Installing New PuPs

Scottgman

Scottgman

Legend in Own Mind
I ordered some Bill Lawrence humbuckers. I've heard people rave about these PuPs (both on this board and elsewhere) so I ordered some to replace the EMGs I can't stand anymore.

Anyway, I'm no electronics geek but over my 16 years of playing guitar, I've replaced the PuPs in every guitar I've owned and never had a problem.

So now I'm having a problem... heh. I bought brand new tone and volume pots and followed the wiring diagram. I am very confident I have everything wired correctly and I am pretty sure I have good solder connections. The PuPs work but the neck volume pot is scratchy and will cutout if I'm rolling the volume off and on. The tone pot is also scratchy and seems to be interacting with the intermittent sound (if that makes sense). Basically the neck volume and tone pots aren't acting right.

Also, when I switch between the PuPs there is a noticeable "click." The Bridge pickup, volume, and tone pots are all working properly.

I re-soldered the connections to the neck PuP volume and tone pots thinking I must have a bad connection (since the bridge PuP works fine) but that didn't help. I guess my problem is I'm not good at troubleshooting electronics. I'm not sure if this problem is just a bad connection on a ground, or if the pickup selector switch is bad, or if the volume and/or tone pots are bad (brand new?), or if the pickup is bad (brand new and Bill Lawrence tested?).

I did use kind of a hodge-podge of spare wires to create my ground loop so I'm thinking about rewiring the whole guitar. I'm also thinking about replacing the pickup selector switch just to make sure.

However, I was hoping someone would say: "Dude, that's definitely a ground problem, re-solder your grounds and you will be good to go."

If you can provide that answer, you've made a friend for life. Otherwise, any advice or suggestions to troubleshoot this SOB would be sweet.

Cheers!
 
Get some contact cleaner and use it on the switch.

Get some tuner lube and use it on the pots.

Don't get either one on the finish of your guitar!!!

Also, I have been getting much improved sound by using NoAlOx or Penetrox on jacks and switches. Apply the stuff with a Q-Tip, or grease up a plug and insert it into the jack. Don't overdo it, because the stuff is designed to conduct electricity. Also, it prevents oxidation on jacks and contacts, which will lead to scratchiness and noise, and on higher-voltage circuits can cause pitting as the signal arcs across the contacts.
 
New pots can be scratchy after sitting around for a long time. Do what C7 said, and work 'em all the way back and forth 15-20 times.
 
Thanks! I'll try C7's suggestions. It just seems fishy that 2 of 4 pots would be scratchy from shelf life. Am I just that unlucky? They don't "look" like cheap low-quality pots. I can't help but suspect that it's a connection somewhere.

How do you people solder the ground loop to the pots? For instance, on the neck volume pot, I've got the pot grounded to itself, a ground loop wire , the pickup ground, and the string ground all soldered in a big pile (I think that's right, I'm at work relying on my memory). So basically I've got 4 wires in a big pile soldered to the top of the pot. I can't help but think this is the problem even thought this is the way I've always done it and seen it done on factory installed PuPs.

Just consider me ignorant with experience. :rolleyes:
 
p.s. did you sand the back of the pots before soldering? Sometimes they are coated with some kind of junk and trying to solder to them can result in very poor connections.
 
Yeah, that's basically how mine is wired. The only obvious difference is the cap on the tone pots is grounded to the tone pot-- which is what the Bill Lawrence digram showed. I dunno... this is frustrating.
 
I usually run pick-up negative to the back of the volume pot, a wire from volume to tone, and another from tone to the sleeve tab on the jack. I run the string ground directly to the jack.
 
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