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Wiring problem

Haven't built anything in a while, but I got a hair to build a "nice" guitar, a four-string electric. Looking for a mellow "hollowbody electric sound.

Got a nice big Las Cabrillas box...

Got everything done over the weekend and started to wire the thing up. I'd decided to use the P-Bass pickups from Gitty and followed this wiring diagram, pretty simple:

http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/wiring-diagrams/schematics.php...

Got it done, did the "tap test" on the pickups and all seemed fine. Both volume and tone worked, good signal.

I put the strings on and.... Not so good.

I'm getting a strong buzz whenever I touch the strings or the grounded tailpiece. Buzz decreases greatly when I take my hand off.

Buzz almost goes away when I hold the output jack.

Very low signal...It's there, but not loud at all. I ran it through both my amps, my little Honeytone and my Behringer practice amp.

My gut feeling is that it's a ground problem, but I followed the diagram and can't find any visible fault.

Also, the strings are quite far away from the pickups; I might have to re-do the way the PUs are mounted.

Any clues as to what to look for?

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Permalink Reply by John Sawyer on October 6, 2013 at 12:17pm

Good point. I found a XM radio antenna cable. Coaxial, shielded. works with my Piezo pickups. Any opinion on it with a real pickup?

John

Permalink Reply by The Capo Kid on October 7, 2013 at 12:18am

Try a jumper , 2 crocs clips and a short length of wire is very handy to test it , start using foil and you'll have to ground that as well .

You could foil the back of the pickguard if the jumper wire doesn't work

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Permalink Reply by Mark Werner on October 7, 2013 at 9:14am

Success! I just soldered a wire across the two pots and she works fine. No hum, no buzz. I raised the PUs up a bit to be closer to the strings, and the output seems fine.

all I have to do now is get a new set of strings... I'd installed and re-installed these so many times one snapped when I went to tune it up.

Here's a pic of the mostly-finished instrument: