WIRING HELP

[1991STUDIO LES PAUL]

Hey folks, I am new to the forum. I was hoping someone here could help me with the wiring and pots and pickups on my les paul.

As my name suggests, the guitar is a 1991 Gibson Les Paul Studio.

I bought it used in around 1993, and sometime around twenty years ago or so the neck pickup stopped working. It didn't completely stop working. The rhythm setting would make sound, but it would be way, way lower in volume than the treble setting--barely audible, unless I turned the amp way up.

Anyway, I would like to test all of the components to see which part is causing the problem.

When I opened up the back plate this is what I see. (below)

I am confused by the tone pot connections. There is just a capacitor connected to the middle post of the pot and that is it. Shouldn't there be a ground wire attached somewhere? How does the pot even do anything with only one connection? As far as I know this is how it came from the factory.

Anyway, as you can tell I am a novice at this so any suggestions you have as to how to go about diagnosing the issue would be greatly appreciated.

Also, do I have to disconnect the soldering joints of each component before testing them with the multi meter?
Thanks.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: WIRING HELP

Hi 1991STUDIO LES PAUL, and welcome to the forum!

Tone controls first: Assuming they're working (you didn't really say one way or the other), the metal plate that everything is attached to is acting as the ground connection, so by default anything that's attached to it (at least that has metal touching it... INCLUDING pots) is grounded.

As for the problem with the neck pup, two things come to mind.

1) It LOOKS like the connections are correct. Have you tried raising the pickup closer to the strings?

2) Assuming #1 isn't the issue, check the pot for bad connections and wires that may be touching one another but not easily visible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[1991STUDIO LES PAUL]

Re: WIRING HELP

Thanks for the reply!

So I put the the guitar back together to test things you asked about--and now both pickups work fine!? I didn't even get a chance to try the pickup height adjustment. It just worked fine as soon I put it back to together.

I have no idea what happened--I can only imagine that there must have been a short somewhere. It's possible that one of the caps was touching somewhere it wasn't supposed to and I bent it back into place while cleaning up. It was pretty dirty in there when I first opened it. Who knows?

I don't know if this fix will stick or not--I will do more testing and I may be back.

But I am amazed--this guitar has not worked properly in ages!

Thanks again.

 

[BriGuy1968]

Re: WIRING HELP

Lol... that usually means that SOMETHING is touching something it's not supposed to. Glad it's working for you though! :fing2:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[1991STUDIO LES PAUL]

Re: WIRING HELP

Hi 1991STUDIO LES PAUL, and welcome to the forum!

Tone controls first: Assuming they're working (you didn't really say one way or the other), the metal plate that everything is attached to is acting as the ground connection, so by default anything that's attached to it (at least that has metal touching it... INCLUDING pots) is grounded.

As for the problem with the neck pup, two things come to mind.

1) It LOOKS like the connections are correct. Have you tried raising the pickup closer to the strings?

2) Assuming #1 isn't the issue, check the pot for bad connections and wires that may be touching one another but not easily visible.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

BriGuy1968, I forgot to give you credit where it's due--your second suggestion was probably the exact issue--Thank you.