but I do not think that this will help. You almost certainly need a new jack socket. Sorry.

Following your help, Ill try to order another jack, if this fixes the problem, you have my deepest gratitude... if it doesnt, thank you for helping me anyway!!

One day I hope I can rock without too much noise

I had a jack for my Ibanez as well (although it wasnt cheap, and it was stereo I think), it didnt have a long sleeve, it was just three same lenght pins...