MattSA Posted October 19, 2017 Report Share Posted October 19, 2017 I just finished rewiring a guitar with 2 double-single coil pickups, a three-way switch, a tone pot, and a volume pot with a coil-tap. Everything works great, except I get a spike whenever I touch the volume pot. Anyway to get rid of this? Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 20, 2017 Report Share Posted October 20, 2017 Moved to the Tech Area -> Electronics Chat for better housekeeping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 20, 2017 Report Share Posted October 20, 2017 11 hours ago, MattSA said: I get a spike whenever I touch the volume pot. Do you mean you get a pop noise from the amp when you touch the volume pot, or you receive an electric shock? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSA Posted October 20, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2017 I get a pop from the amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 20, 2017 Report Share Posted October 20, 2017 Does the guitar generally buzz and hum more than expected? Is the volume pot shaft plastic or metal? I assume the volume knob itself is metal. Is the case of the volume pot connected to ground? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSA Posted October 20, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2017 The guitar hums more than I remember before re-wiring, as well as producing an audible spike through the amp when touched. The knob is plastic, the pot is a coil-tap pot, I have one of the in/out/ground terminals of the volume pot grounded to the case of the tone pot . I was under the assumption that this ground the pot casing. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 21, 2017 Report Share Posted October 21, 2017 I suspect you're missing a ground connection to the strings via the bridge. If you have a guitar lead with a metallic barrel shell, try plugging it in to your guitar and amp. If the hum and pops stop occuring when you have one hand on the metal shell of the guitar lead, you've got a missing ground inside the guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSA Posted October 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 24, 2017 This is what I thought. Unfortunately, the bridge is separate from the guitar. This is a Washburn and offers two double-coil cavities and a switch cavity on the face of the guitar and a tone/volume cavity in back leading to the input jack. The bridge is completely removed from the body. Any idea how I can ground the bridge/strings? There is a white wire leading to the tone/volume cavity which was once used for this purpose, but I cannot determine where it leads to or how to attach it. Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curtisa Posted October 25, 2017 Report Share Posted October 25, 2017 12 hours ago, MattSA said: Unfortunately, the bridge is separate from the guitar. This is a Washburn Not sure what you mean by 'separate from the guitar'. Have you got a Washburn model that we can look up? 12 hours ago, MattSA said: Any idea how I can ground the bridge/strings? There is a white wire leading to the tone/volume cavity which was once used for this purpose, I imagine that the wire is already connected to the bridge. All you have to do is connect the other end to the nearest ground inside the guitar. This is typically made to the case of the volume pot, the case of the tone pot or the ground lug on the output jack for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSA Posted October 25, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2017 Ok. I looked around for the correct definition of bridge type. It is of the tune-o-matic variety. I'm thinking that the white ground ran to a connected plate at the base of the screws used to adjust the bridge's height. Thus when the bridge was assembled the wires contact the bridge, the bridge contacts the screws, the screws contact the ground within the guitar body. Just a guess. I'm thinking that I will connect this wire to the volume pot and see how it sounds. Ill post later in the week. Thanks, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattSA Posted November 27, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2017 I ended up pulling the bushing used by the bridge and replaced the ground. I'm currently in the process of completing the wiring so I can't say for certain this will fix the problem. I actually was messing around with the guitar before I started re-wiring and I noticed that whenever I touched the screws that attach the humbucker carriage to the plastic humbucker plate (used to attach the humbucker to the guitar) I'd get very large spikes and an increase in background noise of the guitar. To fix this I completely shielded and grounded all cavities. I think that the carriages will contact the shielding. Thanks for all the Help, Matt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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