Guitar Gear Forum

I'm in the final stages of building my first custom strat and I got around to wiring up the pickguard yesterday. I decided to go the unconventional route and install a humbucker in the bridge and a single coil in the neck, with master volume and tone and a Les Paul style switch. After wiring everything together, however I noticed that the tone control doesn't work at all and the switch will not select the neck pickup by itself (both the "middle" and "neck" positions play BOTH pickups, but the "bridge" position works fine). Any suggestions on what to do?

Here's a picture of what the guitar looks like currently:

We need to see your wiring - can you post some pics?

The pickup wires go direct to the switch - the output of the switch goes to the volume - then the tone jumpers off that.

Should be pretty straightforward - must have something crossed up on both the switch and the tone pot.

without seeing the actual wiring it's going to be hard to diagnose the problem...

That switch wiring should have the center pole as output and either pickup will go on either outside pole. As for the humbucker, two of the wires will be spun together and one will got to he output. One will go to ground. As for the tone control, take a pic and post it.

your wiring should look something like this....

Marc G wrote:your wiring should look something like this....

yup - although these drawings look more complicated than it really is.

You are only really switching the 'hot' wires - all the grounds just need to be connected to each other and grounded - they don't all have to go to the volume pot as drawn.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Here's a pic of my wiring... I realize it's sloppy but this is my first build so bare with me!

Need more pics from different angles, please. As for your switching issue, try plugging in the guitar with the pick guard as is, going through the switch positions and tapping the pick ups with a flat head to hear which pick ups are active. What the switch so you can see what connections are being opened or closed. Having your eyes see the actual wires attached to the poles and what is on or off might help you see where you made a mistake. Or your switch is bent and the connections aren't being opened and closed properly.

Was the white wire going to (I assume) to the neck pickup pinched against the humbucker?
It looks like it may have shorted to the base of the humbucker.

Sorry, that first pic didn't come out too well. I started over and followed that diagram above and this is what I've got now. I can't remember the diagram that I was looking at before but it must have been incorrect.

I just plugged it in, and I thought everything looked good, but when I tap the pickups with a screwdriver I'm not getting any sound

I'm seeing some cold solder joints on that volume pot. Try reflowing solder over those connections first. The key is to heat up the surface of the work to the point that the solder melts over it, you don't want the iron to heat the solder itself.

Thanks for the help everyone! I just double checked all the solder joints and cleaned up everything a bit. Everything seems to be working 100% now! I'll get everything together and post a demo later.

Awesome! Congrats on the completed (and functional!) build, Drew!

Did you use any flux on the back of the pots? I'd be concerned about your grounding joints there - may be ok now but could be a problem later.

itchyfingers wrote:Awesome! Congrats on the completed (and functional!) build, Drew!

Thanks! I'm pretty stoked about it. I'm not a big fan of the usual Strat setup and I wanted one that no one else would have.

GRIMESPACE wrote:Did you use any flux on the back of the pots? I'd be concerned about your grounding joints there - may be ok now but could be a problem later.

Well, the solder I use is 60/40 Clear Flux Solder that I got from RadioShack a while ago so I'm assuming it will be alright?

I never use flux. My solder has flux in it but that's not the "right" way or whatever. My shit works.

My recollection is that the flux in solder just helps the solder melt and doesn't do much to clean what it's being applied to. Actual flux that you apply using a brush or dropper cleans the area(s) and makes the solder flow reeeeeal nice where it's being applied. Highly recommended to give it a try.

With a lot of this stuff, what works today may very well leave you stranded next week. If it's something that you're using to gig with, Mr Murphy will do his best to make it fuck up at the worst possible time.

GRIMESPACE wrote:My recollection is that the flux in solder just helps the solder melt and doesn't do much to clean what it's being applied to. Actual flux that you apply using a brush or dropper cleans the area(s) and makes the solder flow reeeeeal nice where it's being applied. Highly recommended to give it a try.

With a lot of this stuff, what works today may very well leave you stranded next week. If it's something that you're using to gig with, Mr Murphy will do his best to make it fuck up at the worst possible time.

You're right about that for sure! Thankfully this is definitely NOT going be be my gigging guitar (For now). I usually use my trusty ES-335 or my Tele

If anyone's interested, here's a quick demo of what the guitar sounds like. In order, the sound samples are the bridge pickup, both, neck pickup, and neck with tone rolled down a bit... Clean and a bit dirty. I used GTR 3.5's Marshall setting.

https://soundcloud.com/drew9783-1/strat-demo

EDIT:
Also I'm not sure if I mentioned this or not, but the pickups aren't anything special (yet). The bridge is an old Epiphone alnico humbucker from my 335 and the neck is a Mexican Fender single. Planning on putting a Seymour Duncan JB in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pound in the neck.