# Help with a wiring issue



## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

Hello. So I recently got a guitar that wasn't complete. I got the parts required and I'm trying to wire it. But it doesn't sound very good. It's running active emg 85 and 81. With 1 volume and 1 tone. A telecaster style 3 way switch. I included pics and the diagram I followed to a tee. But I can't see what's wrong. It's a brand new battery


Dropbox - guitar - Simplify your life


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Brent williamson said:


> But it doesn't sound very good.


What is not sounding good?
Examples...
No sound?
Buzzing sound?
No control of volume and/or tone?

Edit: My apologies for not welcoming you to the forum before asking all the above questions..... 
WELCOME to a great forum!


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

This pot looks like it was possibly overheated during soldering and might not be working as a result. There is also a lot of extra solder on the pot that could be giving you problems.
In addition, a stray fragment of wire (inside the red "circle) can cause problems if it touches the wrong part of the pot.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

I can't really control the volume. It's crackles and buzzes and cuts out with volume turns. There's alot of solder because I had to undo every the last guy did and I don't have the solder removal tool. The stray wire was removed and didn't help . I tried emg solderless before this but still for some reason I had no volume control and other sound issues like cutting in and out with the volume knob at certain levels. Tried 2 solderless pots.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> This pot looks like it was possibly overheated during soldering and might nor be working as a result. There is also a lot of extra solder on the pot that could be giving you problems.
> In addition, a stray fragment of wire (inside the red "circle) can cause problems if it touches the wrong part of the pot.
> 
> View attachment 250820


Removed with no help yet.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

Than


greco said:


> What is not sounding good?
> Examples...
> No sound?
> Buzzing sound?
> ...


Thank you! 

I can't really control the volume. It's crackles and buzzes and cuts out with volume turns.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Are these solder joints to the pot terminals touching the body of the pot?

I think it would be wise to buy a solder sucker, unsolder the pots (and possibly other parts of the circuit), *test the pots (you will need a meter for this) *and re-solder everything carefully and with much less solder.
I know that is not what you wanted to hear.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

W


greco said:


> Are these solder joints to the pot terminals touching the body of the pot?
> 
> I think it would be wise to buy a solder sucker, unsolder the pots (and possibly other parts of the circuit), *test the pots (you will need a meter for this) *and re-solder everything carefully and with much less solder.
> I know that is not what you wanted to hear.
> ...


I can get a hold of all of that. What should the meter read when testing them?


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Each of the pots with the wires removed, cleaned up and taken out of the circuit should read from about "0" to about 25,000 (or 25K) ohms (assuming the pots in the guitar are the same as in the diagram)










This might help...


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> Each of the pots with the wires removed, cleaned up and taken out of the circuit should read from about "0" to about 25,000 (or 25K) ohms (assuming the pots in the guitar are the same as in the diagram)
> 
> View attachment 250826
> 
> ...


Thanks. I'll try this and post tomorrow with results


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Good Luck. 

Take your time and look at more tutorials on YouTube...

soldering guitar electronics - YouTube


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> Good Luck.
> 
> Take your time and look at more tutorials on YouTube...
> 
> soldering guitar electronics - YouTube


Would a bad tone pot cause this? It doesn't seem to have the same range of degrees of turning as the volume


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

You'll forgive the nosy and presumptuous question, but the solder blobs lead me to ask it: what are you using for soldering iron?


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

mhammer said:


> You'll forgive the nosy and presumptuous question, but the solder blobs lead me to ask it: what are you using for soldering iron?


I said earlier. I really rosldered the whole thing because of bad wiring and I don't have a desolder pump


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

I’d personally rewire everything onto good new pots, with a nice hot iron. Rough up the pots with like 400 grit or a little coarser sandpaper where you plan to wire to them. If you have the iron, it’s just a couple pots, $40 will get you lifetime quality, $1 ea will get you minis, which you don’t want. And the switches are cheap too, if it has been similarly re-soldered.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Brent williamson said:


> I said earlier.


I think @mhammer is asking what kind of soldering iron you are using and if it has sufficient power to get hot enough for proper soldering. 
Do you see anything on the soldering iron that says " ___ watts"?



keto said:


> I’d personally rewire everything onto good new pots, with a nice hot iron. Rough up the pots with like 400 grit or a little coarser sandpaper where you plan to wire to them. If you have the iron, it’s just a couple pots, $40 will get you lifetime quality, $1 ea will get you minis, which you don’t want. And the switches are cheap too, if it has been similarly re-soldered.


This is excellent advice. Save yourself a lot of going in circles like I was suggesting earlier and just start with new pots and focus on good soldering technique.

By chance, does the solder you are using say "lead free"? That stuff is murder to solder with.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Brent williamson said:


> It doesn't seem to have the same range of degrees of turning as the volume


You could cut the wire from the volume pot to the tone pot and see if you notice any change at all. I strongly doubt that the tone pot is the entire cause of your problem(s), but it could be contributing.


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## tonenut (Mar 1, 2019)

Sounds like a bad / burnt / very dirty pot.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

So I checked every pot and the 3 way switch. All are ok. I also removed all excess solder. But doesn't sound any better. Even after re wiring with a different diagram. I included pics of the new rewire aswell as the new diagram I used and an audio clip of what the guitar sounds like

Dropbox - guitar 2 - Simplify your life


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## Kerry Brown (Mar 31, 2014)

Probably obvious but have you checked the battery voltage?


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

It's a brand new b


Kerry Brown said:


> Probably obvious but have you checked the battery voltage?[/QUOTE
> 
> 
> Kerry Brown said:
> ...


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

This is a passive wiring diagram for two single coil pickups.
These pickups don't use/need a battery (like your EMG's) and the pots are 250 K each.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> This is a passive wiring diagram for two single coil pickups.
> These pickups don't use/need a battery (like your EMG's) and the pots are 250 K each.


I know. I subbed in parts of an emg diagram for the battery. This is used mostly for the 3 way switch. It's the only diagram I could find with blade style.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

By the switch, it says ‘import’. There are different wiring versions for different variants of that switch.

After listening I think it’s bad switch wiring but more likely a missing or bad (cold soldered?) ground, or other grounding issue.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

keto said:


> By the switch, it says ‘import’. There are different wiring versions for different variants of that switch.
> 
> After listening I think it’s bad switch wiring but more likely a missing or bad (cold soldered?) ground, or other grounding issue.


 It's just the switch style all diagrams are the same. I'm not cold soldering either


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Is the output jack stereo and wired as in the diagram?


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

Yes it is


greco said:


> Is the output jack stereo and wired as in the diagram?
> 
> View attachment 250898


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I am running out of ideas/suggestions.

I have assumed since the beginning of the thread that the pickups and patch cable are fine. 

Have you checked those?


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> I am running out of ideas/suggestions.
> 
> I have assumed since the beginning of the thread that the pickups and patch cable are fine.
> 
> Have you checked those?


How would I check those to make sure?


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

With your meter.

Do a continuity test on the cable.

Do a resistance test on the pickups.

YouTube will have tutorials.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> With your meter.
> 
> Do a continuity test on the cable.
> 
> ...


The cable is fine. I can't test the pickups. I can't figure out how. They are active. But I get sound from the .


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Sorry, I will have no time to try and help you until later today.

In addition, I really am running out of suggestions.

Good Luck with this!


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> Sorry, I will have no time to try and help you until later today.
> 
> In addition, I really am running out of suggestions.
> 
> Good Luck with this!


Thanks for all your help. Later when you have time if you have another idea or know how to check emg active pickups let me know.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

I had a few minutes so I went looking.

Once again, I'm assuming that you have checked continuity throughout the entire circuit and found that all is OK and that there are no ground <> "hot" connections.

This is from the 'net...
(my apologies if you know all of this and have done all the same testing)

_Get your multi-meter (or borrow one if you don't have one) and set it to the ohms (resistance) setting. Remove the battery from the guitar and unplug the guitar from the amp. Then start checking the connections between places that should be connected (i.e., places that have a wire between them) with the meter. They should all read zero ohms. If you find one that reads more than that, that's your problem and you'll have to re-solder that wire.

If you don't find one, plug the battery back in and plug the guitar in, and start playing. Then wiggle wires. If one makes a ton of noise when you wiggle it, that's your culprit. Also try turning pots and flipping switches.

If that still doesn't find the problem, use the ohm meter to check the resistance across your pots. It should be whatever it says on the pot case. Check to make sure the centre contact of the pot does what it's supposed to.

If that doesn't work, set your meter to DC volts and make sure that the voltage from the power to ground on each EMG pickup is 9v._


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> I had a few minutes so I went looking.
> 
> Once again, I'm assuming that you have checked continuity throughout the entire circuit and found that all is OK and that there are no ground <> "hot" connections.
> 
> ...


I checked it all and all is fine. I even soldered in a new battery connector


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## tonenut (Mar 1, 2019)

bypass the pots. if you get a good pure sound then the problem is the pots. if you still get a dirty sound then you know it isn't the pots


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

A


tonenut said:


> bypass the pots. if you get a good pure sound then the problem is the pots. if you still get a dirty sound then you know it isn't the pots


At this point I'm taking it to long and McQuade tomorrow. It's over my head now


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Would you please let us know what Long & McQuade determine as being the cause(s) of the problem? Thanks.

We can all learn something from these types of threads.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

greco said:


> Would you please let us know what Long & McQuade determine as being the cause(s) of the problem? Thanks.
> 
> We can all learn something from these types of threads.


Of course. Maybe it can help someone later with the same issue


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

tonenut said:


> bypass the pots.


An excellent suggestion for deductive troubleshooting and one I always seem to forget.


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## Brent williamson (Apr 13, 2019)

So I took it in. Simple fixes. I switched ground and hot from output jack as I was sending 9 volts straight back to it. Then switched the wire from volume to tone from the counter lug to the outer one. The output jack fixed the buzzing and the wire from volume fixed the volume problem. I had volume and tone wired as volume knobs.


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Congrats on getting it sorted out!

Thanks for the update.

Output jacks can often be overlooked as they are frequently not seen in the control cavity or in a place that can be seen and inspected visually with any ease. In addition, even though jack are a simple "device", they can easily cause major problems.

I had a fellow bring a bass guitar to me because the output was intermittent. The first thing I checked was the output jack. The "hot" was fastened to the jack terminal with bubble gum or plasticine or something similar and not soldered at all...seriously!...LOL.


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