...why can't I get the blasted things to work???
I feel so stupid.
Please could someone help me?
...why can't I get the blasted things to work???
I feel so stupid.
Please could someone help me?
Can you be a little more specific? :)
You are not stupid. Perhaps a , but not stupid.
Start with making sure that each pickup is working properly. Temporarily hard wire each one individually to the output. Tap on it with something metal. Hear a clunk? That pickup is working.
After you've verified each pickup, wire them up to the 5 way switch and make darn sure you'd done that correctly. Hardwire that to the output and repeat the clunk experiment.
You get the idea. The problem may lie with a lousy pot (I hate lousy pot) and not an incorrect wiring.
Thanks.
The pups clunk.
There is a BUZZ when the guitar is plugged in - just that they are not "picking up" the "noise" from the string. Nor is switching the 5 way switch making any difference. And yes - the 5 way switch is not soldered in reverse so when the pointy bit points to the neck pup, it IS the neckpup being used.
At this stage I recon it's the way the thing is wired. Which means it's my "fault". UGH... I hate being this dumb.
Wiring can be tedious sometimes when you are trying to troubleshoot so don't sweat it. If you could post a pic of the wiring it would be a big help. We will get it figured out eventually.
Are you following a diagram? SD has a few good ones I've used. I use those tiny 'jumper' wires with the mini alligator clips to test my hookups before soldering, saves time if you have to switch a wire or just check if a pup is working. Radio Shack sells 'em. I've had 2 bad pots blow my mind, one was a new Fender loaded guard...it's a thing of beauty to hear those 'clinks' when moving the switch and tapping on those posts. Good luck and yes, a pic would help.
Hopeless modaholic...
Cool. You've established the pickups themselves are okay. What about that volume pot?
I had something very frustrating recently on my strat. All the cavities are foil-lined for ground shielding. Turns out a bit of foil had come loose in the input jack cavity and was intermittently grounding out the signal. It was insane to track down.
Slow, methodical troubleshooting, gloriyang. It's a pain in the arse but when you finally see what the problem is, you'll slap your forehead and give a D'oh! because it's probably something very simple and basic.
Is the bridge grounded? You say the pickups clunk but there's no sound from the strings whatsoever?
When I wire up a strat, here's the stuff I do. Perhaps this will help:
All cavities are lined with foil. Back of pickguard is lined with foil. You can skip this if you want.
Components are attached to pickguard.
Input jack is wired up, lead and ground wire coming into the main cavity and the jack screwed to the body.
Ground wire attached to bridge and sent into the main cavity.
At this point, I should say that I always use a little grounding clip thinger. It's basically a screw into the side of the wood in the main cavity. All ground wires go to that screw.
Twist together all the grounds from the pickups and send a lead from that to the grounding screw. I like to either wrap 'lectrical tape or heatshrink around this.
Wire the pickup leads to the 5 way switch.
Wire the 5 way switch lead to the middle lug of the volume pot. Connect the input jack lead to "on" lug of the volume pot. Ground the other lug.
With only one tone pot, I'd say you connect it to the lead on the volume pot.
I like to test as much as possible while I'm doing each step.
Good luck.
curtis' tips are right on. the only thing i might add is that if you are using a diagram to go back thru wire by wire and check to make sure it is right. if it is, then i would disconnect the vol and tone pots and wire the switch straight to the output jack. if it works then your pots are bad. and this does happen, the vol pots in my sg went bad on me.
wiring can be very frustrating like oneL said. but when you have enough practice with it, it will become second nature. you're not stupid man. everyone is here to help you the best we can. let's get this thing working.
"don't worry, i'm a professional!"