MzI Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 I am having a bit of trouble wiring my guitars with 2 wire and 4 wire pickups. My arrangement is 2 hum, 1 vol, 1 tone, 3 way, 500k cts pots and .047 cap. I have 2 wire duncan pickups in the neck and 4 wire BL 500 XL in the bridge. Of the two I have wired, I can get sound out of them when plugged in and playing open but as soon as I rest my hand on the bridge or fret a note I get tons of buzz. Any ideas, help, input, etc would be appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 Sounds like you have a grounding issue. Have you run a ground wire from the bridge? Leads to the output jack back-to-front? I assume everything else works as expected - volume, tone, 3-way switch. FWIW, Bil Lawrence 500XL pickup colour codes are Red (hot), Green/White (twist together and insulate), Black/Shield (twist together and ground). SD wiring should pretty much take care of itself if it's only two-wire hookup - one is hot, the other is ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted October 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 Yes the bridge is grounded. I double checked with a jumper wire from the pot case to the bridge and no difference. Not the easiest to see but might help some. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 24, 2014 Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 Not easy to see, but: Braid on cable leaving volume pot to output jack may not be soldered to ground. Check wiring on 3-way switch from neck pickup. Can't see if the braid is touching the centre conductor, or has been wired back-to-front. Wire coming from left lug of tone pot appears to be going to case of volume pot. Should go to right lug of vol pot or centre lug(s) of 3-way switch. Check the wiring on your output jack. Check continuity of ground wire between vol pot case and bridge with a multimeter. Check again between vol pot case and output jack sleeve connection. Eyes don't always tell the truth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted October 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2014 Thanks I will check all of those tonight after work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted October 26, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 26, 2014 I went through it again, checked everything, rewired it based on one of my other guitars with the same setup which works fine. Same thing buzzes like crazy, If I touch the input jack the buzzing goes away though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 27, 2014 Report Share Posted October 27, 2014 Still reckon you've got a grounding issue somewhere between your output jack and bridge. Eliminating the buzz by touching the output jack should be the same thing as touching the strings. Electrically they're meant to be the same point. Does your bridge have a lot of heavy black paint that may not allow a good connection to the bridge grounding wire? Try twisting a piece of wire around the strings and attach the other end of the wire to the shield of the output jack. If the buzz goes away when you touch the strings with this temporary wire installed then your bridge ground wire isn't making proper contact with the bridge/saddles/posts/studs/strings and needs to be checked out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MzI Posted October 30, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 30, 2014 That makes sense. The studs sit in inserts and they have paint on them as well, where as the other guitar has a gold plated bridge. Thanks, I'll give it a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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