Tele grounding/noise/controls issues

[LookerBob]

When I pieced together my Tele deluxe I basically stripped all of the electronics from a '58 RI Les Paul and stuck them into the Tele... but now I've got weird issues.

1. When I turn the volume on either pickup all the way down, I can still hear the guitar through the amp... turning both volumes all the way down mostly eliminates this... it's like I'm getting bleed over from the 'on' pickup, which I shouldn't be since I'm selecting just one or the other w/ the 3 way.

2. I get a lot of hum that goes away if I touch the strings.

I've poked around with the multimeter, and if I put the probe on the strings (with the other probe on the input sleeve) it comes up 0, which is good... however, if I put the probe on the bridge itself (chromed Hipshot Hardtail), I get weird fluxuations... like the strings are grounded but the bridge isn't, which makes no sense because the only thing grounding the strings is the bridge.

Thoughts?

[Joobsauce]

check for "shorts" if you will. It's possible a wire is touching where it shouldn't be.

[LookerBob]

It seems like if it was shorted (which I have looked for) it would have bigger problems, either not making sound, or both pickups being fully on all the time... this seems more like a 'bleed' issue, if that is something that can happen... I dunno really.

[boobtube21]

I'd say a bad ground is at least one of your problems.

Did you just drop everything in, pots and all, or was there some rewiring to accomodate one vol./one tone pot?

Is the loud hum on one or both pickups?

[LookerBob]

Hum is on both... I rewired everything. Then I rewired it again to check the ground... I agree that it sounds like a grounding issue, but I'm stumped trying to figure out WHERE it is a grounding issue...

[boobtube21]

Hmmm...Can you post a pic of the guts? Maybe a pair of fresh eyes will spot something you're overlooking.

[LookerBob]

I will attempt to do so as soon as possible!

[LookerBob]

Took me a while... didn't want to tear the guitar down.

Now, the soldering looks ugly because the pots came out of another guitar and then went into this one, but he connections are solid.

Any thoughts from anyone?

Pots:


Switch:


Ground under bridge:

[chuckocaster]

you might want to try tying all pots together with a ground. that's the only thing i can come up with.

[LookerBob]

They actually all are tied together with a ground... there is a cloth covered wire connecting both volume pots on the left side, and a wire from each volume to the respective tone pot.

[LookerBob]

I think I got it... I soldered the shield from the 3 wires at the switch together, and moved the capacitor from the lower lug of the volume pot to the middle... initial low volume tests were promising... I'll test it for real later today.

[boobtube21]

I have a couple of questions. First, what is going on here?



Second, is this wire going from one of the lugs on the pot on the left to the case of the pot on the right?



Also in the above pic, the bottom two pots do not appear to be grounded with the upper two pots. Hard to tell though.

[chuckocaster]

exactly colin, second pic.

how the tone caps are wired into the pots only effects the roll off. i can see there is metal tape on the pickguard, but that doesn't guarantee a proper ground.

if your test comes up that there is still noise, you'll need to open up the cavity and start testing for grounding. use an insulate object and start connecting the grounds together and see what quiets things up. use an amp and turn that mofo up, you'll be able to hear when it's "right".

[Don]

Second, is this wire going from one of the lugs on the pot on the left to the case of the pot on the right?



Also in the above pic, the bottom two pots do not appear to be grounded with the upper two pots. Hard to tell though.

That's the way that Les Pauls were traditionally grounded, with a bare wire from each volume pot to each tone but not across, except that it looks like the ground wire that you circled might be touching the lug on that lower left pot.

[boobtube21]

there is a cloth covered wire connecting both volume pots on the left side

*Sorry, I initially missed you posting this.

[LookerBob]

Okay...

The switch - what is going on there is that the hot lead from the input jack goes to the hot lug on each side of the switch... it does look in the picture like it is connected to the ground, but it is not... it is the two innermost 'wafers' of metal tied together to the hot. This is how it is on my Les Paul as well. This is better illustrated in the new picture posted below.

The wire highlighted at the pots actually was just grounding the case of the volume pot to the case of the tone pot. While it looks in that picture like it is touching the lug, it is not.

Anyhoo... based on suggestions on the LP forum, I redid the grounding from pot to pot with cloth covered wire so that nothing is accidentally touching something it shouldn't, soldered the shielding/ground on the three wires running to the switch together near the switch, and then moved the hot wires from the pickups to the bottom lugs of the volume pots, the hot wires from the switch to and the capacitors to the middle lugs of the volume pots. I also generally tried to clean things up.

I've done a low volume test with possibly positive results, but haven't done a full volume test yet...

Pictures:





And just because...