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Wiring Problem With Fender Vintage Noiseless Pickups


steve00

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I just installed some new Fender vintage noiseless pickups on a guitar I just put together. The pickups sound OK, but there's a few problems. I still have an output signal even when the volume pot is turned all the way down. Also, the middle pickup tone pot is somehow affecting the tone of the bridge pickup. The schematic calls for three 1 Meg pots, however, the pickup set came with two 1 Megs and one 250K pot. I used the 250K for volume and the two 1 Megs for tone. Attached is the schematic that came with the pickups, which I followed exactly, and a picture of my actual wiring (sorry it's a little blurry). Thanks for any help that you can offer.

pickupwiringtf3.jpg

http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/1517/schematiczv8.jpg

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For the volume problem it sounds like the ground is not connected.

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Yes it would seem that way, but the back of the volume pot is wired to the spring claw. Also, the pickups sound great with no noise issues. If it was a grounding problem it seems that I would have lots of noise. Bad pot? The middle tone knob is scratchy, and these are brand new Fender pots. Very disappointed in Fender.

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The back of the volume pot is wired to the spring claw, but is that little "loop" then making its way to the output jack? If not, that might explain the noise. I wouldn't be disappointed in Fender yet-- those pickups have a good rep, and the pots are probably standard pots. I would think that human error hasn't been ruled out yet. :D

Without going into extreme detail, I see a heap of room for ground loops the way you have things wired up. Ground loop = noize.

Also, whether or not Fender effed up in giving you a 250k pot, why not just get the 1Meg that the diagram asks for?

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All grounds are connected to the back of the volume pot, with a single wire going from the volume pot to the spring claw. So there are no grounding loops that I can see, and all grounds should be at almost exactly the same potential. The pickups are not noisy at all though when I plug in to an amp, so I don't think it's a grounding issue. I'll poke around a bit with a multimeter and see what I can find, it's just a pain to rip this guitar apart as soon as I put it together. I am still disappointed in Fender though. Take a look at these pics of the pickup windings from my other post:

http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/index.ph...mp;#entry338321

I returned those pickups and bought another brand new set, which have the same loose pickup windings as the first. Between that and a scratchy pot that is supposed to be brand new and the wrong-valued pot, I have to say it's not likely I'll buy Fender pickups again. That's one pot I have to replace for sure, and another that I have to clean/replace, both from a brand new set! Thank Greg and Mammoth for the replies. If you have any other ideas/suggestions about what the problem could be, please let me know,

STeve

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Those wire that run from the back of one pot to another are ground loops. It's because the foil is grounded via its connection to volume pot, which is grounding the tone pots. Make any sense?

As for the volume problems, I've seen it caused by both bad pots and incorrect wiring of the pot. You're picture is just a bit fuzzy, and I can't make out the volume pot well enough to tell, but the output should be connected to the center lug.

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Ahhh yes...I forgot that all the pots were electrically connected via the foil. Yes that makes perfect sense how that would form a ground loop. Yes the middle lug from the volume pot is connected to the tip lug on the output jack. I'll take some multimeter measurements and make another post. Thanks for the info.

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