Recently Replaced Pickups. Now Have A Few Problems

[fguihen]

As a further customization to my Ibanez RGT 42 i recently purchased a Seymour Duncan SB4 for the bridge and SB2 for the neck. It was my first attempt at soldering and although everything now works i still am having a few problems:

1. volume seems lower than with the old crap infinity pickups. as a result i have had to raise the pickups as high as they will go. the funny thing is though they are still 7-10 mm from the strings. shouldnt pickups be able to almost touch the strings? and do i have to change the pots now that i have different "hotter" pickups?

2. when the guitar sits on the bed on its own plugged in, there is constant crackling through the amp which for the most part goes away when i pick up the guitar and touch the strings, although it doesnt fully go away.

Can you please offer me advice on this, as if i bring it to someone to repair, they will charge me extra, as rather than just install pickups they would have to rewire the whole thing.

Thanks folks.

[Paul Marossy]

Since you mentioned it was your first time soldering, check for "cold solder joints". You might just have a bad solder connection(s) in your wiring somewhere. Very common thing to have happen when your new at soldering stuff.

[wood is good]

You diddnt ground something. That I know because of how you said it stops when you touch the strings.

[fguihen]

thanks for the replies.

whats a "Cold Solder Joint"?

With regards to grounding, Both pickups are wired up as they were previously, with the bare wire soldered to the bottom of one of the pots. il give the solder joints a look.

Regarding pickup height? should i be able to raise my pickups to touch the strings or is it normal for their max height to be a few mil before the strings?

[wood is good]

It depends, some guitars with neck angles have the strings really high, so no. Buy why would you want them to be that close? I could pull the strings out of tune.

A cold solder joint is a solder joint that looks like its making a connection, but isnt actually fused and doesnt make a full connection.

[Paul Marossy]

A cold solder joint is a solder joint that looks like its making a connection, but isnt actually fused and doesnt make a full connection.

Correct. And that will give you an intermittent connection and/or possibly make it sound like your volume control is turned way down because it's making a poor connection.

[fguihen]

I resoldered all of my joints, then realized i was messy with my solder the first time around, as solder had dripped down around two contacts of the switch, i just couldnt see it until i took out the switch.

It still buzzes like crazy though. think im just gona have to bite the bullet and pay a pro to have a look at it. thanks for your help all.

[Workingman]

I resoldered all of my joints, then realized i was messy with my solder the first time around, as solder had dripped down around two contacts of the switch, i just couldnt see it until i took out the switch.

It still buzzes like crazy though. think im just gona have to bite the bullet and pay a pro to have a look at it. thanks for your help all.

Check the ground to the bridge. It may have pulled loose on the bridge end while you were working on things and may not be visiable.

[Paul Marossy]

I resoldered all of my joints, then realized i was messy with my solder the first time around, as solder had dripped down around two contacts of the switch, i just couldnt see it until i took out the switch.

It still buzzes like crazy though. think im just gona have to bite the bullet and pay a pro to have a look at it. thanks for your help all.

Well, that was part of your problem. The buzz is probably a ground thing.

[fguihen]

just gave the grounding on the bridge a look. its solid, its one of the wires i never touched. Thanks for the suggestion though.