Hey gents -
I'm closing in on my first build and threw some strings on her last night. Man, this has rekindled my love for guitar. While my slide technique is sloppy, it was so great to hear sound coming out of her for the first time.
Surprisingly, without even plugging her in, she threw some good sound. She needs some tweaking to get the intonation and action right, but that's minor.
Tonight, I plugged her in for the first time but have no sound coming from the electronics. I'm running a simple setup (pickup, volume and input jack), thought I had it right but I've made a mistake somewhere along the line.
I checked wiring diagrams online but can't see what I"m doing wrong.
Here's what I can tell you:
1) The pickup came from China but has the same 'S' that Seymour Duncan has... not sure if this is a true SD pickup...
2) The wiring looks like this: black wire, a red/green soldered together and a white wire.
I'll post a photo of how I have it soldered but here's what I did:
1) Looking at the volume pot from the back (3 tangs), I have the far right lead soldered to the back of the pot as a ground.
2) THe middle the hot wire (I think) and goes to the input jack 'hot'
3) The left-most volume pot tang I have hooked up to the pickup 'white' (hot?) wire.
4) Black ground wire runs from the input jack ground to the back of the volume pot. I've also soldered the black wire from the pickup to this location.
5) The red and green wires coming off the pickup were soldered together. I just put some heat-shrink on these and left them
If I tap the pickup with my finger, I can hear some 'percussion' through the amp, but the strings don't resonate at all.
I'm completely green w/ electronics and appreciate any help.
Thanks!
Tags:
PS - Is there a way to test this harness without re-assembling the box and string things up again?
if you wire it up, then plug it in, if you tap it lightly with a screwdriver or similar, you should hear it
Mike, i think you have a humbucker, and if i'm correct , your two soldered wires are a common ground, the other 2 are positives, 1 from each coil, without a switch, just join then both at the left lug, and the soldered wires are your ground wire, it could also be the opposite, with a common positive, but either way should work
Thanks Darryl. So the red/green would just get soldered to the back of the volume pot? The white and black coming from the pickup get joined and soldered to the left lug?
Is there a way to test this out before re-assembly?
Cheers!
Hey Darryl - I did as you suggested (see photo) and still can't get any sound from the pickup. I can hear sound when I put the jack in and when I turn the volume put but nothing resonating through the pickup - not sure what I'm doing wrong... any ideas?
Thanks again.
have you tried turning the pot knob while testing, it looks like it's been pretty hot, may be cooked, for a quick test, just run wires from the pup to the jack temporarily by twisting them to the existing wires, [without unsoldering them], that should by pass the pot, even though it's still connected,see if you have any sound then. I''ll check here in 30 mins or so to see how you go
Hi David -
Thanks for the image. I found that one as well. The strange thing is that the red/green came soldered together, so I'm not sure how relevant the SD wiring diagram is. Maybe this isn't even an SD pickup but just shares some sort of knock-off logo on the back. I'll try the multimeter route by way of YT.
Thanks again -
Mike
Looking at the pic of the jack (hard to see) it looks like you have one wire soldered directly to the inner ring and a free tab unused, and the other wire soldered to a tab.
a better pic would help, but my guess is you have both wires connecting to the sleeve and nothing connecting to the tip, i.e. both wires going to the jack's ground.
he has a white wire from the wiper contact going to the tip. he also has a white wire going from one end of the pot to the casing. he has the pickup coming into the top contact of the pot , so its all good there. the problem is as David L said the correct wires of the pickup connected together and the connected to the pot and ground.
Thanks for confirming I'm not (way) out to lunch, Tim. Do you think the red/green wires that came soldered together could be positives and should be soldered to the left-most tang on the v/c? That would leave the white / black. This stuff hurts my coconut.. I need to learn to use a multi-meter. Cheers.
I don't know if this gives any more info as far as the ohm rating on the wires (or if someone can read Chinese!), but I found this, which is the exact pickup I have...
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/More-Colors-New-Designs-Mini-Humbuc...
Started by Rich Butters in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Crazed Fandango 14 minutes ago. 4 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by BrianQ. 3 hours ago. 2 Replies 0 Likes
Started by J. D. Woods in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods on Saturday. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Nomad Jack in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by J. D. Woods on Wednesday. 7 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Moritz Voegeli in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 14. 6 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Timothy Hunter in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Apr 10. 14 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Tom T in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 9. 9 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Apr 4. 7 Replies 1 Like
Started by Timothy Hunter in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 27. 1 Reply 2 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 10. 1 Reply 3 Likes
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by BrianQ. Mar 9. 4 Replies 3 Likes
Started by Ghostbuttons in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Timothy Hunter Mar 9. 5 Replies 1 Like
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 8. 6 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Ken I in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Brian partington Mar 8. 8 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Southern Ray in Cool gear discussion - that's not cigar box related. Last reply by Southern Ray Mar 6. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Taffy Evans in Other stuff - off topic, fun stuff, whatever. Last reply by Taffy Evans Mar 5. 4 Replies 2 Likes
Started by Justin Stanchfield in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Carl Floyd Mar 1. 15 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Joe in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts. Last reply by Carl Floyd Feb 29. 13 Replies 0 Likes
Started by Chance in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 22. 12 Replies 1 Like
Started by Cigar Box Nation in Feature Articles. Last reply by Southern Ray Feb 21. 2 Replies 4 Likes
Posted by Vlad on March 31, 2024 at 11:48pm 0 Comments 1 Like
Posted by Vlad on March 6, 2024 at 2:32am 5 Comments 2 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 28, 2024 at 2:09pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by billy jones bluez on February 17, 2024 at 11:00pm 0 Comments 0 Likes
Posted by Vlad on February 11, 2024 at 1:06am 1 Comment 1 Like
May 11, 2024 from 11am to 8pm – Speakeasy Grill
0 Comments 0 LikesMay 30, 2024 from 6:30pm to 10pm – The Casual Pint of Huntsville
0 Comments 0 Likes© 2024 Created by Ben "C. B. Gitty" Baker. Powered by
Cigar Box Nation is presented by C. B. Gitty Crafter Supply, your one-stop-shop for Cigar Box Guitar parts and accessories!